The Shining
Series: The Shining, Book 1
By: Stephen King / Narrated By: Campbell Scott
Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
Oh holy COW—this atmospheric haunting has aged well… but OY Campbell Scott!!!
Picture it: A 14-year old girl with her first cat sits on the porch and devours a paperback called The Shining by some dude called Stephen King. The cat, her first love named Beau, offers her comfort when she starts, and purrs warmly when she shivers with fright. She has to stop reading by 3 p.m. cuz she discovered that reading into evening hours fosters nightmares. Beau, an ex-feral who still isn’t allowed indoors, will wait for her so they can read again tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. But the twitchy and nervous girl is preeeetty sure she’ll be done with the novel soon—it’s just THAT good.
I got The Shining from a used paperback bookstore oooooh back when the movie was coming out; the trailers were of blood seeping from beneath elevator doors and soon the hotel’s hallways are drowning in a raging sea of red. I was transfixed. And hence, my very first Stephen King book—Nay! My very first horror book.
As this is Halloween, it’s been time for my Annual Stephen King audiobook, and I glaaaaadly snapped this one up, delighted to be taking a trip down memory lane to visit old haunts. And I must say, this book is danged near written perfection.
The Torrance family, dogged by hard times, is getting the final chance at a decent life. Dad Jack is newly sober, and he’s pretty much screwed up every good and proper thing in his life prior to this, esPECially getting canned for losing his temper and beating a student at his last job, esPECially almost losing wife Wendy and son Danny after losing his temper and breaking Danny’s arm. See, Jack has a drinking problem; oh he’s on the wagon now, but still…
Jack’s new job is at The Overlook Hotel in the mountains of Colorado. He is to be the winter caretaker, seeing that the place doesn’t completely fall apart during the months it’s closed. It has a shady and storied past, and as a matter of fact, a previous caretaker kinda sorta lost it and murdered his wife, his two daughters, and then offed his own self. Jack thinks he and his family won’t get cabin fever like that as they’re too well-educated and have too many things to keep them occupied during the months they’re snowed in and cut off from the rest of the world. Just one tiiiiiiiny thing:
Five-year old Danny sorta knows things sometimes, before they happen, and he can sometimes tune into what a person’s thoughts are. He has the Shining. And it turns out, that’s juuuuuust what the unquiet spirits in The Overlook are looking for—all that psychic energy to live and breathe life into the horrors that have thus far been relegated to mere images and creeping noises. The Overlook wants Danny, but it’ll have to use the newly sober Jack to get to him.
Stephen King’s writing is top notch in this classic of horror. It has all the atmosphere you could want to go with things that go bump in the night along with the occasional sighting of a dead and bloated corpse swaying from a filled bathtub. There are hedge animals that would just as soon kill you; there are wasps reenergized during the midnight hours; there’s an elevator that clanks and groans, its grates opening to show confetti and masks discarded inside as tho’ you just missed the revelers.
But OY Campbell Scott!!! I get it—the dude comes from acting royalty, but he is NO George C. Scott!!! Were it not for his ability to thoroughly act out dialogue and voices, I danged near woulda fallen asleep. His narration of the text is all unenthusiastic and monotonous plodding, punctuated by the occasional BELLOW when Jack starts to finally lose his marbles. Seriously, he couldn’t have sounded more disinterested if he’d tried. Heck, maybe if he’d tried, he might’ve inadvertently slipped some emotion or excitement in, you never know. As it was, he does a reeeeeal disservice to some truly stellar writing, and only my refusal to never review anything until I’ve listened to the entire thing kept me going until the end. That and King ups the ante on emotional dialogue. It was strange to hear Scott plod along then boom a bellow when Jack seemingly starts morphing into his abusive father then slips back into the same plodding rhythm. I dearly love the book, so I’m keeping it, but really: I’m, like, thaaaaaat close to returning it for my credit cuz o’ the lame performance.
Still, the story is worth it as this is NOTHing like the movie—far deeper, far more complex, and it WOULD be way more emotional, at least in the hands of a competent narrator who gave a flying fig about the material. So maybe read the book in print for a good ol’ Halloween scare? Or park your hopes by the door, and simply expect there not to be much enthusiasm in the reading until it comes to dialogue?
Whatever, yes I was sorely disappointed, but at least I did experience a few thrills and chills.
Alas, where was my beloved Beau to soothe my jangled nerves this go-round? Nope, I had to “settle” for my dear RoRo who kicked me as he slept. Each time he jostled me?
Danged near flew through the roof in fright….!
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