Misery : My First King (and why I haven’t read one yet)

I don’t think there is anything to say about Misery that hasn’t been said already.  I am 32 years old and finally read a King novel, despite owning two shelves full of his works myself, and growing up in a house filled with a nearly complete collection.  I even took some good-natured flack (WHAT? YOU READ SO MUCH! HOW HAVEN’T YOU READ A KING YET)? So here we go, with my experience.

Quick Facts:

• Title: Misery
• Author: Stephen King
• Series: N/A
• Release: 1987 by Viking Penguin
• Length: 310 (see HC edition above)
• Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐✨ probably!

Here is the synopsis from Amazon in case anyone isn’t familiar:

Paul Sheldon is a bestselling novelist who has finally met his number one fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes, and she is more than a rabid reader—she is Paul’s nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also furious that the author has killed off her favorite character in his latest book. Annie becomes his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.

Annie wants Paul to write a book that brings Misery back to life—just for her. She has a lot of ways to spur him on. One is a needle. Another is an axe. And if they don’t work, she can get really nasty.

I have seen the Misery movie, of course, and Kathy Bates plays a completely, totally insane Annie Wilkes, but the book… oh the book makes her out to be somehow even crazier, the things that you just can’t act out without a description.  King is clearly a talented writer, and I liked the little extras {like the n’s filled in differently on the pages} in the novel.  Was reading a King the prophetic experience I thought it would be?  Not really, no, (but it was better than all the fantasy people telling me Sanderson was prophetic – hahaha). There were lots of tangents, including pages and pages of the Misery manuscript, which I couldn’t really get into and found myself thinking constantly just thinking “why is this in the book?”

One quote that got me was – in referring to writing (it) and the creative process:

It had always been the single toughest thing, the most abiding thing, in his life – Nothing had ever been able to pollute that crazy well of dreams: no drink, no drug, no pain.

I wonder if that is a nod to King’s own issues with drugs and alcohol, I know the 80s were a rough time for him in those regards.  I wonder if he saw some of himself in Paul and felt trapped, and just let it all out in this crazy captor horror fantasy.

This is probably one of my favorite lines in literature so far, only because I am an RN and find this absolutely blitheringly iconic in my mind – 

“Don’t worry,”, she said, “I’m a trained nurse.”

The axe came whistling down…..

If anyone has read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next and met Nurse Rached, or I guess seen the new show that is out, she is probably the other quintessentially insane nurse in modern literature.  I am team Annie though – her hospital travelling murder spree is just something to be truly terrified of.

My one last note on Misery is that I really liked King/Paul’s musings on going insane, and whether or not it really matters since we are all just racing towards death, although some obviously more quickly than others.  I also liked how he mentioned some of his other books, as well as books by other authors, like little shout-outs. 

I will leave you with one last quote to show you how well I think King captured the essence of crazy in the final scene:

He could smell her – cooked flesh, sweat, hate, madness

How many times have you heard a person’s smell described in a book? Are they saying death, fish, rotten things, sweat hate and madness? I just… Anyone with even a slight interest in psychological thrillers or horror needs to read this.

I think this was a good choice for a first King

Now I did mention that I would talk about how I choose my TBR but this post has gone on long enough – so I will just say that I never let popular opinion get to me. A better explanation for why I haven’t read one of his books yet is that he is widely known as the king of horror – which is a huge turn off for me because I don’t like scary books! Not all of his books are terrifying though, I am told, so I will find out I guess!