A review by lethargicbat
Gerald's Game by Stephen King

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

0.75

The more I think about this book the more my feelings shift from just disappointed to outright anger. The handling of the CSA in graphic detail yet barely a glimpse of attention to the death of the abusive men. The fact that a book centered on Jessie and her trauma and the feminist themes that were encoded in the premise alone of breaking free from her handcuffs that shackle her life by two differently awful yet still similar men, was handled poorly. The voices of these people in her life that make up her and their banter wasn't a slog when it could have been providing insight for this character. The way the ending shifts to be reassuring about the police and that the big baddie wasn't her father that molested her nor her husband that was going to commit martial rape but instead was a random ‘figure of death’ that actually turns out to be a gay, necrophiliac pedophile that likes to wear lingerie and has schizophrenia. 

There was so much potential for an empowering and horrifying story but King, like always, fails miserably to the point that the only potential his stories have is the general plot premise. His work remains best as living in the a bargin bin and reading the plot on a back before being tossed back and privately mused on while alone. Otherwise his writing sucks the potential out of these premises to make you so utterly exhausted that you don't even care enough to reimagine the better story you were hoping for.
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