Book Review – Stephen King’s “Misery”
Have you ever felt like you were a slave to your boss?
How about working for a sadistic boss in the cruellest of conditions?
While many of us have had poor working conditions and an unfair boss at one time or another, it’s going to be hard to top what happens to fiction writer Paul Sheldon when he’s “cared” for by Annie Wilkes, his number-one fan.
Stephen King‘s horror novel Misery begins with Paul Sheldon waking from a coma in Annie Wilkes‘ secluded home in the mountains of Colorado. Paul Sheldon is the author of a best-selling series of Victorian-era romance novels starring Misery Chastain. He awakes from his coma in the home of Annie Wilkes, a woman who claims to be Paul’s number-one fan.
It turns out that Paul Sheldon had recently finished writing his latest book, a standalone novel called Fast Cars, when he was in a dangerous car accident in Colorado. Misery Chastain was killed in the last of the Misery series of novels, and Paul decided to take his writing skills in a different direction. That is, until he took his only copy of Fast Cars with him when he was driving through Colorado and got into a car accident that changed his life.
When Paul finally gains consciousness a week after the wreck, he discovers that both of his legs are mangled and held in place by a rude set of braces. Fortunately for him, Annie Wilkes happens to be a highly experienced nurse, and she knows just how to take care of her favorite author. After all, she’s his number-one fan. The only odd thing is that instead of calling him an ambulance or driving him to a hospital or at least a clinic, Annie brought the injured Paul to her home, a place some distance away from the nearest town.
What Annie does is get Paul hooked on painkillers, for without him the injuries to his legs cause him excruciating pain after a couple of hours. When Paul initially displeases Annie, she punishes him by taking away his painkillers for hours at a time. Annie quickly establishes herself as Paul’s lifeline as not only has she fed and tended to his injuries, but she also contains the pills that ease the pain from his injuries.
Annie has noticed the copy of Fast Cars in Paul’s possession, and she asks his permission to read it as she’s his number-one fan. He grants her permission as she is the administrator of his painkillers. Unfortunately for Paul, Annie greatly despises Fast Cars. She’s appalled by its violence and profanity. When she argues this to Paul, she becomes enraged and spills his soup. The bowl is flung towards the wall and creates a big mess. Annie claims that the mess is Paul’s fault. She punishes him by withholding his painkillers for several hours. When she finally delivers them (after taking her time to clean the mess), she has them wash down the pills by drinking the dirty water from the wash bucket.
Later, Annie forces Paul to burn his only copy of Fast Cars in a symbolic gesture of erasing that terrible story from existence.
Annie Wilkes’ anger is tested again when she finally reads her copy of Misery’s Child, the last of the Misery series of novels. She’s furious that Paul Sheldon killed her beloved Misery character at the end of the novel. She expresses her anger towards Paul, but she leaves the house to visit her “Laughing Place” before she can do anything really harmful. Annie leaves Paul in his bed for two days, lying there in extreme agony and without food or drink, before finally returning and giving him his pain pills.
One day Annie returns home with a typewriter. Her plan is simple. Paul Sheldon is to simply write her a new Misery book, a continuation of the previous story but Misery is alive and well. And he must continue the story in a way that makes sense. He simply cannot magically bring the main character back to life. He has to creatively figure out a way to erase that huge mistake from the ending of the previous book.
Paul is hesitant but finally agrees to write a new Misery book, one just for Annie. It’ll be her own exclusive book called Misery’s Return. But first he’s going to need different paper to use in the typewriter. The paper that Annie bought is no good. Annie has a feeling that Paul is up to something, so before she leaves on the errand she slams her hand into one of Paul’s injured knees, reminding him just who is in charge. Paul is in agony and she heads out for a few hours.
While Annie is away, Paul uses one of her bobby pins to pick the lock on his bedroom door. He then uses the wheelchair to explore what he can of the house. He makes his way into the downstairs bedroom and steals extra pain pills, going so far as hiding them underneath his mattress. Paul is able to barely make it back into his bedroom when Annie suddenly returns home from her errand. It’s a close call but he makes it.
Paul begins writing the new Misery story and Annie reads the chapters after he finishes. She’s upset though with his first draft as she doesn’t accept the way that he brought Misery back to life. His method doesn’t follow the continuation from the ending of Misery’s Child. Paul thinks hard and finally finds a plausible way to bring back Misery in Misery’s Return. This time he claims that Misery was accidentally buried alive after she suffered from a near fatal bee sting. She’s discovered in the graveyard and rescued before succumbing to her real death. Annie accepts this story and allows Paul to continue writing Misery’s Return.
Paul continues writing Misery’s Return and Annie continues with her psychological torment. Soon they establish a pattern where, ironically, Paul is kept to a strict routine and actually produces some of his best writing. It turns out that Misery’s Return will be his best novel. That is, if he can survive Annie Wilkes and take the book to his publisher. Right now Paul Sheldon is simply a missing person and as far as his fans know, Misery was killed at the end of Misery’s Child.
There’s another time when Annie has another leave of absence from her house. Once again Paul picks the lock and wheels himself back into the rest of Annie’s house. This time he discovers Annie’s memory book and learns about her killer past. Apparently Annie is responsible for killing many people, starting with her neighbor’s “bratty” children, her own father, and even her roommate at nursing school. After that she developed a deadly track record of murdering her patients at whichever hospital employed her. Even newborn children suffered from her wrath and Annie was suspected of killing several infants. The state of Colorado tried Annie Wilkes in court, but they didn’t have enough evidence to nail her for the crimes, and a jury let her go free.
When Annie returns home she discovers that Paul has escaped his bedroom and looked through her memory book. It turns out that she carefully used hair all around the house as a way to alert herself to his movements. Annie punishes Paul by using an axe to chop off his left foot. She then uses a blowtorch to seal the wound.
Later, after Paul has been complaining about his leg pains and the broken typewriter, Annie uses an electric knife to cut off his left thumb. She claimed that it was a way for him to take his mind off those problems. Now Paul is forced to continue typing his book without the aide of his thumb. He also has to suffer the pain of his amputated foot along with the phantom pains from his missing foot.
One day a policeman arrives at Annie’s house in search of Paul Sheldon. Months have passed since his car accident and the snow has finally melted. Somebody discovered the car, noticed that it belonged to the missing author, and authorities have been searching for the missing man. Paul sees the young policeman as his rescue from Annie’s torment. He throws an ashtray through his bedroom window and gets the officer’s attention. Unfortunately, that only distracts him as Annie approaches him from behind and stabs him with a wooden cross. She had been in the process of burying her dead cow when the policeman arrived.
Annie badly injures the policeman but he’s still alive. He tries to crawl to his patrol car when Annie returns driving her riding lawnmower. She first runs out the policeman’s hand and chops it off. She then makes a second pass and runs over the rest of his body, brutally killing him and spraying the yard with his blood. Annie then hides the man’s remains along with his patrol car in her barn, and then she simply picks up the evidence and uses a hose to wash away the blood. Annie would later take a couple of days and hide the patrol car and the cop’s body near her “Laughing Place” out in the woods.
Both Paul and Annie know that the two of them will both die fairly soon. There’s no way that Annie can release Paul from her home. They also know that the police will be there in search of the missing cop. That will presumably lead to a search warrant and the discovery of Paul Sheldon. If that happens, and it most likely will, Annie is prepared to kill all of the cops, kill Paul Sheldon, and then take her own life. She escaped being prosecuted once. It’s not going to happen a second time, especially with the courts knowing her extremely suspicious history.
Paul buys himself time by pledging to finish writing Misery’s Return. He has stopped allowing Annie to read the finished chapters. Now she’s going to have to wait until the very end to learn what happens to her favorite character.
While Paul is finishing Misery’s Return, two state police officers arrive and speak with Annie about the disappearance of the other police officer. This time Paul remains silent and stays out of sight. He watches them through the window and later hears their conversation when they enter Annie’s home and look around some of the rooms. At one point one of the officers is just outside his bedroom door. Paul refuses to take a chance that Annie finds a way of overpowering both of the officers. He stays quiet and listens as they leave her home.
A few days later Misery’s Return is finally finished. Annie feeds Paul some lavish food and allows him a cigarette so that he can celebrate finishing the novel. The cigarette though is a trick. What Paul really wanted was a match to go along with the lighter fluid he stole when Annie locked him in the basement for two days. When Annie is getting the champagne and out of the room, Paul sets his trap.
When Annie returns to the bedroom, Paul lights the match and sets Misery’s Return on fire. Parts of the room catch fire. When Annie tries desperately to save the only copy of the one thing she’s been wanting, Paul attacks her with the typewriter. She’s severely burned and injured, but she still tries to attack Paul as he tries to escape from the room. He finally succeeds and locks Annie inside of the bedroom. Paul takes more pills and falls asleep in the hallway. He awakens the next day as the state police officers arrive with their search warrant. They finally bust their way into the home and Paul warns them about Annie in the next room. When they enter the room, Annie is gone. Paul freaks out and faints.
It turns out that Paul Sheldon really didn’t burn Misery’s Return. The real copy of the book was hidden underneath his mattress. He fooled Annie by showing her the real title page but a bunch of drafts that he wrote and later trashed. The book is sent to the publisher, and when word spreads of Paul’s misery in the hands of Annie, he’s a major celebrity. Misery’s Return is a smash hit and his publisher begs Paul to write the real story of what happened while being held captive by Annie Wilkes.
Unfortunately, Annie’s wrath lasts well past the events in her home. Paul frequently hallucinates and thinks that he keeps seeing images of Annie popping out of shadows and from behind closed doors. This sends him back in his previous alcohol problem, and he hasn’t written anything for months. Paul has a frightening vision of Annie when he returns home to his apartment one day.
It’s revealed that Annie escaped from the bedroom at her home before the state police officers arrived, but she really died in the barn. The massive head injury that she sustained while fighting Paul was what claimed her life. It was a good thing for Paul as Annie was trying to reach her chainsaw so that she could kill him once and for all.
Misery ends as Paul finally sits down and begins writing again.
So is Stephen King’s Misery a good book?
This isn’t merely a good book.
Misery is a frightening horrific, page-turning book that keeps you hooked until the very ending. You feel for Paul as he is continually tormented and tortured by the sadistic and crazy Annie Wilkes. It’s terrifying when she brutally chops off his leg. It’s an edge-of-your-seat experience as Paul finally attacks Annie and desperately tries to escape from her clutches.
Misery is a classic tale of horror written by perhaps the best horror writer in today’s times. It’s a solid story, it moves at a quick pace, and Annie Wilkes is a terrifying believable character. I found myself staying up late and finding time to continue reading this gripping story.
Fans of horror stories will find themselves right at home with Misery. This is a fantastic book that will hold you until its final pages.
