By Stephen King

Three-Word Summary: Haunted Colorado Hotel

Rating: 4/5

Most of Stephen King’s well-known horror novels can be superficially summarized by describing what is being haunted:

• Cujo: Haunted dog
• Christine: Haunted car
• Pet Semetary: Haunted cemetery
• It: Haunted town; or haunted clown

Following this trend, The Shining is essentially about a hotel high in the Colorado Rockies that has been possessed by a dark, other-worldly presence.

Enter the ill-fated Torrance family: recovering-alcoholic father, Jack; soft-spoken mother, Wendy; and special 5-year-old son, Danny.

And by special, we mean with strong telepathic powers, called the shining.

It’s these powers that seems to awaken and irritate whatever evil lurks in the belly of the storied Overlook Hotel. Stationed at the hotel as guardians during the long winter, the Torrances are trapped by a snowstorm when the evil rears its head.

The Shining essentially helped to launch King’s young career and place him on the proverbial map of horror writers. To this day, it remains one of his best.

The novel showcases the deep running metaphors and deft storycrafting that have allowed King to become perhaps the most prolific writer of his generation.

While not as outright terrifying as some of his later works, The Shining certainly contains traces of the lurking menace that haunt seemingly normal lives.