Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Misery by Stephen King

7 reviews

tyelperinquar's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.5

Funny that the last book I finished before my reading break was a King book and this book, the one that got me back into reading again, is also a King book.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this one. Everything takes place within Annie Wilkes’s house, and the tension in the book comes from wondering what Annie will do to Paul next, and wondering if Paul will be able to get out of it alive. (Can you, Paulie?)
For fans of more traditional thrillers, there may not be enough action, because there’s a lot of Paul writing and a lot of him just being cooped up in the bedroom Annie keeps him in. But for people who enjoy psychological thrillers, tense character interactions, exploring the psyche of the main characters, and watching how a traumatic situation can change a person, there’s a lot to enjoy.

This is only the second King book I’ve read, but the guy’s a bit weird about sex. There are some non-rape situations in the book that he describes as rape which are really uncomfortable to read, but I guess that’s the goal? Still, I don’t  particularly appreciate them. That’s the one thing about King’s writing that irks me— otherwise, I adore how he’s able to craft a narrative and portray characters and the scenes they’re in.

I listened to an audiobook recording of this book— Lindsay Crouse was a phenomenal narrator. Her voice for Annie was absolutely spot-on, and the emotion she can conjure up made the story that much more immersive. Highly, highly recommend giving it a listen for her voice work.

I was really worried the book was going to end with

the scene where Annie chops Paul’s head off

, but that ends up not being the case. Thank God. Figuring out the details at the end about

where Annie was found in the barn and how she was holding a chainsaw

… that was chilling.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! Very easy to listen to and pick up. And what can I say, I love reading about men who get into awful situations and are traumatized about it. It’s cathartic. Thanks for your service, Paulie!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Racial slurs, and Terminal illness

There’s no actual rape, but King describes several non-rape situations (ie.

Annie performing mouth-to-mouth on Paul and Paul stuffing paper down Annie’s throat

kyleeb4by's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

definitely some weird sentences in there but yeah stephen king ate 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence

Minor: Rape and Sexual content

bernard_black's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Drug use, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Sexual content

chrisljm's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

i felt like i was personally being tortured while reading this 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, and Car accident

Minor: Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

frankiejo's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Even more poignant today than it was in 1987! It's frankly eerie how well this book (which, mind you, is thirty-five years old) still holds up in its criticisms of fan culture, especially when it comes to obsessive fans and unhealthy parasocial relationships. Other parts of the book don't hold up as well, unfortunately. The "Misery interludes" as I call them start off strong but pretty quickly become...racist, to be honest. Also, Annie drops an n-bomb at one point, which is not reflected on at all and is just brushed past like it's another one of her cockadoodie quirks.

Now, in another novel (written by a different authour—no shade to King, but I feel like he's shown that racism isn't a topic he covers well, I'll get to why in a moment) this could be used to examine the often racist aspects of toxic fandom. This is not that novel. Annie's racism seems to be a trait added to her slapdash in order to make her More Evil. It's not necessary. By the point she says the n-word, she's already (MAJOR SPOILERS)

cut off Paul's foot with an axe.

Depictions of racism in King's books is often only as an additional layer of evilness on an already vile character, which I feel disregards the more insidious form racism takes—covert, not overt. I think it paints an unrealistic portrait of what racism looks like—as a mustache twirling villain who announces his intentions loud and clear. Not your nice, friendly neighbour, not your boyfriend, and certainly not you. When King writes more subtle racism, "nice" racism, to use a term I think was coined by Robin DiAngelo, it's often seems to be an incidental product of his own biases. (I say I think because I can't find a use of it prior to her 2001 book. If I am incorrect there, please do tell me so I can adjust accordingly.) I feel this has lessened somewhat in his more recent work, which is good, but I'm reviewing Misery right now.

I'm gonna be honest, that's the main reason I rated this 4 stars. Without the aforementioned things, it would be an easy 5. Maybe that sounds overzealous, I don't know. It just really bothered me while I was reading, and also this is my review so. Yeah.

As for the good stuff, there's a lot of it.

Like I said before, Misery is more poignant now than it was before, largely because of the advent of social media further thinning the veil between our lives and the lives of celebrities. I would hate to touch the masterpiece that is Kathy Bates' Annie, but part of me wants to see a reimagining of Misery set in the modern day. Imagine an Annie with access to Paul's Instagram DMs...brrrrr.

Paul himself is a great protagonist. The whole novel, I was raging at his captor and pleading for his rescue to come sooner. He begs to be rooted for. I don't know a better way to phrase it—he's perhaps not the most layered character, but that's okay. Annie more than makes up for it, enough that I can't get to it all here, and he's likable enough to make up for his relative lack of depth. Besides, his journey from being completely dependent on Novril and hardly able to move to (MAJOR SPOILERS)

fighting off and <i>killing</i> his much stronger captor is a character journey in and of itself.

Finally, the novel contains many intriguing thoughts on writing. I can't share them all, although I wish I could, so I'll leave you with my favourite:

[...] the increasing dismissal of his work in the critical press as that of a 'popular writer' (which was, as he understood it, one step — a small one — above that of a 'hack') had hurt him quite badly. It didn't jibe with his self-image as a Serious Writer who was only churning out these shitty romances in order to subsidize his (flourish of trumpets, please!) REAL WORK! Had he hated Misery? Had he really? If so, why had it been so easy to slip back into her world? No, more than easy; blissful, like slipping into a warm bath with a good book by one hand and a cold beer by the other. Perhaps all he had hated was the fact that her face on the dust jackets had overshadowed his in his author photographs, not allowing the critics to see that they were dealing with a young Mailer or Cheever here — that they were dealing with a heavyweight here. As a result, hadn't his 'serious fiction' become steadily more self conscious, a sort of scream? Look at me! Look how good this is! Hey, guys! This stuff has got a sliding perspective! This stuff has got stream-of-consciousness interludes! This is my REAL WORK, you assholes! Don't you DARE turn away from me! 

Seems to parallel real world reaction to King's work—that his horror is just meaningless genre fiction (just ignore the heavy emotional themes in books like Pet Sematary and Doctor Sleep) and his non-horror work is True Art. All your writing is "Real Writing," no matter if it's a fluffy romance or the next 1984.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Gaslighting

Minor: Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Transphobia, Excrement, and Cannibalism

Elaboration on a couple of the triggers:

the cannibalism is only threatened and the rape is metaphorical. tagged to be safe

himangi's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

micah_berg's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual content