Misery (1987)

Before reading: Yay! I am very excited for this one. I absolutely love the movie and am a fan of the Castle Rock series on Hulu. I love me some Annie Wilkes. Oddly enough, I haven't read this one. Besides it being a great film, this is a very highly rated and well loved novel and I am sure I will love it, as well. There is only one way to know for sure, though, so I guess I should start reading. 

After reading: In no surprise to anyone, that was a great book. I really enjoyed it, start to finish. I can see this being one that I would read again. It definitely wasn't his best work but it was up there, for me. I really enjoyed it at face value, just the story as it was. And I really enjoyed it on a deeper level, as a metaphor for addiction. The storytelling was so great that it was able to work on both levels. 

Of course, we see a lot of King tropes in here. The most in-your-face being that the main character is a writer. We've seen this again and again. This one being a bit more auto-biographical and worked in a "write what you know" type of way. Being able to go more into Paul's mind as a writer and just as an overall creative person was some of my favorite parts of the novel. This was something that you couldn't really delve into in the movie because they were his inner thoughts. I thought this not only helped develop his character, but it also gave insight to King as an author. We also got to go back to Sidewinder, Colorado. This, of course, gave us some Shining references. If I'm not mistaken, I think this is our first recurring town that is not in Maine. Also, there were plentiful mentions of the drug Keflex, which was a major part of The Drawing of the Three that came right before this book. 

I found Misery to be scary in the way that Cujo is scary. We have a bottleneck episode scenario. King purposefully wrote Cujo to be that way, making it set in the Pinto with the "monster" lurking around. Here, we have almost the entirety of the book being set in Annie's house, mostly in one room, with only two characters 99% of the time. Not only do I find this impressive, I also find it successful. The claustrophobia of the reader not leaving the setting, not having moments outside of our main character, gives another level of terror to the novel. Paul can't escape and neither can we. Let's discuss our "monster." I think, so far, Annie has been one of King's best villains. Everything about her is terrifying. There is nothing she won't do and you don't know what to expect from her next. This was also King's first full novel under his own name that is not supernatural in some sense. I find this to be a scarier sub genre. Annie is real. Annie's actions are real. This is something that could happen to you. This isn't a clown from outer space or a haunted house. She isn't a vampire, she doesn't have magical powers. She is a crazy lady doing crazy things, and that's what makes her so terrifying. I appreciated that we never entered a Stockholm syndrome scenario. Paul never begun feeling sorry for Annie or warmed up to her. I think that made us, as the reader, never sympathize with her. We stay with Paul the entire time and what he feels, we feel. Annie stays the villain though the entirety of the story. She has no redemption arc. She is irredeemable. 

There were a few random notes I took that I'd like to go through before wrapping this up. First and foremost, I really need someone to compile a list of the cat names in Stephen King books. They are so good. I'll never stop mentioning this when I come across it. Second, I am a sucker for books inside of books. I really loved that we got to read some of Misery's Return and go into that novel, as well. Speaking of Misery...what kind of name is that? Why is it never addressed? Why are we pretending it is a normal name? The reason I started this blog was because I was named after a SK novel. Should I name a future child Misery? Vote in the comments. And finally, if you have only seen the movie like I had, the hobbling scene is so much worse. You don't think it can get any worse, but it can. Actually, this book was extremely violent. It was a wild ride.

I don't think I have much else to say. You did it again, Stephen. I had high expectations for this one and they were met. I feel quite satisfied after reading this and have added another new favorite book to my collection. I'll see all you cockadoodies next time. 

Knock knock. Who's there? Tommyknockers. Tommyknockers who? Honestly, I'm not sure...but they're up next!