Misery

Title: Misery

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Horor

Pages: 422 pages

Synopsis:

Bestselling novelist Paul Sheldon thinks he’s finally free of Misery Chastain. In a controversial career move, he’s just killed off the popular protagonist of his beloved romance series in favor of expanding his creative horizons. But such change doesn’t come without consequences. After a near-fatal car accident in rural Colorado leaves his body broken, Paul finds himself at the mercy of the terrifying rescuer who’s nursing him back to health—his self-proclaimed number one fan, Annie Wilkes. Annie is very upset over what Paul did to Misery, and demands that he find a way to bring her back by writing a new novel—his best yet, and one that’s all for her. After all, Paul has all the time in the world to do so as a prisoner in her isolated house…and Annie has some very persuasive and violent methods to get exactly what she wants….

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

Misery is the story of Paul Sheldon. Paul Sheldon is a bestselling author who has an alcohol problem (Gee, doesn’t that sound familiar? More on that later). Who ends up in a car crash and is saved by Annie Wilkes, a registered nurse and his number one fan. The only issue is that she is a psychopath.

In Misery, we see Stephen King’s best horror writing on display! And the interesting thing is here is that: He didn’t even resort to the supernatural to try and make this scary. Nope. There is no supernatural in this book, which really helped make this book feel different than his other horror novels. No supernatural elements, no big monsters. It’s just a person trapped in a house with a psychopath.

What really makes this scary is how realistic it is. I can totally see a psychopath trapping someone for months and torture him. What else makes this scary is the suspense. Stephen King is amazing when it comes to writing suspense. As he kept me worried about what was going to happen to Paul (Paul’s the character that Stephen King wants you to care about) all throughout the book and it is what makes this book a scary one.

I also like the reference this book makes to one of my favourite Stephen King novels: The Shining. Considering I’m now reading a lot more Stephen King novels lately, I am beginning to really like this shared universe that Stephen King has created. You don’t need to read The Shining in order to read this book, but it feels like a little reward for reading Stephen King’s other books. I also enjoyed learning a little bit of the writing process that Paul Sheldon had.

The main issue I have with this novel is while Paul Sheldon is definitely a character to care about and his story about desperation and will to live helps make this book great. I cannot help but feel like Paul Sheldon is a self-insert for Stephen King himself. I mean he’s a bestselling author who has an alcohol problem, that definitely does sounds like Stephen King himself. I definitely been noticing that Stephen King really likes making his male protagonists a writer. While I was mostly okay with this trope up until now, this just feels like a self-insert.

This is a very good horror story where Stephen King is at his best. And I definitely recommend that you should read this during the winter months, since most of the story takes place during that time.

Rating: