Misery

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Encourages Reading
Review: Unlike many books which are difficult to begin, difficult to read, and an utter struggle to finish, King brings fiction new legs to run on. While I was enduring a drought of reading, I picked up Misery, and I wasn't able to put it down until I found out what happened to Paul Sheldon.

King's writing abilities are under-rated, and his adept ability to weave a story should not go unrecognized. Misery is no exception; the novel provides an interesting story and interesting characters that are real. Unlike many stories, novels, and books, the reader can relate to both protagonist and antagonist - a skill only a few have mastered. King knows what scares people, and insane radicals like Annie Wilkes are definitely frightening when you find yourself in their care.

Rating:
Summary: If you think the movie was good. . .
Review: A co-worker a long time ago begged me to read the book. She was a big mystery novel fan and was crazy about Stephen King. I said, "why bother" the movie was great, suspenful and Kathy Bates was Annie Wilkes as far as I was concern and besides, I didn't really like reading mystery novels. I found them boring and overly meticulous with the details. Then I saw the movie again on television and remembered how that co-worker said that after reading the book, you'll be dissapointed with the movie. So, I made the monumental effort to read this book. I couldn't put it down. And yes, the movie adaptation paled in comparisson. So much detail was left out from the book. And although Kathy Bates, was great in the movie, King's Annie Wilkes is a hell-of-a-lot scarier. And the way she died in the movie is sooo sanitized. How very dissappointing that the movie makers bowed out and chose a more cleaner, neater death for this "number one fan." King is very skillful in bringing out the fears and weaknesses of the main character Paul Sheldon. In the movie, James Caan portrayed a bravier character, but the book clearly shows that Paul Sheldon all but lost hope in seeing another day, except for who he is, a writer, and a writer must see the book to its fruitition, just like just readers must find out what happens at the end. I love this analogy and it makes the story more palpable, more real. I have to admit that the book is so much better than the movie. I have gained a lot of appreciation for Stephen King. I can see why he has so much appeal to the masses. He knows how to tell a story. You feel like a kid sitting around a campfire, while a skillful grown-up spins a really scary story. To that co-worker, yes you're right, the book is better.

Rating:
Summary: Misery: The Absolute Best Stephen King Book
Review: I have read every single book that Stephen King has ever written (yes, including The Wolves of Calla) and out of all of his books, Misery blows all of them away. The way that King implements sheer horror into the novel has me spellbinded. The thing that makes this novel much more horrific than the other novels is that it is set in a real-life situation. Everything that goes on in this book can and probably is happening even as I type this review. The way that King has created Annie Wilkes is unbelievable. She is so strong a character that she could only have been created by King. The way that he actually delved into the mind of a psychotic person and then transferred that personality to Annie Wilkes is un-matched by any other author to this date. The way he shows the utter fear in Paul Sheldon's mind as Annie goes off on one of her psychotic frenzies is remarkable. I have read this book 8 (yes, eight) times. 7 times in English, and once in Spanish. And it never ceases to scare me silly.

Rating:
Summary: Trapped!
Review: A Review by Colby

Paul Sheldon the main character had gotten into a car crash and both of his legs were shattered, and his pelvis was dislocated. Annie Wilkes picked him up and brought him to her house. He learns that she is his "number one fan" and that she has all of his books but she likes the Misery books the best. Annie reads the manuscript for a new book and doesn't like it. She gets him a wheelchair and an old typewriter and has him write a new Misery book just for his "number one fan".

I like the book Misery because some of the things that Annie Wilkes does are just completely horrifying. For example, she found out that Paul had snuck out of his room so she performs an operation that she calls "hobbling", she cuts Paul's foot off with an axe and cauterizes what's left of his leg with a blowtorch. The book has many good conflicts in it. Most of the conflicts are Character VS. Character, most if not all are exciting and or very creepy. Another reason I like Misery is because the plot is something that could really happen, I think what happens in the story could really happen because there are a lot of crazy people in the world and I'm sure that some are really like Annie Wilkes.

I would recommend the book Misery to people that like scary stories about people that get trapped and can't control what happens to them. The book is easy to read and exciting.

Rating:
Summary: King's love letter indeed
Review: Once as a gift, my little brother was given a joker-like puppet on strings attached to a piece of wood with four sides. Depending on the angle you tilted the wood, the puppet would move corresponding with the attached strings. This bares stricking resemblence to the human puppetry displayed in this novel. This novel, to be frank, is a novel's novel. It was almost as if King stripped his writing knowledge down to what he had acquired in college. He was in a serious writing 'mode' when doing this one, and it shows a bit too much. The plot is nothing new to expect fom King: A writer gets trapped by his '#1 Fan' and is forced to write the storys she loves so. But, this muchacha is a bit loca. Muy loca. In any arguement about King and his villians, there is always someone who pipes up praises for Miss Wilkes, and, after reading about her, you see why. She exhibits a bit of 'Dr. Jeckyll-Mr. [or Ms.] Hyde' psychology, but saying this would ignore her crucial depression and anti-sociality, which are clear and evident in most places. Anyone who is anyone knows someone like Wilkes, in my case it's my mom, and so, as it is with most of King's characters, you can relate with them. [I don't think this is all very positive, as they are called 'works of fiction', and so you're going to have to use your imagination sometime. But if you've ever tied to write a story, you see how I could be contradicting.] King must have done some serious psychological study before and during writing this, because you can't get along three pages without getting a footnote on it. It discusses being trapped within your own self when there is nowhere else to hide your negative mentality, and Sheldon's addiction to pain-killers is a hearty example--or maybe King just wanted to share an experience from his own little trips he had in the mid-80's. But anywho, it shows that no one is safe from themselves and the feelings of others, no matter how closed your mind or front door is. In the simple perspective of Sheldon, one could feel under the rule of giant hand anytime and feeling like you are forced into something completely against your will and if you do not participate there are dire consequences--in my case it's in Math class. One could conclude that artists do not fully realize who and what they are to their fans and followers, and so their perspective on them drastically changes in a situation like this [although, when do you hear aout any situation similar to this? Never, that's the only reason this story is fictional]. 'Misery' is very enjoyable, entertaining, and, in some places, educating if you're a med student or just plain ignorant. The only reason I didn't give this one five stars in because you have to be a 'mode' when you read it. But maybe King meant for it to be that way, so......?

Rating:
Summary: Emotional, Terrifying, and Possible
Review: Stephen King has written many great novels. Some feature fantastic settings, others featuring unreal circumstances. Most of his novels are terrifying, regardless of the unbelievability of some. But some novels can really hit home in the fact that there is nothing impossible or supernatural in them. "Misery" is one such book, as this type of scenario could very well happen, and probably almost has to some celebrities.

Paul Sheldon is a writer (King seems to have one in nearly every book.) He wakes up in a dreary, drug-induced state, in the care of former nurse Annie Wilkes. Right from the start, he realizes something is a little off with Annie. For one thing, she didn't bring him to the hospital after finding him when his car ran off the road. He'd been drinking and driving in the middle of a blizzard after finishing his newest book, what may very well be his best.

He puts it off a little, as she supplies him with the drugs he needs and seems to be a big fan of his Misery series of novels. The series has a lot of fans. Paul isn't one of them. He hates Misery for taking over his career, and realizes that if he ever wanted to write something outside of that 1800s world, he would have to end it. So, at the end of the last Misery novel, he kills her.

Annie didn't agree with this. She finishes the last of the Misery books while Paul is in her care, and her reaction isn't positive. Or sane. She makes him suffer at first, punishing him for what he did, and then decides that he has to write his next novel about Misery, all for her. As time passes, and he begins writing, he begins to discover all the horrible truths about Annie Wilkes.

"Misery" is very interesting. The claustrophobic atmosphere is discomforting, and it isn't any better that Paul is trapped with a madwoman. Right from the start, the metaphor is introduced about the bird he'd seen at the zoo when he was a child, one imported from Africa, and how he'd realized that it would never go home. His thoughts of the bird represent himself, in his dire situation, and how he must get out if he ever wants to be free.

Throughout the book, various musings on writing are brought up. Non-writers don't be fooled; not every writer goes through the same processes as another, or even between different books and stories. King's musings may not even represent his own different paths, but simply ideas about how ideas develop and how stories are sometimes created.

...

While "Misery" does start to slow down after a while, it changes drasticly before hitting a hard point, and the questions a reader will have brought up in their heads earlier in the book will be answered as the mystery of Annie Wilkes is delved into in full, chilling detail.

And chilling it is. "Misery" will relate well with the reader. Simply thinking of what could happen in life, or relating one situation of Paul's or his thoughts to your own, will really link the book to your own emotions. While the ending is a little anti-climactic, the actual climax that occurs before it is amazing, and the end does not undo the gripping pace that leads throughout the novel. Pick up this book soon. No one deserves the misery of lacking it.

-Escushion

Rating:
Summary: A fast paced read
Review: I considered myself a fan of King, and I enjoy every pieve of work he has punblished.
It took me a total of six hours to read Misery. Althrough I already knew the ending, I didn't know most of the plot. I won't wreck it for those who haven't read it, but, let me tell you, it takes a lot to scare me, and certain sections of Misery do just that.
One more thing. Towards the end of the book, Anne says that one of the men she killed was a artist making drawings of the Overlook Hotel, which was burned down ten years before by it's caretaking. This is, of cource, a refecance to The Shining. Also, if you ever read IT, you'll find another refence to The Shining, when Dick Holloran, the cook, is mentions.

Rating:
Summary: I am your number one fan
Review: I was thirteen when I started reading King. He usually writes a story abour a monster that will come from God knows where, rip your friends to pieces and then (if you're lucky) you get to kill it.

That's what everyone told me.

Misery is a very different kind of horror story. The monster is not twelve feet tall, it does not have two heads and it doesn't eat children. It is a monster we can read about everyday in the newspapers. The deranged fan of a superstar.

She is a nurse who finds a man doomed to die unless she helps him. He is an acclaimed novelist, he is famous, he is rich. And she is his number one fan.

The way King justifies the horrors that she puts him through (isn't it true than when we all watched the film we had our legs tucked safely beneath us or held our ankles to make sure they were still there), with her own eyes, but turns her into a pyscopath in the novelists eyes is pure genius. The horrors are not unbelieveable and not unreal. The horror of this story is that it can happen to anyone.

If anyone has read The Collector, then this is a must. It is the same sort of story, the same skeleton, but the bones are brittle and if you don't treat them with care, they may break.....

Rating:
Summary: A Must read
Review: I read this book a few years ago, when I was in High School, and I still can't get it out of my mind. It is so much better than the movie. It literally gave me the chills!
I was freaking out while reading, I was constanly worried for our good guy, that he will get caught by Annie, while he was out trying ot escape out of her house. When he doesn't want to do what she says, she finds wuite horrible ways to make him listen.
Total page turner, and impossible to put down. For those who find King to be a bit hard to get into, this book is smooth as butter, and reads like a dream.
Scary but good!!!

Rating:
Summary: Misery is correct
Review: I found "Misery" to be aptly titled. It is long (well, ok, maybe not "It" long, but it felt long) and very dull. The story is that writer Paul Sheldon has a bad car crash and is nursed back to health by Anne Wilkes. Ms. Wilkes is a nurse with a slight fixation problem on Misey Chastain, Sheldon's charactor from the series of books he's wrote. Everything is fine until she reads his latest book, and finds out Misery dies. She the tortures him relentlessly to write a new book reviveing the fictional charactor. She uses everything from broad side of an axe to a torch as motivation. Paul and Anne are the only charactors in the book, so with no point of view switching, things got very monotonous. The worst thing is, nothing really happens. When Paul isn't writting, he's being beatern. That goes on for 300 pages or so. I just didn't like "Misery" folks, it was so grim it was hard to identify with. The violence is not pleasent to sit through either. Stephen King must have been very paranoid (or high?) when he wrote this. I recomend renting the movie, which is leaps and bounds better than the book.