Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Misery

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Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Misery by Stephen King

208 reviews

samanthas92's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

crazy lady tortures her victim for a crappy ending to his novel series. SHE'S A PSYCHOPATH

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clairebau's review against another edition

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tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

Great thriller. Characterization and description were wonderful. I would've liked more obvious symbolism between the plights of Paul and Misery, if King was going to put her story in there anyway. This book does a pretty good job of staying fresh despite 99% of it taking place in one room, but it could have done a better one.

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alvinsjoo's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Very suspenseful and fantastically written! Now I don’t have many books to compare it with but it’s hard to imagine any other book to be better than this one, so it’s five stars for me!

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perth_is's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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krmreads2024's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This is my favourite Stephen King's. Definitely. Misery is so tense, agonising, horrifying and empowering. It is about an author, Paul Sheldon, who ends up in a car crash, and wakes up in the house of Annie Wilkes, who is his self-proclaimed number one fan of his Misery book series. It is a tense kidnapping story of this man trying to desperately escape the violent, unhinged and unpredictable Annie Wilkes, as he is forced to rewrite a new ending to Misery. King's magnum opus of a horror novel tackles the parasocial relationship between a super fan and their idol and when expectations are shaken when confronted by the idol's true self. This parasocial relationship is turned up to eleven in the case of Paul Sheldon and Annie Wilkes, then flipped on its end when both become dependent on one another, in a twisted love-hate-obsession relationship. The fact that this whole book is basically these two characters interacting with each other, trying to assess what the other is thinking, is incredibly strong. It's about authorial intent vs death of the author, and the separation of art from the artist. You can tell that some of his fears and philosophies as a writer come out to most in this novel. There are also themes of addiction and renewal. There are moments of sadness, of pain, of pure horror and of levity and triumph. Such a rollercoaster of a book that you won't want to put down.

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deervv's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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nneka23's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I’m glad I finished this book, but it took me a lot longer with more effort than I expected. The overall storyline is engrossing in a way that makes it hard to quit, but I definitely came close a couple times. I’m not sure why the passages from Misery’s Return needed to be included - I personally was not at all interested in reading them. I kept wanting to find out more about what’s happening to Paul, and I think sometimes that got lost in the constant inner thoughts or the excerpts from Misery’s Return. I just had a hard time fully sinking into the story. That said, it was still well-written most of the time and King definitely knows how to create an atmosphere of dread as well as tension for the reader. The last act of the book went at crazy speeds. I’m now curious to watch the movie for comparison purposes.

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