Title:- Misery
Author:- Stephen King
Date published:- June 8th 1987
No. of pages:- 369 pages
Genre:- Horror/Thriller
Rating:-
Plot:- 4/5
Writing:- 4/5
Overall rating:- 4/5
One of the true classics of psychological suspense, about a writer and his No. 1 fan, now with a stunning new cover look.
Paul Sheldon used to write for a living. Now he’s writing to stay alive.
Misery Chastain is dead. Paul Sheldon has just killed her – with relief, with joy. Misery made him rich; she was the heroine of a string of bestsellers. And now he wants to get on to some real writing.
That’s when the car accident happens, and he wakes up splinted and in pain, in the remote mountain home of his rescuer, Annie Wilkes.
The good news is that Annie was a nurse and has pain-killing drugs. The bad news is that she has long been Paul’s Number One Fan. And when she finds out what Paul has done to Misery, she doesn’t like it. She doesn’t like it at all . . .
This is the first Stephen King book I have read.
And probably the most disturbing book I have read as well.
Paul Sheldon is a famous writer. He gets into a car accident and then becomes unconscious. When he wakes up, he finds himself on a bed, cuffed, his legs badly injured and realizes that a deranged woman named Annie Wilkies had actually kidnapped/saved him from the crash. She would treat him but on one condition–he had to bring Misery back to life.
Paul Sheldon’s novels involve a character named Misery which was very popular and he killed off the character so he can focus on a newer thing. But Annie, who is his number one fan is not satisfied and so she brings him a typewriter and forces him to write a book where Misery comes back to live. And Paul must write the book in order to survive.
This was actually an interesting but also disturbing as well. Annie is the perfect psychopath that you certainly don’t want to get wrong foot with. It’s also disturbing at Paul suffering with his injuries, to the part where Annie actually beats him up almost if she is not satisfied with what he has written. This was fast paced, and I also enjoyed reading excerpts from the novel that he is working on for Annie Wilkies. I really felt like I was watching a horror movie while reading this book. I can actually understand why Stephen King is one of the famous horror writers and I have watched movies based on his novels and so after reading Misery, I am more than excited to read more of his books.
Is this book worth reading? If you are into gore, and horror stuff, then Misery will be perfect as it is set in the backdrop of snowy Colorado. Overall worth four stars.
Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father’s family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen’s grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.
Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.
He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men’s magazines.
Stephen made his first professional short story sale (“The Glass Floor”) to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men’s magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.
In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
Tropical Girl Reads 
King is definitely a fav of mine. Misery was a great one! Good review!
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Yeah I am going to try reading more of his books, Pet Semetary and Billy Summers are in my TBR
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Billy Summers is good!
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