The Shining

A few days ago, my husband and I finally finished reading The Shining after three-four months of being hyped up, seeing Doctor Strange, getting bored, working forever, then getting re-hyped because we wanted to watch the movie version once we were done, which I will say right now is garbage compared to what we read. I mean, I get it, you have to fit a lot into a certain time frame, but, I do not know if this is common knowledge, but the total creative freedom that Kubrick had for the film made for half of it being non-related to what was written in the book.

My husband’s input: started out iffy, but once it picked up you get really invested in it; the turning point being where [Spoiler] Jack begins to seriously hallucinate with the snowmobile.

I can agree with him while expanding on how likable the characters are. That was the biggest thing for me this time around; usually this is not so apparent for every book. I liked book Wendy and Jack; throughout the reading I was always made to believe that they were genuinely trying to make their marriage work and that even though there clearly was a long way to go, that they were creating more hope that it could work. Book Wendy was smart and did not come across as someone so naive, maybe the correct word is blind, to Jack’s decline to killer-mode. Maybe because this was the book version so there is not a need to crunch for time, but it was better seeing Jack’s decline start so subtle and slow then build to overwhelming hallucinations and mind warping. I hated how he treated Wendy right from the get-go in the movie. I even liked book Danny; it was easier to see the inner dialogue of his ability instead of relying on solely Tony to speak for it.

I would reread this, and I will probably not watch it ever again now that the comparison was made. I could see where a day’s conversation comparing the two could play out, but I do not believe it is worth being a long-time discussion. If you are interested in starting the book that introduced us to Danny Torrance, start here.

8/10