Review: Stephen King's Misery

Everything is going great for Paul Sheldon: his Misery book series sells well and the dollars keep on coming. Until he suddenly wakes up in a strange home. It turns out he drove off the road in a car accident and a woman, Annie Wilkes, managed to save him. Instead of taking Paul to a hospital, Annie decides to take in Paul in her home. In Misery (1987) King tells the story of a damaged writer who also has his weapons.

Daring

The story's principle can be called daring. Most of the story takes place in Annie's home and Paul and Annie are usually the only characters there. This means King doesn't make it easy for himself by choosing merely one setting with two characters. This is not a way to easily keep the reader's attention, but in Misery King once again manages to crawl into his characters' heads successfully and tell a thrilling story. Of course the plot is very interesting: Annie claims to be the biggest fan of Paul's books, but is heavily disappointed that Paul let his main character Misery die in one of the books. Annie demands that the battered Paul rectifies this mistake and writes another book in which Misery returns. If Paul doesn't do this, Annie will stop the medication and make Paul suffer immensely. So Paul can't do much else than listen to the insane Annie.

Annie Wilkes

With Annie Wilkes, King has created another noticeable bad girl. Her mood is more unstable than the British weather and she is truly capable of anything to bring her favourite character back to life. On the one hand she is extremely strict towards Paul: when the book doesn't go the way she wants it to, it ends up in the fireplace and she forces Paul to do it differently. On the other hand she is sometimes sugary sweet to him: she gets all the material Paul needs from the nearby village as quickly as possible and on occasion treats Paul as her darling pet. When the course of the new book is entirely to her taste, Paul can do no wrong. When the reading disappoints he has to fear for his limbs...

Whenever Annie enters the room, it is always a surprise what will happen. Is she in a good mood or is she capable of bringing even more damage to Paul's already broken legs? Annie and Paul get plenty of depth and there's a good pace to the story. King regularly throws in several fragments from the "real" Misery book and this doesn't do good for the pace, but they're nice to read. They are not, however, essential to the plot.

Remains thrilling

The story remains thrilling from beginning till end. Paul is a false man and despite his physical injuries he still has some tricks up his sleeve for Annie. However, apart from insane Annie is also smart, which means Paul's tricks don't always end very well. Don't expect horror in the sense of blood and limbs flying around. What Annie sometimes does to Paul is definitely a horror scenario for him, but in general the horror is between the lines. The desperation drives into Paul's body and King shows this very clearly. Shortly before the ending everything speeds up when Paul makes a shocking discovery and this leads to a good climax in which King luckily doesn't take it too far for once. In one scene the subtlety is hard to find, but that scene is incredibly amazing and cruel.

Typical King

Misery is a typical Stephen King story: the main characters are very good, the plot has been worked out well and the horror is between the lines. A good climax makes this book to be one of my favourites. The film adaptation is also worth watching! Kathy Bates and James Caan both play an excellent part and the film mostly remains true to the book.

Sources: www.todio.nl