Misery by Stephen King

Stephen King definitely has a way of pulling the reader in. I've seen the film version of Misery; it's one of my favorite movies. And yet, reading it was a completely new experience.

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

Misery tells the story of every authors worst nightmare: author crashes car; author is saved by number one fan; number one fan turns out to be a psychopathic killer who keeps author prisoner and has strange torture methods. The author here is Paul Sheldon and the number one fan is Annie Wilkes. Paul, while driving drunk, crashes his car during a snow storm and is rescued by Annie. To be fair, Annie lives in a small town and the snow storm was horrible, so she did the right thing taking him to the house. However, Annie keeps Paul pretty much sedated and on IV's. When Paul finally comes around, she tells Paul how much she loves his books, especially his Misery novels-a series that takes place in the nineteenth century and is extremely melodramatic. She is eagerly waiting for the most recent novel to be released in paperback, Misery's Child. However, when she does read it, she learns that Paul has killed Misery and the series is over. Annie is not okay with this and demands Paul write her back to life in a novel just for her, Misery's Return. Paul spends months writing this novel and learning about his captor, Annie, who is decidedly crazy. At different points, Annie leaves him alone in the house for days, locked in his room; she deprives him of medication; and she chops off his foot and his thumb. Paul knows that he will do whatever he can to survive, but he also knows that finishing the book will end his life. He has to figure out just how far he is willing to go to get out of there alive.

For the most part, the movie and book were similar. However, reading about it was much more colorful than watching the movie. King brings you into the head of Paul as he tries to figure out what to do to survive, but also as he struggles with his feelings towards Annie. "He discovered three things almost simultaneously, about ten days after having emerged from the dark cloud. The first that Annie Wilkes had a great deal of Novril (she had in fact, a great many drugs of all kinds). The second was that he was hooked on Norvil. The third was that Annie Wilkes was dangerously crazy. (p. 9) Between being hooked on drugs and being held captive, Paul Sheldon doesn't really have a choice on what he can do.

(Source: Giphy)

In his time in the Wilkes house, Paul is forced to drink dirty wash water (which still makes me nauseous), is starved, deprived of medicine, and loses a foot and thumb. The foot thing was what really got me. In the movie, Annie hobbles him by breaking his ankles, so I was definitely taken aback when I realized that this scene was going a little differently.

"Terror sharp as a gust of wind filled with razor-blades blew through the dope and Paul's eyes flew open. She had risen and now drew the bedclothes down, exposing his twisted legs and bare feet.

'No,' he said. 'No...Annie...whatever it is you've got on your mind, we can talk about it, can't we?...please...'

She bent over. When she straightened up she was holding the axe from the shed in one hand and a propane torch in the other. The blade of the axe flamed. Written on the side of the propane torch was the word Bernz-O-matiC. She bent down again and this time came up with a dark bottle and the box of matches. There was a label on the dark bottle. Written on the label was the word Betadine...

'It'll be all right,' she said, and her face now had that slack, unplugged look-that look of perplexed vacuity-and before his mind was completely consumed in a forest fire of panic he understood that when this was over, she would have only the vaguest memories of what she had done, as she had only the vaguest memories of killing the children and the old people and the terminal patients and Andrew Pomeroy...

He continued to shriek and plead, but his words had become inarticulate babble. He tried to turn over, turn away from her, and his legs cried out...

'Only a minute more, Paul,' she said, and uncapped the Betadine. She poured a brownish-red muck over his left ankle. 'Only a minute more and it's over...'

'Just a little pain, Paul. It won't be bad...'

She tossed the open bottle of Betadine over her shoulder, her face blank and empty and yet so inarguably solid; she slid her right hand down the handle of the axe almost to the steel head. She gripped the handle farther up in her left hand and spread her legs like a logger.

'Annie oh please please don't hurt me!'

Her eyes were mild and drifting. 'Don't worry,' she said. 'I'm a trained nurse.'

The axe came whistling down and buries itself in Paul Sheldon's left leg just above the ankle...

Annie pulled the axe free and tossed it aside. She looked absently at the jetting stump for a moment and then picked up the box of matches. She lit one...

'Can't suture,' she said. 'No time. Tourniquet's no good. No central pressure point. Got to cauterize.'" (pp. 221-223)

Upon reading this, I had to confirm with my mom that this wasn't what happened in the movie. I was questioning everything. I was completely shook. I will never be able to watch that part of the movie the same way. It was definitely an unsettling scene.

(Source: Giphy)

I don't remember how much detail it goes to in the movie about all of the deaths caused by Annie Wilkes, but the book definitely made me realize just how crazy she is. Obviously, I knew she was crazy, but in the book, you learn she started killing when she was just 11, and that she was responsible for the death of her father. The deaths started out being things to make Annie's life easier; she didn't want to babysit the "little brats" downstairs anymore, so she set a fire; she left a pile of clothes by the stairs for her father to trip over; later she left a dead cat by the stairs to trip her college roommate who could have done any number of things to upset her. But then she starts killing terminally ill patients and old people, and then babies, some who were so young, weren't even named yet. Oh, and she killed the cat that killed the roommate, and we all know how I feel about that.

One thing that bothers me, and it's not something in the book that bothers me, but about people in general. Annie doesn't swear, but instead she uses fake swear words: dirty bird, cockadoodie, and other words of the sort. I understand people not wanting to swear, but sometimes, it's pretty much the same thing. Annie uses "cockadoodie" when she means that something is shit, and "dirty bird" when a person is an asshole. If you're saying it with the same intention, it's the same thing, you aren't fooling anyone. 

(Source: Giphy)

I definitely enjoyed reading Misery. It's definitely one of the better Stephen King novels I've read, although I've enjoyed them all. 

Rating: 9/10

Author: Stephen King

Genres: Horror, Thriller, Suspense