
King also used the “story within a story” technique in this book which I think is part of the character development of Paul Sheldon (perhaps to showcase his writing skills). Throughout the book, King also shared some of his writing tips through Paul’s character when he was forced to write a book specially for Annie. Annie’s character really made me feel so uncomfortable and disturbed, which is a huge success for an author to be able to create such a character which allows readers to fully immersed into its characterization. King made these scenes so graphic by just using words. There are a few very very disturbing and brutal scenes in this book. From Annie Wilkes (an ex nurse who is a number one fan of Paul Sheldon), we can see that she suffers from personality disorder, her fury, her mood swings and most importantly, her rage, is super terrifying. From Paul Sheldon’s character (a famous novelist who is kidnapped by his number one fan), we can see his addiction towards drugs (painkillers), his passion towards writing, his mentality when he was trapped by himself and his trauma after the incident. King sets a very high bar for the “psychological horror” genre through Misery. But content wise, it is so deep, well-researched and of course, gruesome. And when she found out what Paul had done to Misery, she didn’t like it. The bad news was that she was Paul’s Number One Fan. The good news was that Annie was a nurse and has pain-killing drugs. Annie Wilkes had pulled him from the wreck, brought him to her remote mountain home, splinted and set his mangled legs.

That’s when the car accident happened, and he woke up in pain in a strange bed.

And now he wanted to get on to some real writing. Misery had made him rich she was the heroine of a string of bestsellers. Paul Sheldon had just killed her – with relief, with joy.
