Hello beautiful people! Welcome to a new review! For this review, I dive into another Stephen King classic, Misery. A spine-chilling novel, we see the depths of fandom and the lengths obsession can go. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who has loved any of his other novels.
Main Characters:
Paul Sheldon: Famous and beloved novelist of the Misery Chastain books, Paul finds himself putting his series to a close, but finds himself in a new world he could have never imagined with Annie Wilkes
Annie Wilkes: Misery Chastain super fan, Annie finds herself in the experience of a lifetime when she saves her favourite author from a storm and gets to nurse him back to health; however, it soon becomes clear that her isolated home holds more secrets than one could ever expect
My Review
Every time I pick up a Stephen King novel, I expect something monstrous lurking in the shadows, a clown, a creature, a curse. But Misery reminds you that some of King’s most terrifying villains are painfully, horrifyingly human. There are no ghosts here, no cosmic horrors or ancient evils. Just a farmhouse, a snowstorm, a broken author, and the most chilling, biggest fan of all time. As mentioned before, I am a fan of Stephen King’s books and enjoy the different creepy worlds he spins. Misery is no exception. While the book takes place in mostly one setting the entire time, the fear and twists keep you glued to the progression of the story. With also very few characters, it’s incredibly interesting the way this book sucks you in and draws you into the lives of our characters. I gave Misery a 9/10 rating and would definitely recommend it for anyone looking to check out a psychological thriller that keeps you guessing the whole time.
The book opens with Paul Sheldon, bestselling author and creator of the Misery Chastain romance series. He’s just finished the book he hopes will finally free him from his bestselling character, and then immediately crashes his car on a snowy Colorado road. When he wakes up, he’s in the home of Annie Wilkes, an ex-nurse, small-town recluse, and, unfortunately for Paul, his self-proclaimed biggest fan. Annie’s rescue quickly becomes a prison. She decides what Paul takes for pain. She decides when he sleeps, eats, and writes. She decides that the way Paul has ended her favourite series is not acceptable, and he must change it to her liking. Or else. The dread builds slowly and then all at once, and you can feel Paul’s helplessness pouring off the page.
Generally, in Stephen King’s books, we have a large cast of characters to follow through our horrifying journey. In Misery, though, things change with a singular setting and a few characters to rely on to tell us the story. We only have Paul and Annie. Almost the entire novel takes place in a single room, and yet it never feels repetitive. The horror comes from two things. Annie, who is easily one of King’s best villains, is unpredictable, self-righteous, childish, and terrifying in the way real people can be. The next is the pain that Paul is/ put through, throughout the book. It’s brutal and would make me cringe at points. There’s a sense of realism that makes this novel so unsettling. Everything Annie does could happen. There’s no magical loophole to save him, no supernatural twist that changes the rules. Paul survives by wit, endurance, and sheer stubborn will, and every victory feels earned.
One of the most fascinating elements of this book is how it explores creativity under pressure. Paul isn’t just writing to satisfy a deranged fan; he’s writing to stay alive. King weaves in Paul’s internal commentary about storytelling, tropes, and the work of writing itself, and somehow it doesn’t slow down the pacing; it deepens it. Annie’s obsession with Misery Chastain hits differently in an age where fans feel entitled to control what creators produce. She believes she owns the character. She believes she owns Paul. The psychological horror here feels disturbingly relevant even decades later. What I loved is that despite all the brutality, the book never loses its emotional intelligence. Paul’s despair, his brief flares of hope, his rage, and even his creativity under duress make him one of King’s most compelling protagonists.
I loved almost everything about this book. The only tiny thing that knocked it from a 10 to a 9 for me is how unrelentingly bleak it can get in spots. King commits hard to the psychological torture, and while it’s effective, it can be emotionally exhausting. Not necessarily a flaw, just something that makes the book an intense experience rather than a casual one.
Misery is proof that Stephen King doesn’t need monsters to scare you. Sometimes one unhinged woman with a sledgehammer is more than enough. This book is intimate, vicious, brilliantly paced, and a masterclass in tension. If you want a King novel that gets into your bones, keeps you anxious, this one is it for sure.
*** Don’t read any further if you don’t want to read any spoilers ***
With Annie’s obsession with having Paul write the book she wants for Misery, Paul can use this to his advantage.
He sends Annie into a panic by burning the manuscript and takes advantage of the moment, hitting her over the head with the typewriter she has been torturing him with. Now, I’ll say (and this may be similar for others) that it’s never really clear that Paul hitting her is what killed her. It seemed like she was still alive for some time after he hit her, and then she died, seemingly trying to find him. I would assume that she either died in the elements outside, or the hit, or I guess a mix of both.
After her death, Paul is haunted by her and what she did to him. He is forever a changed man, and writing is never really the same for him again.
I hope you enjoyed this review! Thank you for checking it out! Feel free to subscribe to the page to be one of the first to know when I drop a new review (which is a good idea these days because I post very inconsistently)!
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