WHAT. A. RIDE! This book is INTENSE! The first half is a bit of a slow build but when you think things can’t get any worse….oh they doodily-do! The second-half is worth the wait though as it ramps up the tension to 11. I’ve never read a book that left my heart racing like this did.
What it did well:
👍Mood & Tone - The book pulls you along through the emotions that Paul is experiencing. King has such a way of describing scenes that I found myself almost living through the unease of Annie’s kindness and the horror/fear of her cruelty along with Paul. Whenever I put the book down to take a break I’d notice the tension in my shoulders and this gnawing sense of claustrophobia and fear in my mind. When a book can make me FEEL like that, it’s a good one.
👍Characters - Paul is a solid protagonist. He’s realistic and you can see and understand how his responses to his predicament change over time. You’re rooting for him the whole way but in the times when he feels hopeless, you truly can’t blame him. Annie….she’s horrific. I think she may be one of my favorite villains of any story I’ve read.
👍Really interesting insights into the writing process. Since Paul is a writer, we learn quite a bit about his writing process and how he thinks. I can’t help but assume that these nuggets are pretty candid pieces of King’s own experience writing.
👍It’s a great, albeit dark, exploration of abuse and trauma. Paul goes through hell and I think it’s incredibly powerful to see how the abuse he endures effects him. Too many stories about torture are 1. committed by men and 2. upon women. So turning that trope on its head was refreshing, especially since it didn’t lean on Paul being ‘wimpy’ or less manly to justify how he ‘let this happen to him’.
👍It knew when to end. It didn’t feel like it dragged on any longer than it needed to. Suspense and tension cannot be built up and maintained forever and the plot knew just the right moment to swing for the fences.
What it could have done better:
👎I wish there was more backstory about Paul; who he was, what his life was like. You do get a sense of him over time and you learn little things about him here and there but he feels lacking in depth compared to other Stephen King protagonists.
👎I wasn’t the biggest fan of the pages-long passages from the book Paul is writing. I don’t think they should have been removed necessarily (they make sense to the narrative) but I still kinda dreaded slogging through them.
If you’re a fan of King’s writing and want a good, tense, knuckle-biter of a story. Misery is the book for you. Even if you’re not a constant reader, I would honestly recommend this book as a great chance to see why he is the KING of horror.
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Reviews with images
“I AM YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN.”
Going into this, I knew the baseline to the story due to having seen the movie as a kid, but I didn’t remember it very well and had never read the book, although it’d been on my TBR for ages. I absolutely love Kathy Bates, and plan to rewatch it again soon since I finished the book!After deciding to read a new King book every month starting with the month after my last birthday, I pushed this up on my list and set out to read it with the #kingbuddyreads group on Instagram. And what a wild ride!Annie Wilkes is absolutely bananas. She’s a delusional, paranoid, violent psychotic and is completely unpredictable. Having the ‘evil’ in the book be an actual person rather than a paranormal entity always scares me a bit more. People have the ability to do some really messed up things, even without the help of the supernatural, and MISERY is a prime example of that. Annie’s character brought on conflicting senses of empathy and disgust while I was reading, as I felt both hatred/fear of her, and very sad for her. What a miserable life she leads!This book caused me to cringe and even gasp out loud at different points. The pain that Paul Sheldon endures is incredible, and his determination and perseverance throughout the abuse he experiences is shocking. From emotional torment to physical, I felt so bad for him.Another note on the book: some people mentioned disliking the book-within-a-book format, but I enjoyed the in-book Misery as much as the rest of the story. The fact that this book is about a writer and his biggest fan’s obsession with him, and his most popular work, wouldn’t really be complete – to me – if I didn’t get to experience a taste of that work — even if it’s unlike the rest of the series, admittedly, and written under extreme duress. 😛Definitely 5 stars from me! I’d absolutely recommend this to anyone – or maybe anyone not especially squeamish, yikes!
Top reviews from other countries
Ricardo García Mainou
Gran libro, fotos engañosas
Reviewed in Mexico on March 5, 2024
Virginia Merlini
TOO GOOD NOT TO READ TWICE!
Reviewed in Italy on November 13, 2023