Stephen King | Book Chatter

The Shining (audio)
By Stephen King, Read by Campbell Scott
Random House Audio, 15 hours, 49 min (unabridged)

The Short of It:

A decent audio production but the pace was slow, the kid wasn’t as weird as in the movie and it seemed mild in comparison to King’s other books.

The Rest of It:

I don’t want to come off as being a King know-it-all because there are lots of other fans that eat and breath King, but I have read a fair number of his books and this is one case where the movie was much better. If you are not familiar with the story, here is a brief description.

Jack Torrance has a drinking problem and although he has given up the drink, he still struggles daily with being dry. He is married to Wendy and they have a six-year-old son, Danny. Danny is a special boy. He possesses the ability to see into the future but when his father accepts a position as a caretaker of an isolated Colorado hotel in the dead of winter, Danny’s visions become more sinister in nature and the idea of them living there all winter and all by themselves is almost too much for Danny and Wendy to imagine. However, Jack is working on a play, and the quiet isolation is what he needs to finish it, so they pack up and head out. What they don’t know, is that something terrible happened there years ago. Something that will come back to haunt them.

The Overlook - Danny Torrance

Scared yet?

The premise itself is scary as hell. Taking care of a gigantic hotel in the middle of winter without anyone around you is a bit intimidating. The audio version of the book doesn’t play up this aspect too well. The narration is good but the content itself is not all that dramatic and there are long periods of nothing in between the somethings. That’s hard enough in print but on audio, I found myself having to go back because I cruised through several chapters without really knowing what was going on. This was a bit frustrating. I listened to it as part of the #shineon read-along and it seemed as if I was always behind the others since I had to go back and forth so much.

For the audio book version to have worked for me, I would have needed the following:

A creepier Danny.
A meaner, nastier Jack Torrance.
A Wendy with a bit more oomph. She reminded me of white bread. Boring.
More isolation. There were too many visits to the store and too many phone calls.
Less hedge action, which is different than the hedge action seen in the movie.
More of the freakin’ hotel! It lives and breathes in the movie.
More cold. More music to set the tone.

Look what Jill sent me when I signed up for the read-along. My own special #shineon glasses. The Otter Pup jumped in for the photo. She wants her own glasses.

My ShineOn Glasses

I thought at first that my love of the movie, tainted my opinion of the book but I don’t think so. Others that have not seen the movie have said the same thing. It’s a snoozefest. That said, I now appreciate the movie version even more and can’t wait to see it again.

Doctor Sleep, King’s sequel to The Shining comes out this September 20th. Will I read it? You bet.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

IT
By Stephen King
Read by: Steven Weber
(Penguin Audio, 44 hours, May 2010)

The Short of It:

Entertainment at its best! Gripping with moments of terror but at its heart, a story about friendship and the battle of good over evil.

The Rest of It:

I first read IT years ago. And by “years ago” I mean…maybe 24 years. That’s a lot of years! I remember loving it to pieces. I’d stay up all night to read it and let me tell you, it was a full immersion experience. Once you opened the book, you couldn’t help but fall right into the story.

Recently, I decided to re-read it as part of the IT Along which was a read-along hosted by really cool (and fun) people. I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I had participating. The Twitter conversations (#ITAlong) were a hoot. The clown noses and the pictures that followed were too much. Seriously, clown noses?? I laughed and then I got really creeped out.

The point of all of this?? To distract the hell out of you. Why? Because the book can be terrifying. Well, the images that King paints are terrifying on their own but Steven Weber, the guy from the TV show Wings, reads for the audio version and even though I had read the book and experienced its horror once before, Weber took it to a whole new level. It was like IT on crack.

The story takes place in the fictional town of Derry, Maine during the late 1950’s. A shape-shifter comes to life and consumes the small children of Derry. One by one the children disappear. Lured by the promise of balloons and sweets, Pennywise grabs them, does terrible things to them and then drags the remains down under the streets of Derry, via the gutters, drains, or whatever else he can find. His constant chant of “They all float down here!” is a reminder that for this town, hope hangs by a very thin thread.

One day, little Georgie Denbrough takes his paper boat out for a run but when it’s swept into a storm drain, Pennywise the clown pulls him down into the sewer and murders him. George’s older brother Bill, is never the same but when he and his group of rag-tag friends figure out what is really going on, they take matters into their own hands.

Many of you have said that you will not step foot near this book because you are totally freaked out by clowns or don’t want to drink the horror Kool-Aid that King is serving up but at the end of the day, the guy can tell a story and it would be a shame if you overlooked this book because of that.

Due to the age of the characters, and the fact that they band together, I was often reminded of the movie Stand By Me, which was based on a novella King had written called The Body some years prior. The innocence of children and the sweetness of their friendship is what makes this novel special to me.

If you decide to give it a go, the audio was brilliantly done but it’s long (44 hours long) and it is hard to work other books into the mix while listening to it. I don’t recall that being a problem with the print version. Maybe because in print, you could easily put it down and come back to it. On audio though, I FEARED losing my place on my iPod as it happened to me twice and I could not for the life of me figure out where I was in the story when it happened.

Anyway, give it a go. You won’t be sorry.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post does not contain Indiebound affiliate links because they don’t have it listed! I guess it’s too old.

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