At the heart of the story is a fairly simple but effective concept which isn’t overdone and explores a number of other themes including addiction, obsession and the craft of writing novels. Although King is well-known for writing a number of very long books, ‘Misery’ is the perfect length and even though the story takes place over a number of months, King maintains the suspense well throughout. King has now published more than fifty novels and ‘Misery’ remains one of his most famous and well-respected – at least somewhere in the top ten along with ‘The Shining’, ‘It’ ‘Carrie’, ‘The Stand’ and ‘Pet Sematary’ – and deservedly so. However, Annie is devastated to learn that Paul will be killing off her favourite character and forces him to write a new novel where Misery is brought back to life. After being badly injured in a car accident, Paul is “rescued” by Annie Wilkes, a nurse who also happens to be his “Number One Fan”.

In the book, Annie does still hit her head on the typewriter and gets back up, but she eventually succumbs to her head injury while she is trying to get a chainsaw to finish Paul off.When I read ‘ Carrie‘ and ‘ 11.22.63‘ a couple of years ago, I said I would like to read more of Stephen King’s other fiction in between his first novel and what was his most recent novel at the time. Originally published in 1987, ‘Misery’ tells the story of Paul Sheldon, a writer who is attempting to move away from his popular series of historical romances featuring Misery Chastain towards serious literary fiction. Outside of the Miseryankle scene, the final major difference is the nature of Annie's death. In turn, the novel ends up being a global bestseller. Since Paul escapes with his manuscript in the book, he is actually able to have it published in the end of the Stephen King novel. Related: Misery: Why Paul Is A Perfect Protagonist (& Annie Is A Perfect Villain)Ī key difference between the book and the movie is the aforementioned burned manuscript. In the movie, the Sheriff is merely shot in the chest with a shotgun by Annie, whereas in the book, he is brutally killed by being stabbed and then run over with a lawnmower. The Sheriff's death in the Misery movie is another difference. After Annie is unhappy with Paul's ending, in the novel, he's able to get away with burning a stack of papers rather than his creation.

Another major difference between the Misery movie and the book is the fire that burns Paul's work.

Misery book