The Shining by Stephen King

 Review: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

    I actually really enjoyed this book!  I liked how it focused so much more on the shine than the movie.  The story was exhilarating and full of action, and full of Jack's battle with alcoholism and tension within the family.  While in the movie, Jack's character was unlikable from the beginning, being and angry man who insulted his wife, the book portrayed the man as a more sympathetic man who genuinely sought to improve his alcoholism and loved his family; there was a greater contrast in Jack when he was and wasn't possessed by the spirit of the Overlook Hotel.

    I also really loved the characters.  Danny was emotionally intelligent due to his shine and was therefore extremely aware of his parents' situation.  It was heartbreaking to see 5 year old Danny attempt to grasp the concept of divorce and murder, knowing the horrors of what would happen at the Overlook, but not having the words to describe it.  Wendy was a lovely lady who was so stuck in life, that leaving her husband meant being free from the potential that Jack was drunkenly abusing Danny, but proving her emotionally abusive mother right and being poor.  Staying with her husband meant financial stability, love, a happy family, but the risk of Jack getting drunk and ruining it all.  She has to live her life walking on egg shells.  Jack, as I mentioned, is a complicated man.  He genuinely strives to be a good father and husband, and a successful writing career.  However, he has a fatal flaw of becoming an angry and potentially violent man when drinking.  All three of the protagonists were complex and well developed characters and it was hard to pick a "good guy" and a "bad guy" because they were all morally good.

    I also loved how scary it was.  I thought the movie was spooky, but holy cow.  The ending when Danny pleads with his possessed father to spare him because he loves him, and Jack using the last of his will to tell Danny to remember how much he loves him and to run away; wow.  Immediate tears.  Then following the heartbreaking farewell with Jack being completely possessed and killing himself (Jack) by smashing his own face in with a splintered mallet, leaving only the body to be controlled by the Overlook Hotel, I was HORRIFIED.  I liked both the movie and book endings but this was insane.

    The only thing I didn't like about this book was how long it was.  I liked how detailed it was but sometimes it got to a point where it felt like the book was trying to meet a certain page count.

But other than that, I absolutely loved the book.

Summary

    Jack Torrance was recently fired from his job as a high school english teacher.  His family is plunged into (near) poverty until he comes along a unique job opportunity: to be the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel.  Jack is ecstatic, and he, Danny, and Wendy head to the hotel.  They get a tour from the manager and meet Dick Hallorann, the hotel cook who seemed to deeply resonate with Danny.  He tells him that he has "the shine", a supernatural power to empathize so deeply with the memories and people around him, that he can see them.  He tells the kid to stay away from hotel room 217 as it had an unknown energy that was dangerous to people who shine.  After he leaves, the family begins their stay.

    A few weeks into the stay, strange things begin to happen.  While playing outside, Danny sees the hedge animals outside moving.  Jack Torrance becomes obsessed over the history of the Overlook Hotel and the serial family murders that the previous caretakers carried out and spends sleepless nights writing a book.  Danny wakes up in the night screaming.  And they are locked in the house due to the terrible snow storm, and the weather causes their radio to go down, completely cutting them off from the outside world.

    As time goes on, things get weirder.  Jack begins hallucinating and sleep-walking, to the point that he attempts to physically assault Wendy and Danny in his sleep.  Danny appears with a strangulation mark on his neck.  Danny's visions get scarier and gorier.  Wendy senses the danger and the danger that the hotel itself poses to kids like Danny. 

    However, when she attempts to escape with Danny (and find help for Jack), Jack appears with a croquet mallet and chases after her.  The chase leads to a bloody fight, ending with Jack having broken Wendy's ribs, Wendy stabbing him with a kitchen knife, and knocking him out with the mallet.  During the battle, a horrified Danny telepathically sends Dick Hallorann an SOS signal to beg him to help him and his mom escape the Overlook.  As Dick heads to the hotel, Wendy and Danny hide Jack in the walk-in fridge to keep him safely caged until they can get help.  However, when Jack wakes up, he is met with a hallucination of the previous hotel caretaker's ghost who torments him to punish his family before setting him free from the fridge.  The rage from being caged by his family and the possession turns Jack into a homicidal maniac, chasing Wendy through the halls of the hotel.

    However, in the nick of time, Dick comes to the rescue.  But the heroic act doesn't last long.  Before long, Jack beats him to a pulp with his mallet and returns to kill Danny.  When he catches him, Danny cries in horror and begs his dad to come back.  For a moment, the real Jack comes back; just long enough to tell his son that he loves him, before the spirit of the hotel reposesses him and forces his body to kill himself.  In this raw, possessed state, Jack (a.k.a. the Overlook Hotel) chases the family, when the boiler of the hotel suddenly explodes, causing the building to go up in flames.  The violent fire traps him in the hotel, and Jack dies in the hotel, as Wendy, Danny, and Dick escape on a snowmobile.

My Bali Summer Vacation

     Over the summer I visited Bali with my family, fully expecting it to be a typical summer vacation full of beach days and adventures.  However, I instead spent the week exploring and discovering Bali’s extraordinary culture.

Religion

Unlike the rest of Indonesia which is primarily Muslim or Christian, most Balinese people practice a special branch of Hinduism called Balinese Hinduism.  While the basic ideas and prayers of Hinduism were adopted, the religion was adopted as more of a life philosophy rather than a religion.  In Balinese Hinduism, it is believed that balance is the key to achieving peace.  Because of this, there is an emphasis on honoring both the good and evil.  Throughout the island, there were countless houses with offerings on the floor to honor malevolent spirits and on a high shelf to honor the gods.  To put it simply, high places were good because mountains were the home of the gods, and low places were bad because the ocean housed evil spirits and demons that caused destruction. 

During my stay, I was able to visit Nusa Lembongan, an island that was once notorious for being an evil island. The island is a flat and floating island made of coral and limestone.  While the other Nusa islands and mainland Bali have countless mountains and cliffs, allowing for a balance between the gods and the demons. However, there were no mountains on Nusa Lembongan. The lack of mountains caused mainland Balinese people to believe that the island was full of malevolent spirits.  However, between the 90s and 2000s, tourists began visiting the island in search for a less crowded tourist destination. This popularity amongst tourists gave the island to redeem itself. The island now thrives on the snorkeling and sailing business, with some of the most popular services being snorkeling with manta rays and sailing on a speedboat. The tourist business helped restore the bond between Bali and Nusa Lembongan as Balinese people were able to believe that the island is no longer haunted.

Art

Balinese Hinduism also emphasizes art, as it is seen as the essence of life.  Cultural architecture was carved with intricate designs to tell a story or symbolize protection, balance, or fertility; Paintings used natural pigments to express Hindu ideas and appreciation, and they were made to tell stories.  Dances and other theater performances were explosive and emotional, emphasizing themes of balance, love, and loyalty.  While I could only depend on context clues, as I’m not knowledgeable in neither the Indonesian language nor Balinese Hinduism, the dance was enjoyable and I was moved by how expressive and colorful the performance was.  It was refreshing to see art intertwined with religion.  It was certainly fascinating to see how this form of expression is how the religion and culture of Bali survives and thrives.

Bali was such a captivating experience as I got to explore how religion evolves and shapes the culture on an island.  I would love to visit mainland Indonesia someday, so I can see how much it differs from Bali, and compare the after effects that their respective religions had on the cultures.  All in all, if you love exploring cultures, manta rays, and art, I would highly recommend Bali as your next summer vacation.

The Subway by Chappell Roan

    The Subway by Chappell Roan was released on July 31st, 2025, over a year after she first performed it at her Governor's Ball performance in 2024.  The song tells a story of a time when Chappell unexpectedly ran into her ex, leading to a breakdown where she mourned what she and her lover could've been.

Throughout the music video, and on the album cover, Chappell has extremely long hair.  In the music video, her hair is a kind of nuisance that she has to carry around.  I believe it symbolizes how mentally draining the breakup was.  She feels so heavy all the time and feels exhausted with her life from dealing with the grief of breaking up with her girlfriend.

    Another important thing to note is the significance of the song taking place in the New York City subway, despite taking place in Los Angeles.  Compared to LA, New York City is a more dense urban city that is fast-paced and energetic.  The subway is always bustling, and everyone is always on the go.  This environment offers a visual of the feeling of feeling left behind.  Chappell feels left behind for being unable to move on from her breakup.  Similarly, the subway is often a place where you never take notice of the people around you.  Unless you know someone on the train, no one ever sticks out to you.  Chappell doesn't want to notice her ex everywhere she goes, she wants her ex to be a stranger again so that she can be "just another girl on the subway".

 Lyrics

    When it comes to the lyrics, most of them are pretty direct.  Verse 1 describes her experience of seeing her ex on the subway and nearly having a breakdown over it.  However, the pre chorus of "It's just another day, and it's not over/till it's over, oh till it's over/It's just another day, and it's not over/till it's over, it's never over" creates a kind of tragic and mournful feel to the lyrics.  She repeats to herself in the pre chorus of both verses 1 and 2 that it's just another day and that she's over the relationship/the relationship is over.  By the end of the pre chorus, though, she admits to herself that she either doesn't want their relationship to be over or that she isn't over the breakup.  She has to soothe herself to stop herself from having a break down.  She then says that she won't be over the relationship until she can see her ex as "just another girl on the subway".

    Verse 2 is more metaphorical.  The verse opens with "Made you the villain, evil for just moving on" showing how she initially hated her for moving on without her but that she now feels that she is the one who needs to move on.  She knows she needs to move on and that her ex isn't a villain, but she loved her so much that she can't simply move on.  She then says that she sees her shadow even with the lights off.  It shows that she sees small reminders of her, even if they aren't actual reminders at all; it's just that her ex is constantly on her mind.

    At the end of the verse, she says if this feeling of feeling unable to move on from her ex persists, she'll move to Saskatchewan.  Saskatchewan doesn't have asubway system, meaning that Chappell won't have a way to be reminded of her.  If she isn't able to willfully move on from her ex, she promises herself to put herself in a situation that forces her to move on.

The ending lines of the song that alternate from "She got away" to "She's got a way" show Chappell's final feelings of anguish in mourning the breakup.

"She got away" means that the ex left or that she moved on.  Chappell sings this line with anguish, feeling like she let the person that was her soulmate get away from her.

She then alternates to "She's got a way" meaning that there was something special about her that made her so charming and attractive.

By switching between the 2 lines, she gives you the full impact and despair that she felt when she was finally able to meet the right person who still left her.

Review: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Overall, this song was genuinely one of my favorites of 2025.  I mean, hell, I listened to it 78 times in August alone.  It was such an impactful battle cry song about unrequited love and the feeling of being left behind while the rest of the world moves on without you.  The song felt angry at her ex but it was sympathetic at the same time, and it was such a powerful song that really moved me and made me feel the grief and anguish that the song was created from.  Absolute banger. 10/10 highly recommend.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: Themes

Inevitability of Life/Mortality

Miss Lucy is the only guardian who is blatantly honest with the students.  She tells them that their future is predetermined.  While Chrissie, Rodney, Ruth, Tommy, Kathy, and probably countless others before them have tried to find a way out of the system, they all ended up exactly where Miss Lucy said they would be.  While they all had very different lives, they all ultimately led to the same destination: death.  While the originals created the clones to prolong their lives and escape chronic illness, their lives still lead to death.  The point of the clones was to show how they had to face the idea of mortality at a young age.  They need to feel a sense of satisfaction with the way they live their lives in their 20s, while the originals had time to reach that point in life.

In the end, we are all mortal.  Whether we choose to deny/avoid it or face it head on, death will eventually catch up to us.  Whether we use our clones' organs to live longer and healthier, or we are the ones being slaughtered for the greater good, we will all eventually die and we need to come to terms with that.

Things to think about:

the tiktok that asked what you would do if you were chased by a snail that would instantly kill you if it touched you

The movie It Follows

Humanity

Humanity is another big one.  It kind of overlaps with the third one though.

What does it mean to be human?

While the general "original" public knows the existence of the clones, they choose to ignore it because they are being used to serve the greater good.  The clones' organs are being used to save humans and prolong their lifespans and cure illness.  The also choose to ignore it to avoid confronting the cruelty of raising clone humans just to slaughter them. The originals would rather tell themselves that their miracle organs come from some mysterious place rather than from a clone.  They refuse to acknowledge that clones are just as human as them.  However, the way the clones live their lives defies that.  Like normal people, the "originals", they sing, play sports, paint, sing.  They dream of romance, have passions, and are creative.  Whether you're a humanities girl or STEM person, you have to admit that passion and creativity make people feel alive.

Things to think about

what makes us human?

what makes us better than animals that were bred to be slaughtered?

are we any better than animals?

Factory Farming/Exploitation

The humanity of the clones, however, also give an illusion of control.  The creativity and freedom they have, make them feel that they have freedom over their lives.

At the end of the day, the clones are nothing but farm animals being exploited.  Hailsham is a humane farm, meaning they are raised comfortably, with good food, environment, and access to enrichment.  Tommy states that the other schools were like battery farms, a.k.a. factory farms where animals/clones are raised in poor conditions, in over crowded, dark spaces with minimal nutrients and enrichment to grow comfortably.  So while Hailsham treating the students as humans instead of incubators could be applauded, you could make the case that they are simply attempting to justify their exploitation because they aren't as bad as the other farms.

If you're still here

1. The Hailsham students never rebelled or ran away because it's all they've ever known.  If a random stranger randomly told you that your mom kills and eats children, you wouldn't believe them immediately.  That's because you've never questioned your mother's existence before.  It's liek that.  Hailsham is all they've ever known.  How would they rebel if they have no idea what they're rebelling against.

2. They didn't question the fact that they're organ incubators because, according to Tommy, they were told these things before they were mature or smart enough to fully understand what they meant.  And by the time they realized, it would be too late.

3. The guardians don't donate their organs because they aren't clones.  They're just normals people working in that industry.

4. The guardian names are important.  Miss Lucy was a bit strict and brutally honest about their fates because she believed that while they weren't "humans", they had every bit of humanity to make them worthy of respect and honesty.  Miss Emily was the kind, headmistress who gave the students the illusion of autonomy over their lives.  She wasn't evil though.  She ran a humanitarian farm where she gave the students some freedom before donating their organs.