Misery by Stephen King – Book Review

Time for the (slightly late as usual) review of Misery by Stephen King, the first review from the books on April’s reading list.

I am a huge Stephen King fan and I have been since my mid-teens. Misery was one of the first books of his I read. I was sorting through some books looking for a certain one for a post for another blog and I stumbled across Misery and I just knew I had to re-read it. It’s been so long since I first read this one.

Misery by Stephen King: My Review

Blurb from The Back Cover

Paul Sheldon was sick of Misery Chastain. Yes, she had paid the bills and made him famous, but she had also drained his creativity, turned him into a drudge. So he had killed her. Her death in Misery’s Child made it the last Misery Chastain novel that Paul would ever have to write.

In a surge of new found enthusiasm, Paul had then started a new book, a novel of quite a different kind called Fast Cars. He had been celebrating the completion of this manuscript when the accident happened.

How Paul lies in bed, his legs smashed, his body racked by terrible pain. He has woken up, not in hospital, but in the isolated Colorado home of Annie Wilkes, the woman who pulled him from the wreck of his car.

Annie is a former nurse. She also happens to be Paul’s Number One Fan. She has read all his books. She gives him pain killers and loves to fuss over him. Until, that is, she buys a copy of the newly published Misery’s Child.

When Annie Wilkes finds out what Paul has done to Misery, she is not happy with her patient. Not happy at all. In Annie’s nursery parlance, Paul is behaving like a “Don’t-Bee”. In order to turn him into a “Do-Be”, she buys him typewriter and paper and tells him to bring Misery back to life. Paul may not want to do it, but Annie seems to be holding all the cards – not to mention the drugs, the axe and the blow torch…

My Thoughts on The Book

For me, Misery is Stephen King at his best. He writes this kind of book so well. The kind where there are very few characters and you really get inside a character’s head.

Here, we take a journey through Paul’s head as he rationalises with himself, accepts and un-accepts his fate and we get a front row seat to the thought processes behind his battle of wits with Annie.

I love the character of Annie – she is so terrifying because to an outsider, she would seem normal. Well, maybe a bit eccentric, but certainly not like someone who would hold a man hostage. Her moods change at the speed of light and the smallest things can trigger her temper.

Paul has to learn to walk a very fine line between getting free and not setting Annie off to the point where she kills him.

Conclusion and Rating

I love Misery. As I said, I have read it before, but re-reading it after so long showed me all the little things I missed the first time. It reminded me why I devoured every Stephen King book I could find back then. 5/5

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