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Book 3 Review

Misery by Stephen King

Jacob Steinhauer

Although almost everyone has seen the movie, Stephen King’s horror story, Misery, is King at his finest, doing what he does best:  Psychological horror. This thrilling story tells us about Paul Sheldon, an author of the best-selling Misery series. When Paul finishes his new novel, he gets very intoxicated and has an impulse to drive west. He is then met head-on with a terrible blizzard and wrecks his car off the side of the road. When he comes to, his legs are crushed, and he is in the guest bedroom of Annie Wilkes, his number-one fan. When Paul first wakes up, he slowly recalls his car accident and the completion of his novel, Fast Cars. His legs are in crucial pain, but he doesn’t know of the kind of pain Annie Wilkes will bring him in this dark time of his life.

The plot of Misery is focused on Annie torturing Paul and keeping him captive. King does a perfect job of blending horror, with just the right amount of suspense. The beginning starts fantastically, not boring the reader or keeping it too short. The first moment when Paul breaks out of his room for the first time is so suspenseful. It really keeps the reader hoping for Paul to hurry up and get back to his room before Annie catches him. It’s complete genius. The entire plot of this thriller is very well thought out. The first police officer showing up at Annie’s house was a glimpse of hope, then a cloak of despair when Annie beast him with a wooden cross, then runs his half-dead body over with a lawnmower. It was really a moment of triumph, because Paul had the chance to be saved, but it was all taken away with just a few mere paragraphs.

Stephen King does a fantastic job building characters in his book. Annie Wilkes is such a terrifying “goddess”, and it’s all thanks to King. She really gives the feeling that she is totally unpredictable and will snap at any moment. She is psychotic and intelligent at the same time, and that is a twisted combination. It works perfectly. It builds up fear in the reader, which is exactly what Paul Sheldon is feeling. That really helps the reader feel closer and more connected to his character. The reader hopes that Paul will make it out alive, and pay back Annie for all that she’s done to him. At times, Paul seems to be a bit cocky, which readers might not like, but at other times, he just comes off as a guy who is desperate to live, and to escape Annie Wilkes’s farmhouse of horrors. The two highway police who show up at Annie’s are also great characters. They give the readers more hope that Paul will be saved, especially since Annie did not kill them.

The writing style of Misery single-handedly takes the cake. The author has such a unique style that Almost all readers will love. All the hidden meanings behind some of the phrases are magnificent.  Annie’s harmless catch phrase, “Cockadoodie”, makes Annie seem even more threatening. This phrase gives off an unsettling innocence that builds a great amount of suspense. It makes the reader say “This is messed up”. Annie forces Paul Sheldon to write another one of his books, and some may say that adding excerpts from the manuscript was a great idea. The reader may find him/herself skipping those sections, wanting to get back to the main plot. The imagery at the beginning of the book about the tide rising up over the rock, and how you know the rock is still there really sticks with readers. Later, we find out that the meaning behind this is the pain in Paul’s legs. When he was unconscious, sometimes, he could really feel the pain in his legs. Other times, he knew the pain was there but didn’t feel it. This comparison is very intelligent writing.

There were many underlined themes that could be discussed in this book. One of the themes is to never give up. When Paul was faced with a desperate situation, he started to give up, but then something deeper in his mind made him keep going. He had a lot of determination to escape Annie’s clutches and the reader could really admire that about him. Paul has a very strong will to live, and that’s something everyone can admire about anyone. This really drives the whole story because since Paul wants to live so badly, it rubs off on the reader, making him/her want Paul to live also. It’s yet another reason the book’s plot is so strong. Stephen King is very good stirring up the reader’s human side in this way. On the surface, Misery may not look like a book with really deep themes and morals, but if you take a closer look, what you find may surprise you.

  In conclusion, this book is an outstanding piece of literature, and the best of the best in the horror/thriller genre. This book will make your heart pound, make you suspenseful, and make you turn the page to see what happens next. King is well, the king of this genre, and for good reasons. He knows how a write a great, heart pounding novel, and he knows exactly what to do, and when to do it. This book has stood the test of time, and it will continue to as long as the genre of horror exists. Misery contains many very believable characters, and clearly depicts the psychopath that everyone fears. It will continue to be a cult classic that a lot of people will enjoy.