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A review by meliacartin
Gerald's Game by Stephen King
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
this was………. a lot. this was SO much. this book took me months to get through because it is so slow and so dense but it wasn’t a book that i found myself bored by (for the most part). yes the book took forever but the pacing of the book is very reflective of jessie’s experience of being literally chained to a bed in the middle of the woods for like 28 hours. i have several criticisms of this book but the pacing isn’t one
the scene with the broken cup i had to skip because of how intense and graphic it was, same with the eclipse scene. while i understand why the cup scene was included, but it felt odd to me that the eclipse scene went into such incredible detail of the abuse that jessie endured. i think it would have been more effective had the reader been left to connect certain dots, rather that being given a play-by-play
because of how drawn out the book was, it took forever to get to what the ACTUAL plot was. for that reason, it felt really out of left field to me. i’d spent so much of the book thinking it was just going to be an escape plan that the inclusion of That One Guy didn’t make a ton of sense to me? like it did but it didn’t, i don’t know. this is a very poorly worded review lol
the end was a little meh for me. the book felt like it just kept going, trying to explain more and more and more. it would have been fine to leave certain things more open-ended or not as black-and-white
idk. for my first stephen king novel, i think this was a good choice. but i did not expect this to go the way it did at all when i first started it. i doubt anyone will read this before reading, but if they do: PLEASE heed the content warnings
the scene with the broken cup i had to skip because of how intense and graphic it was, same with the eclipse scene. while i understand why the cup scene was included, but it felt odd to me that the eclipse scene went into such incredible detail of the abuse that jessie endured. i think it would have been more effective had the reader been left to connect certain dots, rather that being given a play-by-play
because of how drawn out the book was, it took forever to get to what the ACTUAL plot was. for that reason, it felt really out of left field to me. i’d spent so much of the book thinking it was just going to be an escape plan that the inclusion of That One Guy didn’t make a ton of sense to me? like it did but it didn’t, i don’t know. this is a very poorly worded review lol
the end was a little meh for me. the book felt like it just kept going, trying to explain more and more and more. it would have been fine to leave certain things more open-ended or not as black-and-white
idk. for my first stephen king novel, i think this was a good choice. but i did not expect this to go the way it did at all when i first started it. i doubt anyone will read this before reading, but if they do: PLEASE heed the content warnings
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail