Here's Johnny! Well, not quite...
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Stephen King. I'll be enjoying one of his books, then suddenly find myself hating it a few chapters later, only to fall in love with it all over again before the end. It's a strange relationship, and one that keeps me coming back for more.
So, I thought it was about time I tackled one of his most famous titles: The Shining.
I'd originally picked up IT, but after seeing the page count, I decided that perhaps I wasn't quite ready to commit to a small novel-sized brick just yet. Then I spotted The Shining. Having fond memories of the film, I figured it was time to see what the book was all about.
Surely I knew what I was getting into, right? Oh, Stephen King. You do like to mess with my head!
The Details
Title: The Shining
Author: Stephen King
The Blurb
Jack Torrance has landed the perfect job for a fresh start. As the winter caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel, he'll have time to reconnect with his family and work on his writing.
But as the snow closes in and the hotel becomes increasingly cut off from the outside world, something sinister begins to stir.
Five-year-old Danny Torrance is the only one who seems to understand the terrible forces gathering around them. Gifted with an extraordinary ability, he can see what others cannot.
And whatever is lurking in the Overlook isn't going to let them leave without a fight.
The Review
Right, let's get one thing out of the way. Nothing I write here is going to be groundbreaking. The Shining has been reviewed countless times, discussed from every conceivable angle, and adapted into one of the most famous horror films ever made. But this is Adventures with Peps, not a university lecture on Stephen King. These are my thoughts after finally reading the book! And, as it turns out, I've got quite a few.
I love a good haunted-house story. Having been raised on Scooby-Doo, I just can't help myself when it comes to creepy buildings, mysterious noises and the possibility that the place you're staying in is full of the ghosts of unfortunate former guests. The Overlook Hotel takes all of that and turns it up several notches. What really got me was the sheer scale of the place. It's not just a spooky building with a few strange rooms. The hotel feels enormous, almost cyclopean, and increasingly oppressive. As the winter weather closes in, that vast space somehow becomes a prison.
There's nowhere to go, nobody to call on, and no easy escape. The isolation really got under my skin. I expected the ghosts and the supernatural weirdness, but I wasn't quite prepared for how stifling the hotel itself would feel. The Overlook becomes a presence in its own right, slowly tightening its grip on Jack as the story progresses. It's a brilliant bit of horror writing because the building doesn't need to chase anyone down a corridor to feel threatening. It simply has to be there.
The family makes it hurt
The characters are another major strength of the novel, particularly when compared with the film I remember. The written version gives us so much more insight into the Torrance family. Their history, their arguments, their flaws and their relationships all help build a much fuller picture of what's happening. Jack isn't simply a man who suddenly goes mad. We get a better understanding of his past, his struggles and the things he's trying to overcome. Wendy and Danny also feel much more developed, and that makes the whole situation considerably more uncomfortable.
You find yourself caring about these people. You want things to work out for them, even when you know where the story is heading, and knowing what's coming doesn't make it any easier. If anything, it makes the tension worse because you're watching this family become trapped in a situation that you desperately want them to escape. As the snow piles up outside, the family drama becomes just as important as the supernatural horror. The Overlook isn't creating every problem from scratch; it's finding the cracks that are already there and making them wider.
That's what makes it so effective.
The real horror is what happens to Jack
Finally, we get to the horror itself. There isn't some great evil that needs a magic sword, a ritual to purify a grave, or a creepy doll that needs to be thrown into a furnace. This is much more personal than that. It's about madness taking hold of someone you love and turning them into a threat. The idea that a family member could turn against you is genuinely terrifying. Jack is supposed to be the person protecting his family, but the longer they remain in the Overlook, the more that sense of safety falls apart, and that's what really got me.
The supernatural elements are creepy, certainly, but the emotional horror is much harder to shake. You can imagine being frightened by a ghost in an abandoned hotel. It's much harder to imagine what it would feel like to realise that the person you're relying on for protection may be the person you need protecting yourself from. There are no cheap jump scares needed here. King builds a slow, uncomfortable sense of dread, and then lets it get right inside your head. Honestly, I'm now considerably more suspicious of my upcoming trip away to a hotel in Vermont. I'm sure it'll be lovely. Probably.
But Stephen King, we need to talk...
Of course, this wouldn't be a Stephen King review without a little love-hate drama of my own. The book isn't perfect. There were chapters that I found dull, with sections that felt like filler rather than anything that moved the story along. At times, I struggled to pick the book up and keep reading. I found myself wondering when things were going to get moving again, and then, just as I was starting to lose interest, everything would kick off.
Suddenly, I was back in the story, turning pages and desperate to find out what happened next. It's that familiar King experience for me. I'll be bored, then fascinated, then bored again, only to find myself completely invested a little later. I can appreciate what he's doing, but that doesn't mean every part of the journey works for me.
Still, when The Shining hits its stride, it really hits its stride.
Damn it, Stephen King! I can't work out if I love you or hate you!
Could The Shining Inspire Something for Sector 102?
Absolutely, and I'm thinking less about recreating the Overlook Hotel and more about borrowing the idea of a place that knows exactly how to get inside your head.
The Block That Remembers
(This is a proposed Sector 102 idea inspired by the novel, not established lore)
Imagine an isolated residential block in Sector 102 that was evacuated after a major infrastructure failure, once again, could be in the swamp zone of Sector 102. Official records say the building is unsafe, the lifts no longer function, and the remaining life-support systems have been shut down, only now available on selected levels.
Years later, a small team is sent inside to retrieve valuable equipment and investigate reports of activity. The building appears empty. The lights flicker on in places where there shouldn't be any power. Old public-address systems broadcast announcements from decades ago. Doors open onto rooms that don't seem to match the building's layout. Then the team begins to experience things that shouldn't be possible.
One member hears the voice of a dead brother calling from an apartment upstairs. A Judge sees a colleague who died during the original evacuation. Another member of the team begins to suspect that everyone else is conspiring against them. The deeper they explore, the more the building seems to understand their fears, regrets and personal histories. But here's the twist: is the block genuinely haunted, is something manipulating the team's minds, or are they all being affected by a failing experimental system buried somewhere in the building?
I'd leave the answer open until the players uncover enough clues to make their own decision.
How I'd bring it to the tabletop
The terrain: Corridors, apartment interiors, abandoned communal areas, stairwells and maintenance rooms. Perfect for using ordinary sci-fi terrain in a very different way.
The enemies: Start with nothing obvious. Use strange figures glimpsed at the edge of the board, unexpected reinforcements or familiar miniatures appearing in unfamiliar places.
The objectives: Recover a data core, restore power to an evacuation route, locate a missing team member or reach the building's central control room.
The horror: Make the players question what they're seeing. Perhaps an apparent enemy is actually an ally, or a supposedly safe route leads them back to the same room.
The finale: The team must decide whether to destroy the system, escape with the evidence or risk staying behind to discover the truth.
The beauty of this idea is that it could work with almost any collection of miniatures. You don't need a dedicated horror range or a fancy haunted-house model. A few corridors, some abandoned rooms and the right atmosphere could do most of the work.
And if I wanted to push it further, I could run it as a short rpg campaign, with each game revealing another part of the block's history. The real challenge wouldn't necessarily be killing the monsters. It would be figuring out whether the monsters are even real.
Now that's the sort of Sector 102 adventure I'd enjoy putting together!
Final Thoughts
The Shining is a classic for a reason. The Overlook Hotel is an outstanding setting, the Torrance family gives the horror real emotional weight, and the slow descent into madness is far more unsettling than a simple collection of jump scares.
I did struggle with some of the slower chapters, and my relationship with Stephen King remains as complicated as ever. But when the story gets going, it's hard to put down. I'm glad I finally picked this one up, and I can see why it has stuck with so many readers over the years. Just don't expect me to book a winter holiday at a remote hotel any time soon.
Cheers for reading, and I'll see you on the next adventure!
