Gerald's Game

This book was a good read. I never had the chance to read it before and I recently saw the netflix adaption, (which was good by the way), and decided that I needed to read this. I was not disappointed! As always, Stephen King keeps you on the edge of your seat, and you dont ever want to put the book down! It makes you wonder what you yourself would and could do if you were put in that situation.

In his book titled, "On Writing" he sites this earlier work as one that he initially didn't like a ton, but later felt it was an example of good writing. He was right. Well written, kept you hanging, warped (don't you love it), and a nice flow to the plot line. I have read, acutally listened, to over 25 of his works and will keep buying/borrowing as many as I can get. This earlier work, circa ealy ninties, is far more graphic than his later works (some critics feel he mellowed too much after his accident), but even my wife has become desensitized. Dark humor, gore and an intriguing plot line. Well worth the read/listen. PS the reader in the audio version does a great job.

Being part of a book club is what got me to read my first ever Stephen King book. And I’m so glad I did! I am a reader who wants to feel the words on the page. Good or bad. This one had me disgusted, revolted, scared, and anxious. It had me on the edge of my seat, to say the least. (Or bed) If your regular genre of book isn’t a thriller or horror, I would still suggest this read. That’s coming from a YA fantasy writer!

I 1st read this book around '92 when i was about 21 yrs old. Back then, my 21yr old brain seemed to like it & thought it was pretty good. Not awesome, but pretty good. I recall thinkin that it did drag just a bit seeing as it, for the most part, takes place over the course of only 2 days. So i think i remember it did seem just a lil bit tedious at times. But all in all i still liked it. Fast forward over 20yrs later to 2013. I usually dont read books more than once except for my all time fav the shining which i read 3x & listened to the audio version once. I dont read anymore but now love audiobooks instead & since amazon has great deals on used 1s, i been buyin all kings older stuff and reliving them. Its always good to read a book & to listen to its audio version too cuz you get 2 different expiriences. Anyway, i listened to this audiobook with my now older brain & boy what a different expirience i had. The whole idea/concept of the book gets 5 stars, but the stupidity of the character and her constant yammering and babbling gets 1 star. So averaging it out gets 3 stars. I've noticed that king writes alot of his female characters as very stupid and inane (this character and the 1 in Liseys Story are the biggest 1s but there are lots of others too), and he seems to write alot of his child characters as too intelligent & mature for such young ages. His handeling like that of said women & children is just 1 of my pet peeves i have with king. Anyway, listening out loud to the constant, constant babble of this inane female character was almost too much to bear after the halfway point of the reading. I mean i was literally shouting out loud to my player to just shut the hell up already & get to the friggin point/move along for cryin out loud. It really was nerve-wracking to listen to her stupidity in several places. So i wouldn't recommend listening to the audio version of it this time around. You'd probably be less frustrated by reading it compared to listening to it. And be prepared to have patience when reading.

This wasn't my absolute favorite book of King's. Not nearly. But it was good enough to keep me turning the pages. As everyone can imagine, the whole story is focused around the main character getting out of her predicament. She's handcuffed to a bed, she must get out to survive, but she's simultaneously battling with her inner demons - her childhood tramas. There was a bit of redundancy going on in this book, but it' understandable. King's known for getting a little long-winded, but when you have one character to write and the rest of the book has to be constructed of memories, inner voices, and one nondescript entity, you have to get creative. I think King did a great job in this arena. Also, I was pleased with the way he wrote her escape from the handcuffs. It was graphic, and it did make me cringe, but I though it was just enough horror to keep things lively and realistic.

SPOILER ALERT! Having said that, I wasn't too excited about the end of the book. It's not that I wanted the presence in the home to be a ghost, or some supernatural being of some kind, but there was something (I still can't put my finger on it) that fizzled out for me. Throughout the book, I was waiting for something really horrifying to happen. Waiting for the the visitor to return, and for him/it to do something absolutely horrific. Sure, I want my main character to get away; we all like a happy ending, but when the visitor's identity was revealed, the mystery was gone. There was something far more terrifying about NOT knowing what or who the thing was, as opposed to finding out that it was just some malformed, homicidal creep who liked to steal jewelry and perform sexual acts with corpses. It was just lacking that special something. The last thing that bothered me was the time frame. She was only cuffed to the bed for 24 hours. Now, I know that going without food and water for an entire day sucks. I've done it. But by the way King described her physical state, you'd think she had been stuck there for 2 or 3 days. And when she made her first attempt at getting the water from the table beside the bed, she had only been cuffed for a few hours. Most people aren't near death from dehydration within hours. It kind of detracted form the significance of the main character's situation. Sure, I can get emotionally invested in my character's need for water, and her very creative way of getting to it, when I'm on the edge of my seat, knowing how vital it is that she reach that glass, because it she doesn't, she's going to die...soon. But when it's only been a matter of a few hours, I'm left wondering why she's already so damn weak and dehydrated. Just a little silly.

Never the less, I've read worse from King, and I'd not sway anyone away from this book. It was just okay.

I am reviewing this based on the content of the book and the narrator of the audio book. I have to point out that the tones between each chapter (I assume they were between chapters, as the chapter numbers were never announced) were beyond annoying. They reminded me of those old cell phone tones that were sometime piercing. There are various tones, some less annoying than others.

From reading the synopsis readers know that Jessie gets handcuffed to the bed and eventually escapes. No spoilers there. She is alone and stuck in what at times is an impossible predicament and other times has you yelling at the CD player as to why she does some of the things that she does. I enjoyed her inner voices. She has twenty-eight hours where she is alone without any assistance.

I enjoyed the content that took place in the present. While cuffed to the bed she does some remembering of her past. Some of those memories got tiresome and made the story drag. There are reasons for the memories and they do assist her in her escape. The chapters immediately following her escape from the handcuffs is mind boggling. This is where both the Hub and I were talking to the CD player. I think my favorite part of the book was "Part 3." This is where she begins Brandon's tale. It explained much of the unexplained.

Overall I felt the book moved at a choppy pace. When I was enjoying the content it moved fast, then there would come a section that would leave me wanting Jessie to get back to the present or wanting Jessie to get out of her head. So there was fast paced, then a dragging section, then it picked back up again to what I felt was the more fascinating content.

The narrator was great. She voiced Jessie and all of the other characters well. There was never any confusion as to which character was speaking. Lindsay Crouse is an actress who has been in numerous television shows. She read Gerald's Game excellently.