Misery

By: Stephen King

“He lay back, put his arm over his eyes, and tried to hold onto the anger, because the anger made him feel brave. A brave man could think. A coward couldn’t.”

Stephen King, Misery

*This post contains spoilers for Misery By: Stephen King

I can’t believe that I haven’t read this book until now. It’s one of those books where everyone knows the broad points regardless of if you’ve read it or watched the movie. But I think that is just almost anything Stephen King.

He has somehow wrote book after book that are so well known that culturally anyone can reference them in casual conversation.

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Overview:

Bestselling author Paul Sheldon wakes up with broken legs in a strange house. The mysterious owner is Annie Wilkes, who just so happens to be his biggest fan. Paul’s luck goes from bad to worse when Annie’s intentions with him turn sinister.

You see… Annie might be his biggest fan but she has some real problems with the choices he made in his last book. Her “help” comes with a price. She wants him to write a new book, one that fixes everything she felt was wrong in the last one.

And he’s going to right this wrong if it’s the last thing he does.

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My thoughts:

This book is a 368 page allegory for the writer’s relationship with their fans. No matter how the author tries, they will never make every single reader happy. Even if you write a book that you think is the best and the greatest thing you have ever done, pouring your entire soul into it, not everyone is going to like it and someone is going to tear it apart.

It is both a love letter to readers while also telling them to get a life. Yes, Paul is forced to make changes to make the reader happy but he ultimately ends up with a book that he is proud of and couldn’t bear to destroy.

The passage where Paul talks about readers feeling the loss of character as if they were a real person is something I can relate to.

“Millions might scoff, but only because they failed to realize how pervasive the influence of art- even of such a degenerate sort as popular fiction- could become.”

Stephen King, Misery

“The thought that grieving for a fictional character was absurd did more than cross his mind… For grieving was exactly what he was doing of course.”

Stephen King, Misery

I don’t know if everyone feels this way but books can really affect my mood. If something devastation happens, it will ruin my day until it is resolved later in the story. I can’t tell you the amount of times that I have had to close my book and walk away because a character died or made a bad choice.

Annie Wilkes:

I enjoyed the fact that Annie was never trying to hide her crazy. There was no slow burn or questioning if this woman was actually harmful. Paul knows right away that he is in danger. Like a wounded animal just waiting to be finished off by a predator.

However, it is kind of shitty that Stephen King makes immediate critiques on Annie’s looks. Like the way you can tell that she is an evil person is because she isn’t good looking. He also comments on her lack of feminine features and curves. Basically just saying how gross she is before she even does anything overly sinister.

Consider this. Let’s do an academic exercise. Instead of sympathizing with the author, Paul. Let’s think of ourselves in Annie’s shoes. You love something so much and it is such a huge part of your life, then that thing is taken away from you and in your eyes, ruined. You then have the chance to get it back. What lengths would you go to to get it back? As a reader, sometimes you are furious with the writer because they make a choice that is devastating to you. Most of the time it is exactly what Paul did, killing off a beloved character.

Most of us readers would just complain about it, maybe vow to never read that author again. Annie has nothing else in her life and now has this unique opportunity. Obviously, don’t cut people’s feet off. This is an extreme representation on how the reader feels.

I did take some issue with Annie’s murderous background. As a millennial female, I know entirely too much about true crime. The revelation that Annie is a serial killer and not just a crazed fan is interesting. Just as Paul thinks it can’t get any worse, he finds out that she has had no problem killing in the past and there is no hope for him.

The problem I have with this is that most serial killers target specific populations. It is highly unlikely that someone gets her start as a lethal arsonist, then commits patricide, becomes an angel of death, infant murderer and finally moving on to a random hitchhiker that just happened to cross her path. It is highly unlikely that someone would operate in this manner but that is just my speculation based purely off of consuming true crime content all day everyday.

It is easy to compartmentalize and say that Annie is doing all of these things because she is obsessed with Paul but she has killed almost every person that she has been alone with. Anyone could have fallen victim to Annie if they were just having an unfortunate day. Her rage is not specific and no matter what you do, you will eventually let her down and need to be dealt with.

Arabian Nights:

The Scheherazade reference had to be brought up by King because it is so blatant. In Arabian Nights, Scheherazade is married to a ruler who continues to marry and murder his wives after his wedding night. To avoid this, Scheherazade tells him elaborate stories that span multiple nights or spin off into other stories. She knows that the night she doesn’t have a story for him is the last night she will be alive.

Paul is Scheherazade. He knows that as soon as he stops writing the story and gives Annie what she wants, he will most likely be killed.

Misery’s Return:

I loved that Annie didn’t accept any old reason for Misery to be brought back to life. She doesn’t allow Paul to be lazy with his writing, she challenges him because she knows he can do better and he can do the character justice.

“I didn’t say anything about not liking it, I said it wasn’t right. It’s a cheat. You’ll have to change it.”

Stephen King, Misery

However, I think being buried alive is pretty lazy. I don’t know why Annie accepts this explanation for Misery. It is pretty overplayed. Might as well make Misery a twin and in reality her twin sister died and not her. But just like she said, it is believable. Passable but believable.

Paul Doesn’t Try Hard Enough Until the End:

He is so frustrating. Leaving the room at the first chance he got instead of testing the waters was so foolish. Test the lock first to see if you can unlock and lock it again, get familiar with the layout of the house without leaving the room, memorize all that you can. Take things slowly so that each time you do it, you are more prepared and more healed than the time before. Taking unnecessary risks could cost him his life. I get taking a risk if you have the ability to escape but he really had no chance and that was obvious very quickly. He knows she is smart and rarely leaves her home. One wrong move and he could bump or scratch something and she would definitely notice it.

I would like to think that I would take the chance and leave once I could maneuver in the wheelchair. Who knows because King goes over the layout of the house and it seems like he could break a window and get out but it might be impossible based on things that we as a reader don’t know. I would rather take my chances in the woods with the elements than be stuck in that house.

Eventually, it’s going to be too late. You have to take the chance while you can.

The closer Paul gets to being found, the more desperate Annie becomes. The more desperate Annie becomes, the less likely it is for Paul to make it out alive. He finally realizes that one of them must die. At this point, he’s fine either way. He kills Annie and escapes great but if he attacks her and ends up dying in the process, it’s all over and at least he went out on his own terms. He gets to write the ending to his own story. Annie wouldn’t let him kill Misery, this is his way of taking back control.

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Overall,

The story is almost breaking the fourth wall and winking at the reader. You can tell that King was at a point in his career where he was tired of pandering to readers and editors. He wanted to tell everyone how he really felt and boy did he.

If you are a casual reader and don’t catch this then you have a frightening story about obsession and believe that you too could fall victim to Annie Wilkes.

It is anxiety inducing, makes you feel Paul’s physical pain and keeps you captivated throughout the entire story. Overall, it gets the job done as a well written horror novel.

Rating: 4/5 stars