A book studying one man's dementia will only lead us asking something: will the writer also be possibly prod with dementia while writing the book? The Shining, written by one of America's best fiction writers, Stephen King, is a massively popular ghost-horror story and was adapted into screen by Stanle Kubrick and turned out to be one of the most haunting and well-made horror movies in cinematic history - and if you haven't known what The Shining is all about, then you have probably never existed in this world or was located from Mars, or maybe as far as Uranus.

When you hear the name Stephen King, the word "horror" would inevitably rush to your mind. It's inexplicable how this guy manage to be so obsessed with horror stories that probably ninety-five percent of his books was horror novels. However, this 1980 book is quite scary indeed, not physically (as though you were shaking with terror while reading it) but psychologically. It's a spine-chiller, but not as scary as his masterpiece about domestic vampires Salem's Lot that after reading that such-hell-of-a-book, you would surely get away from windows at night and close the curtains as much as possible. The Shining would leave you, well, haunted and at the same time make you wonder with unflagging curiosity about history and past-stories when you check-in in hotel rooms, about what had happened in the bed you were lying down in years before. Murder? Rape?

I think the book succeeds at studying Jack Torrance, as a struggling writer and alcoholic, managing to apply as caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Along with his family, his wife and his son, they spent looking over the hotel for six months being snowed in. There they not only discover ghosts, but also ghostly-memories of the past that haunts Jack Torrance leading him to murder his own family and threatened their existence.

It's a good Stephen King book, but as I watched the film version, I'm glad to say Kubrick scared me more.


Rating: B+