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A classic 1970’s haunted house story that is recommended to fans of Shirly Jackson’s [b:The Haunting of Hill House|89717|The Haunting of Hill House|Shirley Jackson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327871336s/89717.jpg|3627]
Simply put it’s a tale about a Brooklyn housewife and her family, who becomes obsessed with a mansion they rent as a holiday home one Summer. Are the family falling apart or is the house possessed? This is up to the reader to work out.
I guessed the story arc and ending almost from the first chapter and yet this read was a gripping descent into a families dark madness that kept me enthralled until the last sentence.
Recommended to fans of Shirley Jackson. I read this on audio and the narrator R.C. Bray is highly recommended.
What a shame! This was a big disappointment after starting so well. The teenagers in this book were so beautifully imagined with all the flaws and empty spaces typical of kids from the adoption and foster systems. I would have loved to have gifted this book to close family members (young and old) who would have seen themselves for once in literature. However, the ending is of great concern and would (and indeed similar endings have been in the past) been a big trigger for at least two of these family members. In simple terms, it takes a long time to discover you already have your happy ending in real life and most of us don’t discover it until we are middle-aged. Kids should not be given unrealistic expectations that all their pain will be healed somehow just by finding their biological relatives.
Although this book is heartwarming and strongly recommended to those outside of the system please be careful when recommending it to those within.
Although this book is heartwarming and strongly recommended to those outside of the system please be careful when recommending it to those within.
Well, this is a fun “who done it” style thriller. Set partly in Cork and partly on a cruise ship. It is well paced, a thrilling read and yes the old adage it's a page-turner (though I read it on whyspersync Kindle and heard it on audible so no actual pages there :)) Yes I I thoroughly recommend this for someone who is in the mood for a holiday read or who has a spare Saturday and would like to consume a good story over the course of an afternoon together with copious coffee. You will not be able to put it down. You may need to lock a door so you are not interrupted.
However, I do not recommend reading it if you are planning on going on a cruise soon.
From reading Catherine Ryan Howard’s blog I have only one thing to say. Convert coffee into another one of these novels soon!
However, I do not recommend reading it if you are planning on going on a cruise soon.
From reading Catherine Ryan Howard’s blog I have only one thing to say. Convert coffee into another one of these novels soon!
From February 2018.
"Now his ears were open and he could hear them again, the gathering, ghosts or spirits or maybe the hotel itself, a dreadful funhouse where all side shows ended in death, where all the specially painted boogies were really alive, where hedges walked, where a small silver key could start the obscenity. "
This was either my fourth or fifth time reading this and it is still a five star.
The Shinning is still the best "Haunted House" story I have read. It ranks with [b:The Haunting of Hill House|89717|The Haunting of Hill House|Shirley Jackson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327871336s/89717.jpg|3627] and [b:Burnt Offerings|897717|Burnt Offerings|Robert Marasco|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1297539225s/897717.jpg|882910] . All three books are how I judge haunted house stories. All such stories should include:
1. A house/hotel with foreshadowings of a strange past and possible deep evil origins.
2. Flawed characters that need the house for some reason and move in despite the warnings and foreshadowing.
3. The haunting remains low key and dismissable as imagination etc until the characters become trapped. In this case, Stephen King makes it nice and simple - they are snowed in.
4. Then all hell breaks loose and the building will not let them leave.
Each rereading of a book will give you different impressions. In this reading, my strongest impression was what a deeply flawed but well-drawn character Jack was.
"He suddenly flushed, not with anger but with shame at his own cruelty. This was not a man in front of him but a seventeen-year-old boy who facing the first major defeat of his life, and maybe asking in the only way he could for Jack to help him cope with it."
He did try his best to help them leave.
"As he got behind the truck's wheel it occurred to him that while he was fascinated by the Overlook, he didn't much like it. He wasn't sure it was good for either his wife or his son or himself. Maybe that is why he called Ullman.
To be fired while there was still time."
In Stephen King's book, he is a very different character to that portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the movie.
Overall this book is recommended to fans of haunted house stories. :)
"Now his ears were open and he could hear them again, the gathering, ghosts or spirits or maybe the hotel itself, a dreadful funhouse where all side shows ended in death, where all the specially painted boogies were really alive, where hedges walked, where a small silver key could start the obscenity. "
This was either my fourth or fifth time reading this and it is still a five star.
The Shinning is still the best "Haunted House" story I have read. It ranks with [b:The Haunting of Hill House|89717|The Haunting of Hill House|Shirley Jackson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327871336s/89717.jpg|3627] and [b:Burnt Offerings|897717|Burnt Offerings|Robert Marasco|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1297539225s/897717.jpg|882910] . All three books are how I judge haunted house stories. All such stories should include:
1. A house/hotel with foreshadowings of a strange past and possible deep evil origins.
2. Flawed characters that need the house for some reason and move in despite the warnings and foreshadowing.
3. The haunting remains low key and dismissable as imagination etc until the characters become trapped. In this case, Stephen King makes it nice and simple - they are snowed in.
4. Then all hell breaks loose and the building will not let them leave.
Each rereading of a book will give you different impressions. In this reading, my strongest impression was what a deeply flawed but well-drawn character Jack was.
"He suddenly flushed, not with anger but with shame at his own cruelty. This was not a man in front of him but a seventeen-year-old boy who facing the first major defeat of his life, and maybe asking in the only way he could for Jack to help him cope with it."
He did try his best to help them leave.
"As he got behind the truck's wheel it occurred to him that while he was fascinated by the Overlook, he didn't much like it. He wasn't sure it was good for either his wife or his son or himself. Maybe that is why he called Ullman.
To be fired while there was still time."
In Stephen King's book, he is a very different character to that portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the movie.
Overall this book is recommended to fans of haunted house stories. :)
Is this book perfect? - No. But it made me cry, no sob for an old man who could not go to the circus. If you can get me to connect to a character as if they are real you deserve five stars, Ms. Gruen.
“Every kids wants to find a dead body. About the only thing a twelve-year-old boy wants to find more is a spaceship, buried treasure or a porn mag. We wanted to find something bad that day. And so we did. I’m not sure anyone realised how bad it would be.”
I have seen from a tweet from John Boyne that he is comparing this book to Stephen King’s the Body. I see that comparison and raise it to Stephen King’s IT without the monsters but still with the scary going ons (people can be monsters too). We have a group of 12 years four boys and a red-headed girl who survive a Summer of murder and fatal mishaps in a small town in England in 1986 who come back together in 2016 to solve who really killed “her”. The plot consists of a lot of foreshadowing but doesn’t ever go exactly where I was expecting it to. Other than that I am not going to say much as this is a book best entered blind.
The characters are all gorgeously drawn in this novel in a simple but witty prose style that is sheer entertainment.
“No one dared disagree with Mum. Mum was - and actually still is - kind of scary. She was tall, with short dark hair, and brown eyes that could bubble with fun or blaze almost black when she was angry (and, a bit like the incredible hulk, you didn’t want to make her angry).”
It has strong themes of the importance of friendships especially those from our childhoods.
“Everything was going wrong. My whole world - and when you’re a kid your friends are your world - was being torn apart.”
It also asks the age-old question; are we defined by the actions of our past and is there any redemption to be found?
“We all have good and bad in us. Just because someone does one terrible thing, should that overshadow all the good things they’ve done? Or are there some things so bad that no good act can redeem them?”
Overall this is a quirky fun story of what it is to be a child, a grown up and everything in between. It was a fun read and was just what I needed during busy season at work (so perfect score on that front). It is recommended to those who like mystery stories and who don’t mind a couple (not many) violent scenes.
I have seen from a tweet from John Boyne that he is comparing this book to Stephen King’s the Body. I see that comparison and raise it to Stephen King’s IT without the monsters but still with the scary going ons (people can be monsters too). We have a group of 12 years four boys and a red-headed girl who survive a Summer of murder and fatal mishaps in a small town in England in 1986 who come back together in 2016 to solve who really killed “her”. The plot consists of a lot of foreshadowing but doesn’t ever go exactly where I was expecting it to. Other than that I am not going to say much as this is a book best entered blind.
The characters are all gorgeously drawn in this novel in a simple but witty prose style that is sheer entertainment.
“No one dared disagree with Mum. Mum was - and actually still is - kind of scary. She was tall, with short dark hair, and brown eyes that could bubble with fun or blaze almost black when she was angry (and, a bit like the incredible hulk, you didn’t want to make her angry).”
It has strong themes of the importance of friendships especially those from our childhoods.
“Everything was going wrong. My whole world - and when you’re a kid your friends are your world - was being torn apart.”
It also asks the age-old question; are we defined by the actions of our past and is there any redemption to be found?
“We all have good and bad in us. Just because someone does one terrible thing, should that overshadow all the good things they’ve done? Or are there some things so bad that no good act can redeem them?”
Overall this is a quirky fun story of what it is to be a child, a grown up and everything in between. It was a fun read and was just what I needed during busy season at work (so perfect score on that front). It is recommended to those who like mystery stories and who don’t mind a couple (not many) violent scenes.
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