Misery

was the n word reeeeeally necessary?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book that I loved, an absolute must read, and now a favorite of mine. It's a book that will live on my shelves forever and I would re-read in the future. I would pick up anything else by this author without question. This book is now one of my all-time favorites.

This is the second book I've read by Stephen King and I loved them book. I was invested in the characters from the very start. More so Paul than Annie. I rooted for him to come out of his downward spiral of insanity as he was held captive by Annie.

I even got invested in the story within the story. Misery's story.

I'm very happy that I finally picked this one up. I'm starting to see why King is my husband's favorite author.

 Not a scary book in the traditional sense, but definitely one that I found very unsettling and the tension runs high reading it. I don't think anyone writes crazy, quite like King does. He's written a lot of nasty bad guys, supernatural boogeymen and antagonists of other sorts in his time, but Annie is definitely up there as one of the most memorable and compelling to me. A bit over the top at times mind you, but overall she's what makes the book work.

If you love psychological horror then this is one I'd definitely recommend. 

This is my first read of Kings and I have to say, I understand the appeal. He has a unique writing style and particular attention to detail. However, this was so repetitive that it took me over a month to finish. Every day was the same thing. I was so close to DNFing but pushed through. I'm glad I did and will definitely pick up other Stephen King books, but it felt like some action was missing. Overall a decent read.

4.5

I loved Paul Sheldon and Annie Wilkes!! They are some of the most interesting characters I've ever read. The majority of the novel takes place with just these two in a single room, with not that much actually happening, but it's riveting.
I'm not sure if this is true, but I've heard Paul Sheldon is supposed to be Steven King, and that made his internal monologue SO interesting.
I'm not a huge fan of horror, only because I'm a scaredy-cat, and this was much more of a thriller than a horror, so that was great! Absolutely recommend!

Después de leer tantos libros de King ya me imaginaba por donde venía el final y como siempre me gustó.
King tiene el arte de tenerte con el corazón en la boca todo el rato.

Rating: 2.75 leaves out of 5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 2/5
Story: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Type: Audio
Worth?: Sure

This book was very hyped by a lot of people so when I got to this book in my road trip I was excited. Then after the halfway mark it really lived up to the name. I just wished it could have ended sooner. There was only one scene, when she cut his foot off , that had me a bit shocked. Annie as a character was probably the best thing in the book. She was the definition of crazy... and to be honest I think we all have a little Annie inside of us when it comes to something we really love, but thankfully we can really reign in and control her.

Esse é apenas o segundo livro do King que eu leio e posso dizer que é muito melhor que Carrie. Apesar de eu ter achado que em algumas partes é bastante enrolado, o cenário que o Stephen King cria no livro deixa o leitor querendo saber o que vai acontecer o tempo todo. Tem partes que me deixaram extremamente desconfortável, mas obviamente essa é a intenção.
É muito bom e o final é ótimo. 

Loved this story and didn't find it too long winded, I couldn't put it down. It's one of King's best known and liked books for a reason. Annie literally gave me nightmares!

4.75 stars, could have done with a little bit less of the Misery chapters.

I thought having watched the film the book may have been a let down as I knew exactly what was coming; however, although this may have been true for the start, I was totally gripped for the second half and enjoyed (I think!) getting to know Annie Wilkes a lot better :s

3.5

One more King's book read by me. Surprisingly.

This was sooooo not for me.

O.W.L. Readathon - Herbology
Mimbulus Mimbeltonia - Book starts with an M

More severed body parts than long philosophical monologues by middleaged men = great Stephen King book

Misery by Stephen King is a novel about pain, obsession, and writing. Paul Sheldon, the stories protagonist, is 42. He is a celebrity writer, twice married and divorced, drinker and smoker, and he is in a lot of trouble. So much trouble. “umber whunnnn yerrrnnn umber whunnnn fayunnnn These sounds: even in the haze.” Even through the haze of drugs and pain, he knew something was off; something was wrong. There was pain, so much of it. “The pain was somewhere below the sounds. The pain was east of the sun and south of his ears. That was all he did know.” His memory was hazy. He remembers a crash. He remembers he stopped breathing, then breathing again. A mouth, spitless, dry, and tight had clamped on him like a vise with its breath. It was “a dreadful mixed stench of vanilla cookies and chocolate ice cream and chicken gravy and peanut-butter fudge.” It was awful, Paul begged and pleaded to be left alone. But Annie couldn't leave him alone.

“Breathe, goddam you!” the unseen voice shrieked”

This was Paul's introduction to Annie Wilkes, Paul's number one fan, the stories antagonist and Paul was in a lot of trouble.

Paul was out celebrating the finishing of his newest novel. “Fast Cars.” A story that Paul had written after putting behind him his best-selling romance series staring the heroine Misery Chastain. A story that, to him, was not writterly and deserving of praise. He had drunk champagne, high on the excitement of the victory, and went driving. He crashed his car spectacularly on a snowy road outside Sidewinder, Colorado. A place that many King fans will recognize from Dr. Sleep, American Vampire, and The Shining. He is found broken and twisted amongst the remains of his car by Annie Wilkes. His legs are a badly broken puzzle of bone shards and pain. He awakes in Annie's farm somewhere outside of Sidewinder with only the sounds from an unhappy cow and a pig that Annie had named Misery to greet him.

“This memory circled and circled, maddening, like a sluggish fly. He groped for whatever it might mean, but for a long time the sounds interrupted. fayunnnn red everrrrrythinggg umberrrrr whunnnn Sometimes the sounds stopped. Sometimes he stopped”

Paul realizes that his legs are a broken and splintered mess pretty quickly. Ironic because Annie is an ex-nurse and probably could have set them to rights. He is in excruciating pain and hooked on pain killers, and is entirely at the mercy of his number one fan, and something is not quite right with her. There is something diabolical and insane in Annie Wilkes. Something dark is inside her mind and only comes out sometimes, something that can hurt him, something that will eventually kill him. If he wants to continue his existence, he needs to write a new Misery novel for her, one that revives the protagonist Misery Chastain. Misery is a character that Paul was delighted to kill off and be done with. Otherwise, Annie might kill him; but she might kill him anyway piece by piece.

Much of Stephen King's Misery is psychological terror and internal turmoil. The psychological terror is palpable. Annie Wilkes might be the scariest villain I have ever read. She is cruel, but her cruelty is unknown to her. “You did this to yourself, Paul!” She is also efficient and diabolical. “Annie was not swayed by pleas. Annie was not swayed by screams. Annie had the courage of her convictions.” When Paul is found to be investigating the farmhouse while Annie is out, Annie decides that he needs to be punished, so she cuts his foot off with an ax and cauterizes the stump with a blow torch. It is brutally efficient, and in its way, Annie thinks she is weirdly kind. She gives Paul a pain killer and a slight sedative beforehand. Much like grounding a wayward child for being naughty, Annie feels she needs to punish Paul. Although her punishment is violent and cruel, she doesn't know it.

Misery is a spectacularly, cruel novel, and it goes beyond the usual horror that we can expect from King. This novel touches on the psychological horror and self-flagellation of a writer. Paul must create a story that he does not want to tell, then the story takes ahold of him as he begins to tell it, and he must see it to the end. Annie is both a jailer, muse and finally the ultimate critic. She punishes failures by cutting off pieces of him. Deadlines and writerly problems take on whole new meanings for Paul.

The ending is almost anti-climatic. As a reader, I want fire and brimstone to fall upon Annie. She deserves so much comeuppance. But I think the way that King handled it is perfect. A battle between writer and critic needs to happen, and the struggle between jailer and inmate needs to happen. “It was always the same, always the same-like toiling uphill through jungle and breaking out to a clearing at the top after months of hell only to discover nothing more rewarding than a view of a freeway - with a few gas stations and bowling alleys thrown in for good behavior, or something.” And, as King says here, writers plod through, whip themselves, battle their muses, and in the end, it is anti-climactic - a bowling alley and gas station. It is not satisfying, but the ending is right. It is terrifying for Paul and quite disturbing as a metaphor for writing.

Misery is King writing at his finest and possibly most introspective. It is, at times, a painful and terrifying read. I had to put it down a few times to take a breath, pet a dog, and watch some happy youtube video. But it is worth the read, and I am so glad I took it on.

A masterclass in writing. Thank you. Everyone envolved in Toxic fandom should read this

Annie Wilkes really was ~that~ bitch! ☠️

Stephen King wanted us to hate both these characters, right? Well I did, which is totally fine, but I also felt guilty about it because Annie is obviously seriously mentally ill. I'm not sure I'd even consider her competent to stand trial for her crimes. She's delusional and needs help.

I was annoyed by the comparison of CPR to rape. A few men have tried to explain to me what King meant by the comparison... I know what he meant. I don't need anyone to explain it to me. The comparison was inappropriate.

I didn't find Misery to be frightening in the least. It was just slightly gory and a sad depiction of unmanaged serious mental illness. I had to make myself pick the book up so I could finish it because it was almost boring at times. I did not care in the slightest about the book the main character was writing. The inclusion of so much text of the fictional story within the fictional story was mind-numbing.

King should not use the n-word in his books, ever. It was completely unnecessary and, again, inappropriate. Annie didn't need to say the n-word for the reader to know she's racist, unlikable, untrustworthy, and deranged. Trust me, we already knew.

Finally, I found King's writing to be really repetitive. He'd find a phrase or word he liked and beat it to death for a chapter or two, sometimes bringing it back for a cameo or two later on.

This was my first time reading a Stephen King book as an adult. As a high schooler, I wasn't a fan of Four Past Midnight and didn't get the intense love for The Long Walk among dystopian fans. Based on this recent read, I still don't get the collective obsession readers around the world have for his books. I still plan to read The Stand (my dad's all time favorite book) and The Green Mile since they're on my shelves, so I'm hoping they'll change my mind a little bit.

Through a whole second season of the Castle Rock TV Show, Anne Wilkes seemed so familiar from somewhere, and near the end, it dawned on me, it's from Misery! I've read this a long time ago but decided to reread it again, and yeah, it's as good as I remember, Stephen King at it's best.

I'm your number one fan. Imagine this quote turning from something so exciting to something eerie and horrifying. And this is exactly what King did in this novel. You don't need to create a monster or a zombie to create a terrifying novel, and, in my opinion, Annie is one of King's most terrifying characters.

This book was so well-written and while the story itself may seem quite simple (the book is just interaction of a two characters), the horror of it is so much deeper than ghosts or demons, and you will root for the protagonist so much that you'll lost some sleep for sure watching every moment that he's going through.

4.5 stars

What a terrifying and gruesome story!

Misery is about an author named Paul Sheldon who had an accident after he finished writing his latest novel and later was rescued/held captive by his number one fan named Annie Wilkes on her remote house.

I like this a lot and one thing that I have to say is that I was freaking out the whole time when I was reading this book. The psychological horror in this is so strong. I kept on rooting for Paul and I feel so bad for his character especially because of the torture and trauma he had experienced. Annie's character is so terrifying and she's all around crazy. Although, the story takes place in the same setting the entire time, I was still intrigued and I wasn't bored by it.

The reason why I'm not giving it full 5 stars is because I was struggling with Stephen King's writing at the very first part of the book and I didn't care that much about the “Misery” chapters, but aside from that I have no other complaints.

This was so perfectly creepy. I was listening to the audiobook at work and literally JUMPED when someone came up to me to ask me a question. This was hard to read at times but very well done and I'm excited to dive into Stephen King a bit more.

4.5 stars

If you've been following me for a while you know that I haven't read very many Stephen King books. I've only read 2 not including Misery and those were The Shining and It. Honestly after getting through both of those I was about ready to give up on King books but I am so glad I came across Janel's post about her readalong of this book called #oneweekofmisery on Instagram and decided to join in because I really enjoyed it.

I remember watching the movie for this a long time ago but I couldn't remember exactly what happened so it was like I was experiencing it for the first time.

I will say I still found King to be overly descriptive and I felt like a good bit of stuff could have been left out because to me it felt like a bunch of filler. There was this whole book within a book thing that was annoying to me as well and it would actually take me out of the story a little when I got to those parts but I couldn't bring myself to skim through them because I was afraid I would miss something important. Also there was one aspect of the book that I felt was completely out of place. There were a few instances where King would be explaining something and he would “compare” what ever it was to some sort of sexual reference. Y'all know I am not a prude and I understand he was trying to make a point I totally get that but I felt like the sexual references were totally out of place. It was like he threw in those references just so “sex” could be mentioned.

I know I am making it sound like I didn't like this book but that's not the case at all because I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is my favorite King book which I know isn't saying much since I've only read 3 of his books so far. I was so into it and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. At one point I was apparently making weird faces while I was reading (because it's very graphic and detailed which in this case is a good thing) and my husband happened to look at me and was like what's wrong with you?

I definitely recommend you give this book a go especially if you are struggling to get into Kings books. This book is violent and bloody and will definitely have you on the edge of your seats.

This book occupies a kind of strange place for me in that I found myself thinking of it as sort of a pulpy horror, but King's writing is great and elevates it beyond that, yet I think I'm willing to overlook some flaws because of that initial label I put on it going in.

Anyways, I just think this is a great little single-location thriller/character piece. I have not seen the movie version, but I'm familiar enough with it that I was expecting to just picture Kathy Bates and James Caan the entire time I was reading it, but I found my imagination creating completely different images for some reason. Annie is so interesting because her madness is a strange perversion of logic and justice. Paul's overactive imagination as a writer adds a lot to the narration.

I listened to this via audiobook from the library and I really enjoyed Lindsay Crouse's reading of it. She puts on a voice for Annie with an appropriate amount of subtlety, as I think it would be easy to play her as way over the top.