It's just unnatural

As I believe I may have mentioned, I am a lifelong King fan. His characters are always well-developed, dialogue is always believable, and, frankly, he scares the hell out of me.

I'm about 25% through The Shining (no more quotes around titles - that just got obnoxious in the last post), and I haven't been scared yet. I know it's coming, so I'm ok being patient.

However, I'm struggling with the Torrances. They just don't seem like real people to me. I think part of the problem is that King is telling this story from more of a strict third-person perspective, rather than from each of the characters' perspectives. Additionally, I just read the most junky, clunky, awkward bit of dialogue between Jack and Wendy that made me stop, look up, and say right out loud, "Man, ol' Steve was definitely just getting started when he wrote this book." 

Little Danny, with all his telepathic "shining," is still a lovely character, and I know King will use my love of children against me later in the book.