The movie was good too but the book really pulls you into the protagonist's madness. I remember feeling actual dread when reading it,that's why I won't read it again😂.
I hated the movie in many ways. Jack is reduced to a one dimensional villain. You get the feeling he's gonna try to murder his family like 5 minutes into the movie.
Jack in the book is a layered person. He is flawed and struggling with addiction, childhood abuse and mistakes, yet trying to be a better person.
That's what makes the Overlook so insidious. It twists his mind and preys on his trauma to drive him to madness.
@robingoodfellow I could see that perspective, but where's Jack's character development? We see nothing of his own childhood abuse at the hands of his father. We barely see his struggles with alcoholism. He's just a one dimensional villain.
@basilfawlty89 I don't disagree with you. But this is why I said throw the book out the window. The first time I watched it I was disappointed because I saw only fragments of the book in there. But watching it repeatedly and taking the film on its own terms I began to appreciate it.
So ironic my dad and I were just talking about this book. I said I've never seen the movie or read the book, but the book is usually better! Now I need to get the book and movie lol.
I feel like the book really dives more into how sentient the Overlook Hotel really is, which was the driving force behind Jack's descent. He already had dark tendencies, the hotel just nurtured those tendencies to full bloom.
In the movie the existence of malevolent entities was left mostly ambiguous.
In the book it's a silent evil that slowly accrued over the years into something normally sinister, but outright dangerous to more psychically aware people.
