Book
Review
The genre of
book I have been reading is horror. I am reading Misery by Stephen King who is a well-known horror author and this
has been my first time reading an entire book in the horror genre. I really
liked the book because it had a very interesting plot even though it was not
very exciting or “action-packed”.
The book is about an author named Paul
Sheldon who gets in a car crash in a small town in Colorado. A woman named
Annie Wilkes finds him and brings him into her house. It turns out that Annie
is his “biggest fan” and is strangely obsessed with Paul. Annie has a hard time
controlling her anger and is mentally unstable. She makes him unable to leave
her house. Annie becomes the main antagonist in the story.
The story is not extremely scary most of
the time and can get a little boring, but sometimes there are certain parts
which make me really like the book and make it a horror novel.
“ANNIE OH PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!”
Her eyes were mild and drifting. “Don’t
worry,” she said. “I’m a trained nurse.”
The axe came whistling down and buried
itself in Paul Sheldon’s left leg just above the ankle. Pain exploded up his
body in a giant bolt. Dark-red blood splattered across her face like Indian
war-paint. It splattered the wall. He heard the blade squeal against bone as
she wrenched it free. He looked unbelievably down at himself. The sheet was
turning red. He saw his toes wriggling. Then he saw her raising the dripping
axe again. Her hair had fallen free of its pins and hung around her blank
face.”
This is a perfect example of what makes
this book scary, not only the gory details of his foot being cut off, but the
expressionless face of Annie as she does it. There are many other examples like
this in the book, though this is one of the most extreme things Annie does,
because she goes from completely normal to insane in a matter of seconds which
makes her really unpredictable with what she is going to do next.
There are not many characters in this
novel except for Paul and Annie. Annie is the most interesting of the two
because of her split personality. She is also very unique in general because of
the way she treats Paul as an abusive mother. “She looked at him with faint
disapproval—but, as before, it was mixed with love. It was a maternal look.” She acts like she cares
for him but really keeps him just to keep writing his Misery novels. Paul is
really not that interesting as a character and is just lying there desperate
for help most of the story which is understandable since he can’t walk.
One of my other favorite things about this
novel is the way it was written. Even though most of the story takes place in
one bedroom Stephen King finds a way to make the story suspenseful and
exciting. He writes in a very detailed way and this really helps to picture
what is going on in the story. This especially helps to add to the overall
quality of the story especially when there is a gory moment like when Annie
chops Paul’s leg off with an axe. I think this is one of the many strengths of
this novel because without the writing being as detailed as it is, the story
would not be as suspenseful or scary.
I really liked this book, I think it had a
good, unique plot and one of the most evil antagonists I have ever read about
in a book. For a rating I would give it a 4.5 out of 5.
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