The Shining by Stephen King was my third King read in October and the scariest! Things that go bump in the night and me don’t usually get along. I don’t like scary movies so I approached this book cautiously. And while I found it all kinds of scary, it was also a damn good book and a great example of suspense in a cabin fever setting.

The Shining is about a family of three: Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy and their extraordinary five-year-old son, Danny. Jack is a man with issues. He’s a writer and was a university teacher until his drinking and violent behaviour sees him lose his job. A friend pulls some strings and gets him a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, high in the Colorado Rockies. Jack and his family are to live in the empty hotel when it’s shut down over the winter. Empty of guests and employees, it’s just the three of them in a huge hotel that has a colourful and scary past. It’s a place where there have been many violent incidents over the years. It’s also a place that gets cut off from the world as the snow blocks all the roads allowing no one in or out.

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