Misery by Stephen King
Misery follows our main character, Paul Sheldon, an author who is kidnapped by one of his craziest fans, Annie Wilkes who is upset at the fact that Sheldon killed off Misery in one of his infamous novels. Irritated, Annie keeps Paul Sheldon in prisoned and forces him to re-write his novel, bringing her favourite character back to life.
Misery took me some time to finish, honestly. Which surprised me since it is one of King's smaller books.
It wasn't bad at all, which I'll get into more later. Honestly, I don't know why it took me so long to finish.
I really enjoyed it; I feel like everyone, especially writers, has that fear of being kidnapped for whatever reason. So this was obviously terrifying to read.
One thing I'll mention right off the bat is that the writing is phenomenal. And I'm not just saying that because King is one of my favourite writers. But I mean it. The writing in this is amazing.
Think about it, this book took place in only one location and followed only two characters the whole way through.
And I feel like only King could have written such a risky format yet executed it so well at the same time.
Misery makes you nervous, anxious, on the edge of your seat and yet is only fulfilled in one location between two characters. Typically in novels, you need a handful of people to portray this yet King does a great job dominating it with half as many.
Misery also includes one of the most cringe-worthy moments in all of King's works: the axe scene. Whether you have watched the movie or read the books; heck, even if you haven't done either, you probably know what scene I'm talking about since it is so iconic.
That scene terrorizes me through the movie, and will sure as hell terrorize me through the book as well.
You feel Paul's pain whilst reading this book and that is something I love most about King's writing. It's so vivid, you feel like you are actually there.
The characters in Misery clash very well, I feel like. It's weird to say, but since there are only two characters, the balance between them is phenomenal.
Paul is very passive while Annie is very strong-willed, willing to make Paul do whatever she wants in order to get what she wants.
I think one of my favourite character developments in a King novel, might just be Paul's because, not only does he go through hell and back, you can see his personality evolving in order to save himself.
I also quite liked how the infamous King was quite prominent in this novel. Obviously Misery is one of King's older books that settles the obvious horror, but I seem to love that aspect. Misery is one of King's famous novels and it deserves that title from the content that is provided.
Overall, even though this took me about a month to finish instead of a day, I think the way this book was written, it was well worth it. It definitely is one of King's best books.