Title: Gerald’s Game
Author: Stephen King
Type: Fiction
Page Count: 420
Rating: 4/5
Reading this was a surreal experience because I’ve seen the movie of it and so I knew roughly what to expect. With that said, it’s also true that I couldn’t remember how the movie actually ended, and so it still felt fresh when I was reading it.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this is one of the easiest King books to get through, at least out of the batch that I’ve got to recently. Perhaps that’s helped by the length and the layout, both of which help you to feel as though you’re making real progress. It’s kind of funny because strictly speaking, I feel as though this ought to be slow-paced – it just isn’t.
There’s also the benefit here of it being a book that I’d been looking forward to getting to. That meant that I was super stoked to finally find it in a charity shop, and I went into it in a good mood because I’d been keeping my eyes peeled for it for a while. Sometimes, that backfires, but I’m happy to say that this one lived up to all of my expectations.
Of course, I’m not saying that this is King’s best novel, or even that it’s anywhere near it. It’s just that it was exactly what I was hoping for and at exactly the right time. I find that it’s pretty rare for a book to have a lot of promise and to then deliver on it, and then there’s the fact that King in general can be unpredictable. It was nice to pick up a book that I was expecting to enjoy and to just enjoy it, you know?
As for the plot, well I mean it’s delightfully King. Basically this married couple is trying to spice up their love life with a little light bondage. The only problem is that after locking his wife up in handcuffs in a remote cabin, he goes and snuffs it, leaving her stuck there with no way of communicating with people or asking for help. The rest of the novel pretty much follows the steps that she takes to try to free herself and get back to civilisation.
So would I recommend reading it? Hell yeah I would, and I’m surprised that I hadn’t got to this sooner. It was a cracking little read, and it wasn’t even too scary. Some good stuff.
