The Shining By Stephen King

Summary

From: Isaac Scego

Book Title: The Shining
Book Author: Stephen King
What do you like about this book:
Summery::
Whenever going into a Stephen King novel, you must first ask yourself this question: Do the lessons the author shows through these stories sufficiently counteract the immensity of profanity, sex and gore that accompany it? Some people would say yes, and if so, The Shining is a phenomenal novel that will require both your thinking hat and a brightly lit room. King has never been one to hold back and dives right in without hesitation to show the full measure of how the decisions we make or have made, whether we regret them or not, will effect the future and how we live our lives from that.

However, for those of you who have answered with an emphatic no—and if you are visiting this website, you most likely are amongst the category of people who find it difficult to enjoy a story when it's full of offensive content—I would caution strongly against this book and this author. Stephen King knows no boundaries in anything, nor is he afraid to paint a dirty picture if that's what he thinks it requires. And The Shining definitely shows this. And as we have seen of Danny and Wendy Torrance, the Overlook is no place for the young or squeamish. Or the discerning.

Sexual Content::
The Overlook has a sexual history of once being a brothel and many descriptions describe women seducing and leading men into the rooms. Jack dances with one, and he feels aroused at how close she is. Also, there are moments of descriptive male and female nudity and men touch women's breasts. There's an implied homosexual relationship. Jack and Wendy engage in the benefit of marriage and the author visits them after having sex (both implied to be naked) and one moment of sexuality when in foreplay (explicit); Wendy walks around in only panties at one point. Danny listens to a woman think sexual thoughts toward the bellboy and oral sex is referenced briefly but crudely on two occasions.

A mild mention to masturbation. After being cut off in traffic, a man shouts that the another man should commit "illegal" sex acts on an animal. A man in a dog suit threatens to devour Danny, starting with his privates (albeit, more vulgarly stated in such away to make it seem sexual). There's a story about a child molester who was said to have raped three children in the past and who had a childhood that included a "homosexual experience," but that's all that is said. When talking of an institution for the insane, there is a mention of a woman who burned of her children's sexual organs. Of course, several crude/vulgar/obscene comments are made. Talk of affairs, including an old woman having an affair with a seventeen-year-old.

Violent Content::
While drunk, a man yanks his son's arm out of socket. A man is said to have murdered his daughters with a hatchet, his wife with a shotgun, and then to have committed suicide—this is mentioned throughout the book. Fights, including heated ones between couples, are spoken of. A man drops a baby, bruising him. Danny has multiple gruesome visions of bloody walls, and one memory of his father reading him a story where a man brutally murders his wife after she walks into a room full of the severed heads of women. He describes this horrifying image in strong imagery. A particularly disturbing sequence describes a husband beating his wife with a cane. It is not extremely graphic (although bloody) but unsettling. This memory takes place in brutal detail as a man beats another man with a cane. A man is found with a knife in his chest and Jack bleeds. He also has several grisly thoughts of murdering people and how he does so is sometimes described. A woman is beaten bloodily with roque mallet in a lengthy sequence (breaking a few bones as well). A man is also stabbed.

Language::
The c-word is used at least half a dozen times. Fourteen uses of the n-word along with other, racially derogatory terms and statements. The f-word is used 51 times (once in a sexual context), and the s-word about a couple dozen times. Uses of b--ch, d--n, h--l, a--, b--tard and pr--k are everywhere. More crude words such as d--k, f--got, c--k, and t-ts are also used. God's name is misused with and without d--n on several occasions; Jesus's as well. Also, a few of "whore."

Drug/Alcohol Content::
Jack is said to have been a drinker at one time and is described drunk in several moments (one while driving and he has an accident). We read of him fighting desires to drink and how drinking makes him feel. This is a major focus of the story and it seems to have run in his family. His father was also a drunkard and would beat him and his siblings. Multiple people smoke cigarettes and there are some drug references.

Cleanliness:: 0.5/5
| R | Horror violence including some bloody descriptions, pervasive language, and some sexuality/nudity

Your ratings of the level of sex, violence, language and drug/alcohol use on a scale of 1-5.
Sex:4
Violence:4
Language:4
Drug/Alcohol use:3