Title: Misery
Author: Stephen King
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Horror, Thriller
Dates read: 16th – 17th August 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Hodder
Year: 1987
5th sentence, 74th page: ‘Better?’

Misery Chastain was dead. Paul Sheldon had just killed her – with relief, with joy. Misery had made him rich; she was the heroine of a string of bestsellers. And now he wanted to get on to some real writing.

That’s when the car accident happened, and he woke up in pain in a strange bed. But it wasn’t the hospital. Annie Wilkes had pulled him from the wreck, brought him to her remote mountain home, splinted and set his mangled legs.

The good news was that Annie was a nurse and has pain-killing drugs. The bad news was that she was Paul’s Number One Fan. And when she found out what Paul had done to Misery, she didn’t like it. She didn’t like it at all.

I have seriously got to stop reading Stephen King novels when I know I’m going to be home alone for the night… I keep thinking that I’m tough and I want get all wiggy… and then I get all wiggy. This time I was a little smarter, I put aside a whole day and started reading Misery in the morning. Just so that even though I did get wiggy… it wasn’t during the night. Rather, it was when there was still a lot of sunlight…

I both admire and fear Stephen King. I absolutely love his writing. It is just completely impossible to put down and forget. I also fear that he has a mind that is capable of this kind of story. It’s pretty damn intense and hard to forget. This story is definitely one of those that is a thriller – and spine tingling. Plus, every time I had hope… it was completely dashed away. Each time more brutal than the last.

Aside from the heart pumping, pulse tingling, craziness of this story I also really loved that it was a story that featured the act of writing. There was the weird hatred that the writer feels for his own work, the process of creating a story and the ways in which fans become just a little too connected to the storyline. It was a really great insight into an aspect of writing that I’ve vaguely experienced, but not truly (since you know, I’m not actually an author). I love how this fascinating look into a writers’ psyche was partnered with just total and utter, brutal insanity.

As someone who works in mental health, anything that investigates the different ways in which people can break kind of fascinates me. Partnering that with the amazing way in which King is able to show the damage of psychological torture… this is most definitely not a novel that I’m going to forget anytime soon!

<- Lisey’s Story

Mr. Mercedes ->

Image source: Booktopia