A Novel Look At... Misery by Stephen King

Stephen King will undoubtedly go down in history as the greatest horror writer of all time. He is a master of scaring the living daylights out of his readers and that’s not necessarily because he likes to write about supernatural spooky things that go ‘bump’ in the night. No, the best thing about King is his ability to conjure up truly terrifying characters that could easily exist in real life and one of his most enduring psychos is the infamous Annie Wilkes from Misery.

            The story follows successful writer, Paul Sheldon, trying to survive in Annie’s mental world full of spilt soup, dope addiction and missing appendages after she rescues him from a car crash which left his body in a bit of a mangled wreck. When Annie reads Paul’s latest novel in the Misery series, she is devastated to learn that he has killed off the titular character. In what she believes is a self-righteous task, Annie goes all cockadoodie coo-coo and tortures the poor man into bring Misery back to life in a new novel.

            What Misery manages to do is create a real sense of fear. Annie Wilkes is not a make-believe boogieman; she is a very plausible character that could be walking through your town at this very moment. King finds a very fine balance between making his writing funny and yet on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspenseful; you’re never sure whether Annie is going to be happy as Larry (whoever Larry is anyway) or fly off the handle. The reader may find Annie’s erratic behaviour amusing but to Paul Sheldon, the sudden change in Annie’s demeanour could literally cost him life and limb.

            One thing that I did find a little jarring about Misery is the novel within the novel; Misery’s Return. I wasn’t overly keen on reading the story being written by Paul but then again, Victorian romance novels have never been my cup of tea (here’s looking at you, Jane Austin, you very boring woman). In some ways, it does help to read through it as you begin to understand why Paul wanted to kill her off so much in the first place and you empathise more with him and the situation he’s in. If you want to skip those passages though, you don’t miss anything important.

            If you’re looking for a different kind of horror book written by the master of the genre then I would I highly suggest reading Misery. The tale is so unique and the characters are so vivid that you will be utterly engrossed from start to finish.