Misery

Es difícil calificar este libro. Ha sido increíblemente lento en la primera parte, y hasta cierto punto me estaba aburriendo. Sin embargo, la segunda mitad ha sido cautivadora. La locura de Annie y la decadencia de Paul hicieron que la historia sea muy adictiva.

No me siento muy satisfecha con el final, pero tampoco puedo decir que hubiese querido tener un final del tipo “y vivieron felices por siempre”. No obstante, me ha dejado con una sensación un tanto agridulce.

This book occupies a kind of strange place for me in that I found myself thinking of it as sort of a pulpy horror, but King's writing is great and elevates it beyond that, yet I think I'm willing to overlook some flaws because of that initial label I put on it going in.

Anyways, I just think this is a great little single-location thriller/character piece. I have not seen the movie version, but I'm familiar enough with it that I was expecting to just picture Kathy Bates and James Caan the entire time I was reading it, but I found my imagination creating completely different images for some reason. Annie is so interesting because her madness is a strange perversion of logic and justice. Paul's overactive imagination as a writer adds a lot to the narration.

I listened to this via audiobook from the library and I really enjoyed Lindsay Crouse's reading of it. She puts on a voice for Annie with an appropriate amount of subtlety, as I think it would be easy to play her as way over the top.

This was creepy! Probably the best King I have read so far! Plays heavily on the psychological horror rather than the supernatural, which I really appreciate - humans make the best monsters!

The central premise is a famous writer gets taken prisoner by a crazed fan and forced to write a book to ‘correct' the ending to a story. The entrapment and torture is gruesome, brutal and deeply unsettling. Annie is completely psychotic as a character, but immensely believable as well. The gradual Stockholm Syndrome of Paul is understandable, the psychological pressure he is put in is visceral in its intensity. The general claustrophobia of the story just acts to heighten the fear.

The history behind the writing of this is also fascinating - written as a backlash against his own fans increasing demands it is a powerful counter to the worst tendencies of fandoms.

Be prepared for an uncomfortable but brilliant read

My first Stephen King novel!!
Is it puny if I say I was very miserable reading this? It started out so slow and took so long to pick up to a pace I like. Maybe I'm just not a fan of this genre?? I don't know. Contemplated giving a 2 or 3 star rating - but 3 stars means I would most probably pick up another novel of his but I don't see myself doing that in a long time, at least.