Misery

This week I got to re-read a book by Stephen King called Misery. I have always been a huge fan of Stephen King and I have read many of his books. I would venture to say that I have read more of his titles than any other author.

Misery is a tense story about a super fan named Annie Wilkes. Paul Sheldon wakes up in pain. He is in an unfamiliar bedroom. Annie loves to tell Paul that she is his number one fan. She tells him this throughout the book. This starts to give us a glimpse of her obsession with Paul and his character Misery.

After Paul gets into a car accident in a snowstorm, Annie finds him and brings him back to her farmhouse. She has decided that she will nurse him back to health. Most of the story takes place in the bedroom where Paul wakes up.

As the story progresses, Paul comes to realize that Annie is mentally unstable. Her obsession with Paul’s fictional; character Misery is unhealthy. When Annie tells Paul that his story is all wrong and that he must re-write it for her. He realizes that he is being held captive and that there is no escape.

Annie becomes more frustrated with Paul. Each time he does anything that she does not like results in some form of an extreme act of barbaric cruelty. Paul comes close to death a few times as a result.

In the end, Paul must dig deep into his soul to re-write Misery with a new story and ending. Paul can trick Annie and escape her leaving her with a fractured skull to die in her barn.

Paul’s new version of Misery ends up being his best book ever.