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Book One
Prefatory Matters

Chapter One – Job Interview
Jack Torrance meets Mr. Ullman, manager of the Overlook Hotel, and interviews for the position of caretaker of the Hotel over the winter season.  In the process he learns there have been several murders at the hotel.

Chapter Two – Boulder
Wendy Torrance, wife of Jack, and their son Danny are waiting in their apartment for Jack to return with the news that he has indeed gotten the caretaker position.

Chapter Three – Watson
Jack is given a tour of the Hotel and its facilities by the summer grounds maintenance man Watson.  During the instructional aspect it was emphasized by Watson that Jack must release the steam from the boiler at least twice a day.  It is an antique furnace and Ullman has no intention of replacing it until it just dies.

Chapter Four – Shadowland
Danny had a visit from “Tony” and had hallucinations where he saw terrible things happening at the Overlook Hotel.

Chapter Five – Phonebooth
Jack called Al Shockley from the local phone booth.  He wanted to thank Al for the referral for this job.  Al had been Jack’s drinking buddy back in New Hampshire where they were teachers.  Jack had broken Danny’s arm when he became enraged while he was drunk.  Then after a car accident, Jack quit drinking.  He was doing well in New Hampshire, but he beat up a student due to his uncontrollable anger.  Al was part owner in the Overlook and thought it might be a good interim job for Jack and then maybe he could come back to teach the next fall.

Chapter Six – Night Thoughts
Wendy couldn’t sleep and thought about how she had met Jack at college and how his drinking had steadily increased.  Her thoughts were very much about how she could get a divorce.  She felt she could not move in with her mother. 

Chapter Seven – In Another Bedroom
Danny awoke and was haunted by threats to him from an unknown source and a sinister word flashing in red before his eyes: REDRUM.

Book Two
Closing Day

Chapter Eight – A View of the Overlook
They drove from Boulder up to the Overlook Hotel.  Danny knew his parents were loving each other now and divorce had left his mother’s thoughts.  He also recognized that the Hotel was a dangerous place.

Chapter Nine - Checking It Out
Mr. Ullman presented the Overlook Hotel to the Torrance Family. 

Chapter Ten - Hallorann
Mr. Hallorann showed the Torrances the kitchen, freezer and fresh food storage pantry.  He liked Danny and Danny liked Hallorann.  Hallorann and Danny could talk without using their voices.

Chapter Eleven – The Shining
Mr. Hallorann had Danny help him to his car and he and Danny had a long talk about what Mr. Hallorann called The Shining.  He tested Danny and it hurt Hallorann’s head.  He told Danny that he was pretty sure that the things Danny might see at the Hotel would not be able to hurt him.  He also told Danny that if Danny was in trouble he was to call him really loud using his shine and Mr. Hallorann would be there as soon as he could.

Chapter Twelve – The Grand Tour
Mr. Ullman took the Torrences up the old creaking elevator to the third floor and showed them the Presidential Suite and the room’s amazing vista.  Danny felt very lonely.  All of them were starting to feel the impact the impending isolation.

Chapter Thirteen – The Front Porch
The Torrances stood on the front porch and watched Mr. Ullman’s car leave.  They were now totally alone in the Hotel.

Book Three
The Wasps’ Nest

Chapter Fourteen – Up on the Roof
October 20th, Jack was up on the roof and was stung by wasps.  He got some spray, killed the wasps and saved the paper nest for Danny.  It was a surprise for Danny when he and Wendy got back from shopping in Sidewinder. 

Chapter Fifteen – Down in the Front Yard
Jack was waiting for Danny & Wendy when they drove in.  Wendy was nervous about the nest but Jack said he followed the instructions on the bug bomb and that it was perfectly safe.

Chapter Sixteen – Danny
Danny had an episode in the locked bathroom.  Jack had to break into the bathroom and Jack was enraged screaming at Danny not to stutter. Danny was very concerned that Jack was going to hurt his Mommy.  That night Danny cried out.  He had been stung eleven times by wasps.  Again Jack lost his temper.  Jack placed a bowl over the nest.  When he returned to discard the nest he found over 50 wasps swarming inside the bowl.  Jack berated himself and told himself to control his temper.

Chapter Seventeen – The Doctor’s Office
The doctor examined the wasps stings and discussed Danny’s hallucinations with him.  The doctor told Jack and Wendy that Danny was sensitive to the marriage problems they were having, his father’s bad temper and old drinking problems.  The doctor concluded Danny was fine and that he just had an active imagination.  What the doctor said was very logical and made perfect sense.

Chapter Eighteen – The Scrapbook
Jack goes down in the basement to check the boiler and finds a scrapbook under the stairs with thousands of old receipts from the hotel.  He reads some of the receipts then reads the scrapbook and discovers that the Overlook Hotel has had some unseemly days.  Ownership of the Hotel changed often.  It was owned and managed by mafia and interests out of Las Vegas.  “Gangland-Style shootings” occurred.  Additional murders had taken place.  Gruesome ones.  The old caretaker, Grady, had killed his wife, daughters and himself over one winter.

Chapter Nineteen – Outside 217
Danny was drawn to Room 217.  He knew something horrible had happened there.  Mr. Hallorann had told him he didn’t think anything bad would happen here to Danny.  Danny had the passkey but when he was at the door he did not open it.  However, an aspect of the Hotel came alive.  The long hose on the fire extinguisher had become like a snake and chased after Danny.  Danny ran and escaped berating himself that it was just his imagination.

Chapter Twenty – Talking to Mr. Ullman
Jack was in Sidewinder and he took the opportunity to call Mr. Ullman and tell him all about the horrible things he had learned about the history of the Overlook.  Mr. Ullman was terribly upset.  Mr. Ullman fired Jack at the end of their conversation.  Jack knew he had called Ullman to embarrass him about the unscrupulous history of the Hotel because when Ullman had interviewed Jack, Ullman had embarrassed him.  Jack once again, lost his temper and vented on Ullman.  Maybe his anger was stimulated by the resident evils at the Hotel. But nonetheless Jack lost his temper and his job.  Jack also told Ullman he planned to write a book including all the seedy details about the Hotel.  Maybe the best thing for his family was to get fired from this job.

Chapter Twenty-one – Night Thoughts
Al Shockley called Jack at the Hotel.  Al told Jack, Ullman had called him and Ullman was angry.  Al demanded an explanation.  Jack told him that Ullman had “dragged out all of his dirty laundry and that Jack had wanted to get even on some weird level.  Al was like ice when he queried Jack about his book on the Hotel.  All made Jack make some promises to him regarding no book on the Hotel and no more calls to Ullman.

Wendy lay awake reflecting on how all of Jack’s drinking habits had returned.  He constantly wipes his lips with his hand or a handkerchief.  He takes long pauses at his type writer and he had started using Excedrin again.  She can’t smell the alcohol and doesn’t believe he is drinking but he acts like it.

Danny had asked his Mom if Al was still mad at his Daddy.  Wendy was surprised.  Here was another thought Danny had that he couldn’t possibly know about.  When Danny went to bed he was worried about all the bad thoughts and experiences he had had here at the Hotel.  Danny was extremely frightened by the flashing red word REDRUM.

Chapter Twenty-two – In the Truck
While driving down to the library in Sidewinder, Wendy asked Danny about Jack.  She wanted to know if he had been drinking again.  She also wanted to know if they were going to be ok at the Hotel.  Danny told his mom that daddy had not been drinking but that he wants to drink.  He also thinks they will be ok at the Hotel (as long as they stay in safe places). Danny begged her not to take him to her Mother’s.  He didn’t want to leave his Daddy.

Chapter Twenty-three – In the Playground
While Wendy and Danny went to the library, Jack was going the trim the topiary animals.  He trimmed some of the rabbit and he noticed that the animals were starting the move.  They were not moving while he was looking at them but they changed position each time he would turn back around.  The dog was standing up, the lions were guarding the walkway and Jack thought no one would believe this.  He explained his hallucination by his strain with the wasps, his play writing and Al’s phone call last night.  He would never tell anyone about this.

Chapter Twenty-four – Snow
That night it snowed and they were for all intents and purposes “snowed-in.”

Chapter Twenty-five - Inside 217
Danny finally got up the nerve to go into room 217 where he knew something really bad had happened.  Here he found a dead naked woman in the bathtub.  She opened her eyes and came after Danny.  He ran for the door but could not open it.  He was grabbed by the throat and when he was turned around he looked into the woman’s dead purple face.

Book Four
Snowbound

Chapter Twenty-six – Dreamland
Jack dreamed about his brother Brett who was killed in the army and his father who Jack loved dearly as a child.  His father was a drunk.  He also physically and mentally abused his family.  Jack’s father died when he was twelve of a massive heart attack.  Then Jack dreamed he would have to kill Wendy and Danny. While sleep walking; Jack had destroyed their radio, their only communication with the outside world.

Chapter Twenty-seven – Catatonic
Wendy discovered Danny.  He was bruised around his neck where he had been choked and he had other signs that he had been injured.  Wendy believed Jack had hurt Danny again just like when he broke Danny’s arm. 

Chapter Twenty-eight – “It was Her!”
Danny was catatonic and when he started to gain consciousness, Jack wanted to know what happened.  Danny immediately replied, “It was Her!”  Jack knew Danny meant that Wendy had tried to strangle him.  Danny was of course referring to the woman in 217.  Jack was furious with Danny for trespassing. Wendy was accusing Jack.  Jack was accusing Wendy.  It was a grand time in the Torrance family.

Chapter Twenty-nine – Kitchen Talk
Jack fixed a drink for Danny and it calmed him and Danny told his entire story.  Jack was angry with Danny for breaking his rules.  Danny maybe this was Danny’s punishment for stealing the passkey and trespassing into room 217.  Jack decided to go up to 217 and see if Danny was lying.  Wendy begged him not to leave them.

Chapter Thirty – 217 Revisited
Jack saw something behind the curtain.  He did not open the shower curtain.  As he left the room he felt and heard someone following him.  Jack knew there was something bad in that room but he would never tell anyone about it.  Once out in the hall he thought the fire hose had changed position.

Chapter Thirty-one – The Verdict
Jack went back to the kitchen and announced that there was nothing in the room.  It was all Danny’s imagination.  Jack wanted a drink bad.

Chapter Thirty-two – The Bedroom
They set up a cot in their bedroom to keep Danny close to them.  Wendy and Jack discussed the reality of Danny’s bruised throat.  Jack said it was self inflicted.  Wendy insisted on taking the snowmobile down to Sidewinder and getting out of the Hotel.  She was extremely worried about Danny.  Jack finally agreed to ready the snowmobile and they would leave.

Chapter Thirty-three – The Snowmobile
Jack had the snowmobile ready to go with a charged battery, full gas tank and all parts checked.  Jack started thinking how Danny had destroyed everything.  His last chance at a job and now Danny was making him leave it.  Now Jack would not be able to finish his play, complete a successful season at the Overlook and return to his old teaching position.  It was all Danny’s fault.  Jack, possessed, pulled the magneto from the Skidoo and threw it far out into the snow behind the shed where it could not be retrieved.  Danny knows his daddy threw away part of the snow mobile’s engine.  Danny saw him do it in his mind.

Chapter Thirty-four – The Hedges
November 29th, three days after Thanksgiving.  They had a nice Thanksgiving.  Danny told them he was still afraid but that he stayed in safe places.  While his Mommy and Daddy were having sex one morning, Danny decided to go the playground.  He got dressed in his winter clothes and headed down the walkway toward the playground through the topiary. Once in the playground he dug into a cement tube to play in.  The snow collapsed and it was totally dark and Danny knew some evil was in the concrete pipe with him.  Danny struggled and dug out to the sunlight.  Relieved he started back to the front porch (a safe place) and the lions started moving.  Danny ran and when he looked back the lions were getting closer and closer to him.  The lion tore Danny’s coat and scratched his leg open just as Danny climbed up the porch steps.  Danny lay on the porch.  Finally Wendy found him.

Chapter Thirty-five – The Lobby
Danny told them the entire story.  Although a similar incident has occurred to Jack, Jack simply said that it was impossible and that it was just Danny’s imagination.  Wendy and Jack started pulling at Danny.  Danny cried at them and they both dropped him.  Danny fell asleep and Wendy and Jack argued.

Chapter Thirty-six – The Elevator
The elevator started running and everyone heard the noise.  They heard party sounds, voices and they saw party steamers coming from the elevator.

Chapter Thirty-seven – The Ballroom
December 1st. Danny was playing in the ballroom and he started the clock by winding it up.  He heard voices when the clock struck midnight. “Midnight! Stroke of midnight! Hooray for masks!”  Danny wished Mr. Hallorann was here.  Finally Danny fell off his chair and the thought REDRUM.  MURDER.  REDRUM.  MURDER.  “The Red Death held sway over all!  Unmask! Unmask!”  Danny knew he was in trouble and with all his might and will he forced a thought to Mr. Hallorann, “ !!!OH DICK OH PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME!!!”

Book Five
Matters of Life and Death

Chapter Thirty-eight – Florida
Dick Hallorann was working in a restaurant in Florida.  He was out buying fresh fruits and vegetable for the day when he was hit with Danny’s plea.  Dick made arrangements for a short leave of absence from his job and went immediately to the Miami International Airport. 

Chapter Thirty-nine – On the Stairs
Wendy talked to Danny as they sat on the stairs.  Danny tells Wendy the Hotel wants all of them not just Daddy.  Danny told Wendy his Daddy does know there is a woman in 217.  Wendy believes him. Danny told Wendy he had called for help from Mr. Hallorann.  Wendy went to the kitchen and got a butcher knife and slept with it under her pillow.  Jack was otherwise occupied in the basement.

Chapter Forty – In the Basement
Jack remembered the boiler.  Jack had bad memories of his father.  He released the steam from the boiler and believed that now he had saved the Hotel.  Now it was the Hotel’s turn to save him.  Jack left the basement at 5:20 a.m. MST.

Chapter Forty-one – Daylight
Danny woke up from a nightmare where the hedges were burned and he saw his father was in flames.  Danny went out into the hall and there he saw a man dressed in a dog suit.  Danny tried to call Dick for help again but the Hotel stopped him and wouldn’t let Danny’s message get through to Mr. Hallorann.

Chapter Forty-two – Mid-Air
Dick received another message from Danny.  “!!! DICK PLEASE COME QUICK WE’RE IN BAD TROUBLE DICK WE NEED”  and the message was cut off.  Dick was so afraid that something had happened to Danny.

Chapter Forty-three – Drinks on the House
Jack went into the bar and Lloyd the bartender gave Jack martinis on-the-house .  Jack got drunk.  Jack knew he could handle his liquor now and he knew he would never hurt Danny again.

Chapter Forty-four – Conversations at the Party
Jack saw Harry Derwent, a former owner of the Overlook, in the ballroom harassing a man in a dog costume. Jack continued to drink and listen and watch the partiers.  He wanted another drink and jumped over the bar to get it and blacked out on the floor snoring.  It was 8:30 a.m. and there was a terrible snow storm hitting the Overlook.

Chapter Forty-five – Stapleton Airport, Denver
Once landed, Hallorann rented a big Buck Electra.  The rental agent made arrangements for him to stop by a local service station to have chains put on the car.

Chapter Forty-six – Wendy
It was noon and Wendy went down to get her and Danny some food with her knife in her robe.  Coming back from the kitchen she stopped and checked on Jack and he woke up.  Jack attacked Wendy and choked her.  She was blacking out when her hand touched a wine bottle.  She grabbed the bottle and hit Jack over the head and knocked him out.  Danny was there and Wendy had to explain that they had to lock up Daddy in the fresh food pantry.  Wendy’s throat hurt terribly but she managed to pull Jack by the legs into the pantry just as he was waking up.  She barely got the slide bolt shut.  Jack hammered relentlessly on the pantry door.

Chapter Forty-seven – Danny
It was three in the afternoon and Jack continued to beat on the pantry door.  Wendy prayed for Hallorann to come help them.  She and Danny said they loved each other.  The elevator started running again.  Party voices sounded and the Overlook Hotel was coming back to life again.

Chapter Forty-eight – Jack
As Jack sat in the pantry eating crackers, Grady, the old caretaker who had killed his wife and daughters, talked to Jack and explained that Jack was going to have to kill his wife and son.  Jack agreed and Grady aka The Hotel slid the bolt open on the pantry door.

Chapter Forty-nine – Hallorann, Going Up the Country
Hallorann was in the snow storm.  A snow plow was coming and Hallorann ran off the road.  The plow driver stopped and pulled Hallorann out.  Howard Cottrell gave Dick a pair of mittens his wife had knitted.  Cottrell told Dick when he got to Sidewinder to go to Durkin’s Conoco.  Dick was to tell Larry Durkin that Cottrell had sent him.  Howard Cottrell told Dick there was no way he could know someone was in trouble up at the Overlook but that he believed Dick.  Dick felt Cottrell had a bit of the shine himself.  As Cottrell got back into his snow plow Dick could feel him wishing him good luck.

Just before Dick arrived at the Conoco Station he was hit with a powerful, head-throbbing message from the Hotel, “GET OUT OF HERE YOU DIRTY THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS YOU TURN AROUND OR WE’LL KILL YOU HANG YOU UP FROM A TREE LIMB YOU FUCKING JUNGLE-BUNNY COON AND THEN BURN THE BODY THAT’S WHAT WE DO WITH YOU SO TURN AROUND NOW!”

Dick was so concerned that something really bad had happened to Danny and that is why Dick had not heard from him for so long.

Chapter Fifty – Redrum
Wendy had a terrible feeling that Jack had somehow escaped from the pantry.  She took her knife with her and went to find out.  Jack attacked her in the ballroom with a mallet.  He hit he in the stomach then hit her thigh.  He broke her ribs, hit her in the head and to finish up he did some serious damage to her back.  At some point she managed to stick her knife in his lower back.  She managed to escape him and started to climb up the stairs.

Chapter Fifty-one – Hallorann Arrives
Hallorann caught Larry Durkin as he was leaving the Conoco station.  Once he mentioned Howard Cottrell’s name, Larry decided to help Hallorann out.  He set him up with a snowmobile and an extra gas can.  He gave Dick his fur-lined parka.  Larry Durkin figured Dick must be sort of like Howard Cottrell in that he sometimes just knew things were going to happen.   Dick was grateful for the coat and snowmobile but he noticed that Larry Durkin didn’t offer to go with him to help.  Larry Durkin as well as everyone in Sidewinder knew the Overlook Hotel has a bad reputation and that bad things happen there.

Dick made it to the Hotel and was greeted by the lions that viciously attacked him and wounded him.  Dick was able to get back to the snowmobile.  The Skidoo had something he needed.

Chapter Fifty-two – Wendy and Jack
Wendy couldn’t find Danny.  Wendy had made it to her bed but she was dizzy.  She heard what she thought was a motor.  It sounded like an “insectile buzzing sound.”  Wendy fell semiconscious onto her bed.

Chapter Fifty-three – Hallorann Laid Low
Hallorann got the gas can, threw the gas on the lion and set it on fire.  That stopped that lion.  Dick made it into the Hotel.  Before he knew what happened Jack hit him with the mallet and knocked him out.  Jack took the elevator to the third floor and ordered Danny to come to him.

Chapter Fifty-four – Tony
Danny called Tony.  Tony told Danny that he was really Danny.  He was deep down inside of Danny and if he didn’t help his Mom and Mr. Hallorann his Daddy might kill them both.  Tony aka Danny told Danny that he would remember something that his Daddy had forgotten. Danny finally realized that his Daddy who was really being possessed by the hotel and was not really his Daddy anymore, wanted Danny dead too.  The Hotel wanted Danny dead and the Hotel was using Jack Torrence to kill Danny. 

Chapter Fifty-five - That Which Was Forgotten
Wendy found Dick Hallorann and she told him Danny was on the third floor with Jack. 

Jack was coming after Danny with the now mutilated mallet.  Danny yelled at Jack and told him, “You’re not my daddy!”  Jack had a moment when he was there again and he told Danny, “Run away.  Quick.  And remember how much I love you.”

Danny told the bloody stranger (body of his daddy) to, “Go away.  Go on.  Get out of here.”  The body took the mallet and beat the last of Jack Torrance’s image.

“The thing in the hall danced an eerie, shuffling polka, the beat counterpointed by the hideous sound of the mallet head striking again and again.  Blood spattered across the wallpaper.  Shards of bone leaped into the air like broken piano keys.  It was impossible to say just how long it went on.  But when it turned its attention back to Danny, his father was gone forever.  What remained of the face became a strange, shifting composite, many faces mixed imperfectly into one.  Danny saw the woman in 217; the dogman; the hungry boy-thing that had been in the concrete ring.”

Danny remembered the boiler and knew it was going to explode.  The mangled thing in front of Danny could not believe that the Hotel was going to explode.  It was furious and darkly depressed at the realization. 

Danny realized he had to get his mom and Dick out of the Hotel because it was going to blow sky-high.  Danny ran for the stairs.

Chapter Fifty-six – The Explosion
Danny reached Wendy and Dick.  They gathered a few clothes and ran out of the Hotel.

The Jack Torrance thing made it to the boiler and shut it down and the temperature began to reduce.  It cried out, “I WIN! NOT TOO LATE! I WIN! NOT TOO LATE! NOT TOO LATE! NOT---“ and the boiler exploded.

Hallorann carried both Wendy and Danny out the double doors and they all were blown out into the snow.  Dick rolled over and watched the Hotel die.  He saw something like a swarm of wasps fly up above the explosion and then it seemed to disappear in the night sky.

Chapter Fifty-seven – Exit
They got the extra gas can and rode over to the shed for some blankets.  Wendy could barely hang onto Dick.  When Dick went in the shed he started to become possessed by the Hotel.  It told him to take a mallet and kill Wendy and Danny.  Dick came out of it, got the blankets and wrapped Wendy and Danny up for the long mountain ride back to Sidewinder.  Fifteen minutes later they were met by a rescue team on snowmobiles.  They had extra clothes, brandy and Doctor Edmonds.  “And the long darkness was over.”

Chapter Fifty-eight – Epilogue/Summer
Dick Hallorann was chef for a resort in western Maine in the mountains.  He had a cabin reserved all summer for Wendy and Danny.  Wendy was recovering from broken bones in her back but she was doing well.  Dick spent as much time as possible with Danny and her.  Danny and Dick often fished and talked about the shine.  Dick discussed many things with Danny about his experiences and he let Danny cry when he had to cry.  That summer Wendy and Danny healed.  That fall Wendy was getting a job that Al Shockley found for her.  She still had forty thousand dollars left from Jack’s insurance policy which helped but she didn’t want to wait until all the money was gone before she was working.  Danny, now six years old, was assured by Dick that if he needed Dick at any time, all Danny had to do was call him.  Danny told Dick he didn’t want him to die for a long, long time.

by Brenda Krekeler

The Shining by Stephen King was such a surprise to me. Of course I have always watched Jack Nicholson in The Shining and I believed that the movie I saw time and time again was The Shining. The movie always fascinated me and I have always loved the scene when Jack and Wendy and Danny are in the VW and they are driving up the mountain road. The music, the scene and the conversation were perfect. It wasn't until I had gotten through The Stand that I saw how rich King's books were that I decided to read one of his older books just for kicks way back in the 90's. As I said I loved the movie so I thought the book would be great too. Wow! I am happy to say the book is not only great but a true work of horror. It started edgy, kept adding disturbing aspects and before you know it you are at the Overlook Hotel watching the Torrance Family fight for their lives and their sanity. When someone says, "I read the book first before I saw the movie and the book was better." I had the exact opposite experience. I saw the movie first. Reading The Shining for the first time was like entering another world. I forgot about the movie. I became mesmerized by the dynamics of the family. The illumination of the Hotel and all of its characterizations was so much fun. I just finished my second read of The Shining for my Stephen King/Horror Book Club and once again I feel like I have barely escaped the mountains with a smile on my face. What a ride!