The Shining #1 The Shining Stephen King , Campbell Scott (Narrator)

I read this most years around Halloween.  Absolutely spooks me every time.

The story of a recovering alcoholic who takes his family up to a secluded mountain hotel where he'll stay as the winter caretaker. However, his five-year-old son, Danny, is special. He has "The Shining," a mystical second-sight that allows him to sense the thoughts of those around him. And it's waking up the hotel....

Four and a half stars

This book came out January 28, 1977

The Shining #1

Followed by Doctor Sleep

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King, Will Patton (Narrator)

T

he long-anticipated follow-up to "The Shining" has a now grown-up Danny Torrance fighting demons, both literal and physical. Still struggling with the events from the first book as well as his "Shining," we find out that Danny has inherited his father's alcoholism and upped the ante with a drug problem.

He's finally landed in a place where he can get clean when a message appears in his brain, "Abra." There's no follow-up for a long time. Until Abra, a child whose talent is even greater than Danny's own, reaches out to him for help. There is a group, the True Knot, that has extended their own lives by feeding off the "steam" of children like Abra. And now that they know that she exists, a child with more shining than they've ever seen, they're coming after her full bore.
I quite enjoyed this book. It was a little light (not much depth) but it's a book for fun, did it really need to be very deep? I wish we could have seen more about the former lives of The True Knot folks (especially Rose) but since the book was so long already, I can see why that didn't happen.

Three and a half stars

This book came out September 24, 2013

The Shining #2

Follows The Shining

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own