Review: Misery
Misery
Stephen King
Synopsis: Paul Sheldon is a bestselling writer. When he crashes his car during a snowstorm in a near-fatal accident, his “number one fan” Annie Wilkes finds him and takes him back to her farm to tend to his injuries. But when Annie finds out how Paul ends her favorite series, Paul’s angel nurse turns into his worst nightmare, holding him captive while she forces him to rewrite the novel to her satisfaction, using her own form of brutal persuasion if he dares to defy her wishes.
I am about to make some Stephen King fans mad… First there is something you should know about me. I have a strict motto that I live by: Life is too short to read a book I’m not enjoying. I absolutely will NOT force myself to finish a book if I’m not enjoying it. It’s just not worth it. So, since I’ve started this blog, Stephen King’s Misery is the very first on my Did Not Finish (DNF) list.
The first place Mr. King lost me was on page 7, with the line, “The first memory: stopping, and being raped back into life by the woman’s stinking breath.”. *Pulls out soap box* This phrasing absolutely appalled me. To me, that line was such a disgusting misuse of the term “rape”. Rape is a violent, brutal, vicious act. To use it to describe being resuscitated by a woman with bad breath trivializes what rape is. It’s wrong, plain and simple. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. *Puts away soap box*. I almost walked away from the book then. I didn’t pick it up for a full day because every time I did my skin crawled. After much deliberation, I decided that I owed it to myself to try and continue reading. Misery was my second Stephen King novel, and I’ve been waiting a long time to read it. So, I tried to put the line out of my mind and continue reading as if I hadn’t read it.
I was not impressed. When I was reading, it was decent enough. But once I closed the book, there was nothing in me that had any desire to pick it back up. For a book and an author that have such a reputation, I didn’t have any real urge to continue reading. Annie is definitely not right in the head, but even the character Paul is not likeable. He’s in a horrible situation for sure, but there’s nothing about the way he’s written that makes you really want to root for him. It made you cringe more than it made you care.
The premise of the story is interesting. The writing is not. I think it’s safe to say that my exploration into the world of Stephen King may end with Misery. Save yourself some time and watch the movie. It’s way better. (Seriously, it’s really good, watch it! James Caan and Kathy Bates. It’s amazing.)