This is Preston Schultz and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Imagine being held hostage by a deranged fan and forced to do something against your will or face a severe punishment. Well, in Stephen King’s 1987 psychological horror story entitled “Misery,” that is what happens to best-selling American author Paul Sheldon.
After crashing his car during a storm in an unknown location, Paul loses conscious and is dragged by an unknown female that we later discover to be a former nurse named Annie, his self-proclaimed “number one fan” and who is also very crazy. Suffering from leg injuries, she had laid Paul out on a bed, crudely setting his legs and gives him doses of a drug called “Novril” to kill the pain. When Paul becomes conscious, Annie starts telling him how she loves the historical romance series featuring heroine Misery Chastain but becomes very upset when she reads that Misery dies in the last entry of the series. After leaving Paul alone for days, she returns with a typewriter, forcing him to resurrect Misery and title it “Misery’s Return.”
Paul is able to leave the room and stumbles upon a scrap book that leads him to learn about Annie’s deadly past life as a nurse. But leaving the room doesn’t go unpunished, as Annie cuts off Paul’s left foot with an ax. Recovering from the sudden amputation Paul continues to write the new novel and is thrusted into a do or die situation. Kill Annie and escape/be rescued or continue living under a deranged psychopath’s roof.
Check out Stephen King’s “Misery” along with other horror themed books written by him at the Sioux City Public Library.
Support for Check It Out comes from Avery Brothers.