I genuinely can’t remember a time in recent months where I’ve been quite this hooked on a book before, never wanting to finish a reading session, and thinking constantly about what might happen next outside of when I’m reading. That’s the magic of Stephen King I guess!

It had been such a long time since I’d picked up a book by King, potentially due to my months-long slog with It last time haha, but I thought it would be perfect timing coming up to Halloween. Having watched the film of Misery previously, I vaguely remembered the plot but couldn’t recall the ending or some of the more intricate plot points, so this was like a new experience for me. 

King brings such an incredible approach to his writing in books like this where they are so believable, and that fact in itself makes the book so anxiety-inducing. Annie as a main character had such depth and was absolutely terrifying given her unpredictability. You genuinely could never know what she was going to do next, or how far she’d go, with personality changes at the flick of a switch. 

Seeing the story from Paul’s perspective worked so well as we learned tiny bits of information about Annie and her background alongside our main character, increasing the terror bit by bit and heightening Paul’s paranoia alongside this. The ending really drove it home for me from a point of hopelessness to survival, and inevitable aftermath and processing.

I’m remembering why I love King’s writing so much and I’m already craving another read from him - his writing is genuinely addictive. Of course I’ll be back for more but I’ll absolutely remember this as a King classic for good reason.