Discussion: The Shining by Stephen King

Our next book club meeting is Monday, October 28th, and we’re heading to the Overlook Hotel…

For our next read, we’ll be tackling Stephen King’s The Shining, one of the defining horror novels of the last century and a book that goes considerably deeper than “family checks into haunted hotel, things go badly.”

Jack Torrance gets a winter caretaker job at the isolated Overlook Hotel, bringing his wife Wendy and son Danny along for the season. The hotel is empty, the snow is piling up, and there’s nowhere to go.

Then the hotel starts to reveal what it has been waiting for.

Beyond the supernatural horror, The Shining gives us plenty to chew on: addiction, isolation, family, anger, guilt, inherited trauma, and the question of whether our worst impulses come from within us or from somewhere else.

And, of course, we’ll have plenty to discuss about how the book compares with Stanley Kubrick’s famous adaptation.

Come ready to talk about why the book works, not simply whether you liked it.

And if you’ve seen the movie, resist the urge to let Kubrick do all the remembering for you. King’s Overlook has a few more rooms than the movie lets us see.

See you Monday, October 28th. Don’t forget to pack a sweater, as we’ll be meeting in Millcreek Canyon.