As I said, the first half. You might find it even tougher with Gleeson being the mainstay.

I think he's a very good writer of prose. He can describe a scene and it just *flows* beautifully. And he's good with imagery. But he absolutely cannot do endings. His stories just kinda deflate at the end (which tends to carry through in the films). His short stories tend to be better cos they just focus on one idea and see it through.

I went through a phase of reading a lot of his stuff as a young teenager, which I think is a good age to read it. It's well-crafted middlebow stuff to help you step up to something more satisfying.

 

I agree about the Shining film. Beautiful to look at in that Kubrick way and disturbing imagery.

The novel though... I had a big problem with it in that a story about a young family going to take care of a big remote empty hotel and dealing with the isolation and problems that crop up was *wayyy* more interesting to me than the horror stuff. I wanted it to be that.

Forgot to mention Mr. Mercedes has Star Trek Voyager's Kate Mulgrew (Cpt. Janeway) playing the most vicious, cold-blooded serial killer this side of Animal Kingdom's Jacki Weaver.