Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Dear reader,

It is one of the most recognisable scenes in all of Hollywood – the image of Jack Nicholson’s wide eyes and maniacal grin peeking through a smashed door and proclaiming “Here’s Johnny!”.

But what about the original The Shining, the book the film is based on (and which very much does not have that line in it)? As Dominic and I discussed, it’s quite a different beast to the Stanley Kubrick movie. There’s much more nuance surrounding Jack and Wendy’s characters and their relationship, many more supernatural elements, and greater commentary about the pressures of a nuclear family in 1970s America.

Stephen King is one of the best-selling, most well known American writers in recent history, with an estimated 400 million copies sold around the world over his 50-year career. And yet, he has a mixed reception among literary critics. Some praise his storytelling craft and ear for dialogue, others dismiss his style as clichéd and melodramatic.

Neither Dominic nor I had read any of King’s work before, but we had a lot of fun with The Shining. The writing can be a little uneven and obvious, but we were gripped by the more psychological elements of Jack slowly descending into madness and the novel has some brilliant, truly scary moments.

Overall, we awarded it a lower mark than some of the more classic novels we’ve covered, but I really enjoyed it. Sometimes, not every book you pick up has to be a masterpiece – and different moments call for certain reading cravings.

I’m interested to know how you approach your literary choices. Must everything break new ground? Change your opinion? Stir deep emotions? Write in and tell us how you curate your reading list at [email protected].

And finally, thank you again to those who joined us for our first ever virtual Book Club. If you missed it, catch up using the button below.

As well as the usual Book Notes from Rhiannon, you’ll find reading recommendations, reviews on White Nights, polls and much more.

Many of you have emailed in to ask how you catch up on previous editions of our notes. You can find them in the archive here.

Until next time,

“It was not just Danny the Overlook was working on. It was working on him, too. It wasn't Danny who was the weak link, it was him. He was the vulnerable one, the one who could be bent and twisted until something snapped.”

Intrinsically linking the fate of his family, Jack’s own demons and the hotel’s supernatural motivations, this quote speaks to the heart of King’s novel that those who have only watched the film could miss. But what quote stayed with you? Email us and let us know.

We’re taking recommendations here to share with the Book Notes community. Tell us what book fellow members should pick up next by sending two or three sentences about your choice and we’ll feature as many as we can in future weeks… Email [email protected]

We can’t wait to see your responses to The Shining. Write to [email protected] with ‘review’ in the subject line and tell us whether you think Stephen King’s writing has been unfairly maligned – and whether you like to mix up your reading diet.

But first, your thoughts on White Nights.

Your polls

Last week, the presenters discussed how White Nights had become a social media phenomenon and we asked what influences you to pick up a book. The majority of you (59%) said that you preferred to choose novels outside of current trends.

One of our community wrote: “I think the quality of a text is best demonstrated if it can 'stand the test of time'. We are so bombarded with the thoughts and feelings and goings on of today's world, I think I am actually more interested in reading about the thoughts, feelings and goings on from a different time. ”

“I get most of the books I read from the library, so the latest, greatest are often not available,” said Veronika. “I add them to the list and read them a few years later if they still seem worth it.”

Anne said it was her real life social network that persuaded her: “I'm more drawn to either critical acclaim (e.g. Nobel Prize, Booker Prize, etc) or personal recommendations from people who know me and my reading taste well (or whose reading taste I want to get to know).”

Wallis wrote: “I have been burned by terrible yet popular books a few times. But it is really fun to be on the inside of a cultural moment every once in a while, so if a book reaches a certain level of popularity, I will jump on the trend.”

Max added: “I’ve been burned previously by BookTok trend recommendations so I try to avoid them, or better yet, use them as an indication of what to avoid. ”

When it came to rating White Nights, scores were spread widely, but those who gave it 5/10 just edged it with 18% of the vote.

“I read White Nights after seeing it making rounds on social media, and whilst some of the writing was beautiful, I am in complete agreement with both Tabby and Dom,” said Anne. “The characters felt like caricatures, it doesn't rank very highly in my favourite romantic novels, and I haven't given much thought to it after finishing it. But most crucially, I can't think of anyone I would want to recommend this to, but I'm still glad that I had the experience of reading it.”

Paul agreed with Dominic’s 4/10, describing it as “an over-contrived, but possibly still salvageable, scenario that fails to recover from the literary death blow dealt by the amalgamation of characters at best vapidly naive and at worst dully cynical”. He added: “The latter attitude would have been worth exploring but, to be in any way enticing, requires a subtle dance of wit and intrigue with which neither of these foolish characters is supplied. The occasionally ornate prose acts merely as pretty wallpaper.”

Leigh-Anne however, awarded it 8/10. “I'm not on BookTok so I went into this blind,” she said. “I didn't think it was trying to be a love story at all, I saw it as a depressing story about isolation and a misunderstanding of what true love is, and on those grounds I really liked it. I thought the whole point was that the narrator was pathetic and that the characters didn't have an actual connection.”

Dostoevsky defender

We were keen to hear from those who loved White Nights too – and Jeroen took up the mantle. “I didn’t expect to find it captivating, but somehow the themes of White Nights resonated with me,” he said. “Perhaps it is something about the elements of unrequited love in my own life history.”

A relentless lack of irony

Zeba emailed: “Dominic used the word ‘overwrought’ and that summed up how I felt reading White Nights. The prose felt hyperbolic and ridiculously high-flown. It was also relentlessly humourless. I know Dostoevsky is never a barrel of laughs, but there was such a relentless lack of irony, self-awareness or sensitivity. My lowest score so far – 3/10.”

85 pages felt like 585

Al, from Oxford, said: “Two words neatly summarise Dostoyevsky’s White Nights: utterly and dreadful. It may only have been 85 pages or so but it felt like 585 without the benefit of being able to operate as a doorstop. Two soulless unreal characters having an unreal experience in unreal surroundings. They were both hugely irritating and it’s a pity they didn’t get together because they deserved each other. Unrequited love? Hardly. Unrequited, implausible, childish infatuation more like. I finished it a changed man: one who no longer assumes Dostoyevsky must be worth reading! Dominic’s 4 was too generous!”

Timing is everything

James wrote in to discuss the importance of both when the book was written – but also the stage of life a reader is at.

“The truth is that if Dostoevsky had died when he went to the gallows in 1849, and all we had left were his early works, he would be a minor writer,” he says. “It is the world's great fortune that he survived to sharpen his skill and broaden his mind to become the kind of man who could write his later works.

“On the other hand, this book certainly hit me at the wrong time. Perhaps, had I been younger, I would have felt more sympathy for the narrator. So many young people today, myself included, have lived artificial lives, spending our days weaving dreams (or glutting ourselves on dreams others put out on TikTok or Instagram) rather than living in the present moment. Had I read this as a lonely college student, unsure of my future and discontent in my relationships, I would've found the narrator sympathetic, or at least recognised him as a fellow dreamer. Now, as someone working full time among a community I am glad to live in, I mostly want to grab our narrator and shake him, trying to snap him out of his blind dreaming.”

A return to villains

After we asked you for your favourite villains ahead of our virtual book club, we were overwhelmed, so we thought we’d do a final sweep of some of your suggestions.

“This might be an odd choice but I’ve always felt that Lady Teresa Marchmain [from Brideshead Revisited] is an example of a villain who did so much damage without being in any way what we would consider a bad person,” said Linda. “Quite the opposite in fact. And yet her near obsession with her religion and inflexibility caused heartbreak for her children, and, though she suffered greatly she could never see her part in the problem and I believe saw herself as some kind of martyr as she saw her brothers as martyrs to their faith.”

Raymond wrote: “The villain that nearly ruined my young teenage years was Dolge Orlick from Great Expectations, his innate nastiness contrasting so clearly with Joe’s genuine goodness.”

And finally, Jeff echoed many of you who said East of Eden’s Cathy was their pick. “The reason I found her so thrilling was that she had no redeeming qualities. She was, as Steinbeck says, born a monster. A couple of weeks ago I watched a bit of a panel discussion about the Netflix adaptation with Zoe Kazan and Florence Pugh in which they said that Cathy was ‘misunderstood’. That's when I knew I wouldn't watch the adaptation, which is certain to be a watered-down characterisation of Cathy.”

See you next week for The Catcher in the Rye.

The Book Club Team