The Shining

Horror that frightens through family as much as through ghosts. King drew on his own struggle with alcoholism for the characters, and it shows in how personal the dread feels. People remember being scared by this book decades later, and for some it was the door into a lifetime of reading him. At roughly 500 pages it asks for some patience; it suits readers who want fear with emotional weight behind it.

Worth knowing Stephen King got the idea while staying at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado in 1974, on the last night before it closed for the season, when he and his wife were almost the only guests. He disliked Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film and later wrote and produced a 1997 TV miniseries closer to the book. Doctor Sleep (2013) follows Danny as an adult.

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