A review by overtheedgeofthewild
The Shining by Stephen King

dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

A slow and long-winded read that is nothing special. This was actually the first time I've read Stephen King and have never seen the entire Shining movie. It was a book club read, and I was not expecting so much endless rambling in this book. The majority of it is psychoanalysis and history for each character. Some parts are sexualized in a disturbing (and sometimes preverted) way. This would have been a DNF for me if it weren't for book club; I got so genuinely sick of "unmask, unmask." It was repeated so often it felt like King was just trying to achieve a certain word count.  And, as other reviews have mentioned, the offensive language/slurs were gross. It was overall boring, and thus difficult for my mind not to wander to literally anything else. I ended up listening on 1.75x speed (which I never do) just to get it done and over with. 
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