Misery
is a psychological horror novel, written by Stephen King. He
published this book in 1987, and the book was adapted into a movie in
1990. Misery is often considered as one of Stephen King's best
books. When I was 11 years old, I watched the movie adaptation of
Misery on VHS. Although I can't remember the details about the
movie, but I can still recall the movie kept me on the edge of my
seat for 2 hours. It was one of the most terrifying movies I have
ever seen in my life. However, until recently, I have never read
Misery the novel.
Today, I would like to review this book.
Synopsis:
Do you have fans? A lot of famous
people do. As for me, I am an ordinary person, and I don't think I
have any fan (not that I am aware of). But I'd speculate meeting
someone who claims to be your number one fan, could be a flattering
and positive experience. Well, that is, unless you are Paul Sheldon,
whose experience of meeting his number one fan was anything but
positive.
Paul Sheldon writes historical
romances. Through his Misery series, Paul became an
international best-selling author. But in secret, Paul despised his
own creation, especially Misery Chastain, the protagonist in the
Misery series. In the fifth Misery novel, Paul killed
off the protagonist in the book, hoping that he could close off the
series, so he can move on and write something different.
Paul had a car accident while he was
driving to Los Angeles. When he regained his consciousness, he found
himself with broken legs, and lying in the house of Anne Wilkes, who
rescued Paul from the wreckage. Anne also told Paul that she is his
“number one fan”. Soon, Paul discovered that Anne is crazy and
mentally unstable. He was in reality, imprisoned by Anne. Then Paul
found out, that there are worse things than death, especially when he
was under the “care” provided by Anne Wilkes, his most loyal and
number one fan...
What I think about the book:
I used to think
Misery the movie was terrifying. Now I think Misery the
novel is petrifying. This is to say that I think the novel is scarier than the movie. As a psychological horror novel, Misery
successfully terrified its readers, not with acts of violence and
gores (though the book is gory), but because the story made its
readers “understand”, that the antagonist, Anne Wilke, is a truly
disturbing individual, someone to be feared. This understanding
surrounds the protagonist in a sense of real danger, weaving a
constant suspense into the entire book. The result is a page-turner!
i.e. When I was reading this book, I never knew what to expect in the
next page. I was terrified, I didn't want to know what was going to
happen, but I just had to to know.
This book is
very simple. In this instance, simplicity is a strength rather than a
weakness. For the most of the book, there are only 2 characters, Paul
and Anne. But the book never bored me. Instead, this simplicity
allowed the story to focus on the fascinating interactions between
the protagonist and the antagonist. This allowed the readers to
explore the minds of the characters in depth, making them vivid and
impressionable. In fact, while reading this book, I started feeling
sorry for the antagonist, Anne Wilkes. This is because from reading
the interactions between Paul and Anne, I saw the true depth of
Anne's insanity. I was deeply disturbed by Anne, but I also felt a
sense of sympathy towards her. In vice versa, while I thought what
happened to Paul Sheldon (the protagonist) was horrible, but there
were times when I was annoyed by Paul because he could be very
arrogant on occasions. The book also depicted an interesting
portrayal of Stockholm Syndrome.
Stephen King
wrote many horror novels; Carrie, Pet Sematary, IT, Salem's Lot
etc.. Most of them terrorized readers with waves of supernatural
horrors. After I read this book, I can see why Misery is often
considered as one of Stephen King's best horror novels. This book
does not terrorize readers with supernatural entities such as ghosts
and monsters. Instead, Misery slices and drives horror into
readers' minds, with a knife of spine-chilling realism. Its serrated
edge, is coated with our profound fear for human insanity.
I highly
recommend this book to those who enjoy horror/thriller, or to those who
are just looking to read a good book. This book will not disappoint.
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