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The Shining (平装)
by Stephen King
| Category:
Horror fiction, Bestsellers, Original books |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A complete isolated hotel, a family on the verge of destruction, a survival fighting against the demon of mind. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 15 items |
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Aaron Cassidy (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-30 00:00>
I saw the movie first, the Kubrick film with Jack Nicholson, and I thought that one was spectacular. But I am very serious when I say that the book is even better. Having read the original, terrying words straight from the pen of Stephen King, it almost makes me mad that Kubrick treated the characters so hollowly in his movie. In the movie, Jack Torrance is a man insane. In the book, Jack Torrance is a man fighting against the insanity. Wow! The characters are so real and handled so carefully, that being trapped inside the Overlook is no longer just a freaky experience. You run along with them, filled with dread, from all the horrible personifications of evil inside the hotel's awful walls. There were several times where I actually dropped the book and was too scared to pick it back up. Intellectually, you know it's not real. It's just a bunch of letters and words grouped together on pages. Still, whenever I go into the bathroom late at night, I have to pull back the shower curtain just to make sure.
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J Zullo (MSL quote), Brazil
<2007-01-30 00:00>
Untill this book I had never been afraid of what I read. But Stephen King made it. "The shining" is thrilling since the beginning to the very last page. It's the story of an ex-teacher thrown out of his job for beating up a student. But the life of Jack Torrance is a complete mess. Not only he's unemployed, he's also a drunk. And in between he's got to take care of his wife and his enigmatic son, Danny. Ah, almost forgot: he has a dream of writing this masterpiece script, a book that will reach the top of the bestselling list. How he can do all this? His companion in booze and master offers him a job as a caretaker of a famous hotel in Colorado during the winter season. The Overlook Hotel is famous not only because of its great view of the country, but for his shaky story. Built early in the century, it has passed through various owners, all faded with bankruptcy, Mafia murders and scandals. The present time of the story is the first year in many that the account books aren't closed in read ink. And Jake has to keep the integrity of the place during the long winter. It's the oportunity he asked for. Now he's got time for his family and his script. But... His son Danny has some special gifts, discovered when he arrives at the Overlook and meets the old black cooker and is told that he has "The shining". A power to view what other people can't normally see. That usually is something very nice, if you know how to use it in your favor. But that's something hard for a five-year old. And when the powerful forces that hide in the shadows of the Overlook decide to play with your gift, the long and easy winter may turn into a white-snow nightmare. Stephen King was able to create some very complex characters. Jake is a booze addict with a very hard past relationship with his folks, and his tendence is to loose it with his family. His behavior gets worse when he discovers the history of the Hotel in some newspapers at the basement, and what happened to the last winter caretaker. ! Danny is the central point of the plot. The Overlook uses him to "comunnicate" with the Torrance family, using his shine against him. Danny can see with his eyes all the terrible things that took place in the hotel. Wendy is the powerless wife, sees his husband loose his mind, take it over her son, and has her hands stoped with fear. Her construction is also very complex, even if it's hard to see. She has ger own family problems and loves her husband too much to do something against him. But when it comes to Danny... She transforms into the main character and her actions give road to the continuity of the story. But the most vivid and terrible part of the book is played by the Hotel Overlook... Himself! Yes, I think that we can make it into a person, for he thinks, decides what to do, has a past background, everything that a real person would have. Because, in fact, he's the personality and the will of Stephen King. He overlooks his entire work, his imaginary Boulder, his characters and his plots. Only a writer like him could imagine the scenes with the grass animals. "The shining" is a unique piece of writing. Among King's works, it's only compared with the grandeur of "The stand".
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Alexie Kinast (MSL quote), Canada
<2007-01-30 00:00>
Usually, I avoid giving popular authors shining reviews (pun intended) unless their work Really deserves it. I figure, what the heck- they have enough people flocking around them. They could use a good criticism. So, with this in mind, I took an excursion into the dark and eerie world of five-year-old Daniel Torrence in King's "The Shining". And instead of coming away full of tips on how he could better his writing, I find myself amazed by it.
King is, as so many reviews before me have plainly stated, a true master of the horror genre, and "The Shining" stands right up there among the best in horrific fiction. It's about a young boy who posesses a sort of telepathic power; a clairvoyence called "The Shining". he can read minds (although not always understand what he is reading) and see into the future with the aid of an imaginary friend named Tony. When Danny's father accepts an offer to be a hotel caretaker for the famous Overlook hotel in the Colorado rockies, Danny is catapulted into a world of terror. For, it seems, the Overlook has it's own nasty history and is more than eager to put Danny and his family in it's macabre lexicon.
Read this book. It is a true gem.
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Jacob Lickers (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
If you need blood and guts every few pages to stay interested in a book, you will be dissapointed. If your definition of drama is the murderous villains lengthy monologue before his final, grisly defeat, you will be dissapointed. If you're looking for a clone of the movie in book form, you will be very dissapointed. If, however, you appreciate one of those rare novels that leads you into the story step by step, immersing you with effortless grace into the world in which it occurs, a world that is, on the surface, plain and even non-descript yet brimming just beneath with murky, brooding awareness, then this one might be for you. If you appreciate full and starkly realistic characters painted in bold and brilliant strokes of emotion and personality, you may want to have a look. Finally, if you can accept Steven King as something more than "The Horrormeister", and instead as a natural story-teller who is as capable of capturing the subtles and nuances of terror as the hack and slash aspects, who can blend it perfectly into a familiar yet hauntingly awry world of ghosts darkness and ordinary people struggling against not only such mundane horrors as abuse and acoholism but horrors of a decidedly more supernatural nature, then you might be ready for this book.
I was captivated by the plight of Danny, a very unique young boy, struggling against unimaginable forces out of pure, unconditional love for his father. Likewise, Jack Torrence is not merely the bloodlusting maniac of the movie, but a man who is hounded by his alcoholism, all the way into the heart of the Colorado Rockies where he attempts to come to terms with his personal ghosts and heal the rift that is threatening to pull his family apart. Despite his best efforts, however, the sinister awareness that has infested the Overlook, an awareness birthed by years of murder and tragedy, slowly twists him to it's evil ends in a heart-breaking struggle of wills.
This book is full of disturbingly memorable imagery, moments of slow and creeping terror that will keep you turning pages deep into the night. The ending is a satisfying as it is tragic, bringing the grisly drama to a gut-wrenching climax and exorcising the tortured prisoners of the Overlook in a curtain of purifying flame.
As King books go, this is one of his finest. As far as any book goes, this is one of the scariest I've ever read.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
The last great book King has written, The Shining is a classic in the field of haunted house books that every horror fan should read. Its characters are strong, empathic, and real, and the situation absolutely terrifying.
Enjoy the Kubrick film for its director and Nicholson, but if you want to scare yourself silly, read this one - written before King appeared to stop thinking his work needed editing and his idea of characterization devolved into white-trash profanity-laden methane-spewing addlebrains.
Upon its publication, The Shining was to become the standard by which all subsequent horror novels would be judged - a standard approached only, perhaps, by the truly frightening, underappreciated Ghosts, by Noel Hynd.
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Joseph Dworak (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
This book is so good, I have read it three times. Stephen King, the undisputed master of horror and suspense does not leave any dissapointment with this book. You will read it, be scared, and read it again. What is interesting is that so many people have only seen the Jack Nicholson/Stanley Kubrick movie version, which is good, but this book does so much more.
The setting, a remote resort. The characters, a father, a mother, and a young son. These characters are left to tend to a large hotel during the winter season and make sure things are fine when the hotel opens up the following spring for business. Remote and isolated, the hotel becomes a prison for the father, and he begins to torment his wife. All this happens while the young son, Danny, starts seeing and speaking to ghosts.
The hotel figuratively and literally starts to close in on the Torrence family. That is when all hell breaks loose. For the rest of the story, I would suggest reading this book, with a warning; expect to be scared.
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Chad Jackson (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
The Shining will sweep you up and wont let you down until you finish it.You will find it gripping and hard to put down .King does a great job in this book.His descriptions of the characters and the hotel.I would hate to spoil this book for the readers so I'm just going to tell you read this.You really need to go and buy it or go to your library and read it.You don't want to pass this one up.
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Gregory Baird (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
This is by far the scariest book I have ever read. At times I literally had to remind myself to breathe! It is impossible to put this book down once you have started, Stephen King pulls you relentlessly onward to the finish. This is by far his best book! Well written with great characters that you truly do care about (even Jack). You must read this!
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Ryan Younce (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
I first saw the movie based on this book at age seven, and finally read the book itself at twelve. Despite my opinions concerning The Stand as being King's masterpiece, The Shining still remains a personal favorite of mine.
The book focuses on the breakdown of a particular family isolated within a genuine example of the archetypal Bad Place. Jack Torrance, a struggling writer with a shaky past of alcoholism, unemployment, and a mercurial temper, obtains the position of winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, a mountain lodge illustrious enough to shadow its more tenebrous and gory history. The Overlook's history, while providing the subterranean forces contributing to this breakdown, is especially manifested to Torrance's five-year-old son, Danny, who possesses an awesome power enabling him to see these forces through images of the hotel's past. Wendy, the mother in this family, is initially oblivious to the hotel's nature, but ultimately stands torn between her love for her husband and her care for her son. Eventually, Danny himself becomes a pawn as his father becomes progressively influenced and corrupted by the Overlook.
This book is one of King's finest and he uses his well-esteemed finesse brilliantly in portraying the ulterior currents in not only the hotel, but also within Jack's and Danny's respective minds. If you have only seen the movie (Kubrick version), I strongly recommend reading the book; in my opinion, the movie was lacking and did not touch on the finer points King presented. I don't believe you'll be disappointed.
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Ellie Reasoner (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-31 00:00>
Forget for a moment that The Shining is one of the greatest horror novels ever written, the inspiration for a classic movie and a fine TV miniseries, a scary, scary tale of a haunted hotel, and a fun piece of work by the Charles Dickens of our time. What is often forgotten about Stephen King's best book is that nowhere else in fiction is an alcoholic portrayed more realistically, and nowhere else is life for those who love that alcoholic shown with such gutsy, poignant, dead-on, hideous perfection. Those facts and those characters wed with a spectacular story of ghosts and evil, and that is why The Shining will outlive its contemporaries and still be read in a thousand years. The characters here live and breathe within our minds.
Ten-thousand "serious" writers in more literary fields WISH they had the skill Maine's greatest writer does. No matter what genre he is writing in on any given day, King is one of the best writers ever to tell a tale. So read The Shining for whatever reason you wish, it's too great a book not to make your introduction, but keep an eye open for what I said about its characters. The story of a family and alcoholism is what raises this eerie novel to levels of surpassing greatness.
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