The Shining

This was my first Stephen King novel and, needless to say, it was rather impressive. King's writing is fantastic and he just knows how to make things scary. I had just watched the film version of The Shining last week and decided I finally needed to get around to reading the novel. I really liked the film, but I think the book was even better. The film was a great movie in its own right, don't get me wrong, but I don't think it was a great adaptation of the book. Kubrick took too many liberties with the character of the Overlook Hotel along with Jack Torrance's character and effectively lost the main points of King's novel in the process. Kubrick essentially ignored the fact that the Overlook was meant to be a character of its own. It grew stronger and wilder with the presence of the Torrance family and Danny's intense ability to shine. The Overlook had clear motives and managed to gain control of Jack's mind and use him for its own gains. But the point was that Jack didn't actually go entirely mad or become a violent psychopath because of the cabin fever of the hotel. No, he just was possessed by the spirit of the hotel and used to go after Danny so that the hotel could absorb his powers, something that Danny stressed multiple times toward the end of the novel. Jack managed to fight back against the Overlook's possession of him by turning the roque mallet on himself in the end in order to save Danny and give him a chance to escape. Kubrick ignored that in his film and instead made Jack this insanely mad psychopath who went crazy from cabin fever and wanted to murder his family. While the film was very good and suspenseful, I just don't think it did justice to King's novel and the characters he created. I prefer King's version because it just was resolved far better and more satisfyingly than the film. While the film was really good on its own, I find it now to be a really disappointing adaptation and I understand why King was so unhappy with it. There is so much more to be said about the difference between the two; I go into that more on my blog (http://ijustneedbooks.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-shining-book-vs-film.html), but overall I really enjoyed this King novel and I definitely want to read more of his works.