Gerald's Game: A Novel Mass Market Paperback – September 27, 2016

I love Stephen King's writing style and have read a great number of his books. I rarely feel anything but an eye roll at what are supposed to be the scary parts of the story, I think primarily because as an atheist I have zero belief in, or fear of, the "supernatural".But this book wasn't one of those. This was full of psychological terror. What woman hasn't feared being held captive in one of myriad ways? It was easy to imagine myself as Jessie. I was also satisfied with the conclusion, which I rarely am with most fiction.

What can I say? This is King. "Gerald's Game" did not disappoint. Much of the book was not scary at all, but parts were especially gruesome and gory. A lot of the terror was psychological. Who hasn't heard a noise in the house and night and wondered if you were not alone. Or looked in the car's rear view mirror and hoped only to see car lights behind you and not a face in the mirror?It takes a lot to gross me out, but there was a couple of scenes in the book I really wanted to throw up. Things so evil no one should even think of them. Sorry, no spoilers, you will have to read the book for the gory parts.The character of Jessie, our protagonist, was well done. I loved the voices (yes, voices in the plural) that was in her head the entire book. Gerald's character less well drawn, but he departs (pun intended) quickly.The ending was a surprise and was well done. All the loose ends tied up and no plot holes. Great book whether you are a King fan or not.

I confess that I'm not a big King fan. I liked this one, but for me it wasn't exactly a page turner. Extra points for a bizarre plot. The earlier chapters which essentially reviewed her earlier life and especially the molestation by her father were uninteresting. Attempts to get free were also not suspenseful because you knew she wasn't going to get free so early in the book.The dog? Well, why not. The later chapters where she wrestles with whether there actually was an intruder were more interesting. Not sorry I read it -- mildly entertaining -- but hard to recommend. King fans might like ti more.

I love it when a novel takes you somewhere that you haven't before. That is what Stephen King did with this one.The basis of the story is that a woman is trapped in handcuffs as the result of a sex game gone wrong. The book details her struggles, both mentally and physically, to get out of her situation. It is beautifully gruesome. This is one of those that some of the scenes had me cringing in disgust.I wouldn't say this is my favorite SK book, but I would say that it is a good one for a quick read. It is one of his shorter novels. It is definitely worth the read.

So many stories within the actual story here. Jessie agrees to let her husband handcuff her for his pleasure, if you're thinking "Fifty Shades" think again this is Stephen King and that takes things to a whole different dimension. What follows is 28 hours of insanity as only Stepen King can conjure. The ending was the only thing that was weak in my opinion.

could not get through the second chapter. I love King, but not this one

If I had to write a story about a woman chained to her bed in a remote woods, I would run out of material after two pages. Master story teller Stephen King has managed to drag it out several hundred pages more than that, and for that I commend him.However IMHO it does not work. It just comes out as a ramble of thoughts.First time ever I rated an SK book below 4 stars

the first part of the story was very good but the last half was boring I had to make myself finish it.

This novel is spooky and is edge of your seat reading! I literally could NOT put this book down. Stephen's writing style is descriptive and this for me enhances the reading experience. Jessie's emotions, experiences and voices that she was hearing, felt real to me. Her plight dire and forced confrontation of the past was a gripping read. Many important issues around abuse, feminism, sexism can be explored within this novel at a deeper level.As disturbing as this story was, I loved it, I have bought many more of Stephen's books now, as I know the movies never do the the books justice!

This is a strange book to review as many will say they love it, and many others will say they hate it.I'd say I fall in the middle of that debate. I was interested in reading this for quite a while, I'm quite the sucker for something that involves characters being trapped in a single location the whole time, but could this work with just one character?The basic premise is that during some bondage time, the main character Jesse being handcuffed to the bed decides she doesn't want to play Gerald's Game anymore, when he ignores her, she sees no other option but to kick him off of her. Gerald falls off the bed, splits his head open, has a heart attack, and dies. Jesse is now stranded in this cabin in the middle of nowhere. The story that proceeds is rather interesting, sometimes it hooks you in, and other times it feels like it drags on a little too much. However, you are likely to keep reading because you want to know how it ends, who wouldn't, right?The ending itself is something I can truly praise for this book (maybe not the very last chapter), unlike the more popular Stephen King books this ending feels like it's been earned, in the interest of a spoiler-free review I'll say no more.This is certainly one of the more "grounded" Stephen King books. With some rather cringe worthy horror sections and the genuine feeling of being isolated, it is certainly worth a shot, even with the occasional unnecessary fluff.

I got this, never having read Stephen King before, thinking I would get a nice scary book. Either I don't have the imagination for it or I just didn't find it that scary - perhaps because I didn't take to the main character. Won't give up on Stephen King though...

I took this book on my holidays to Turkey recently, and I couldn't put it down, I'm sure I finished it in a day! The story is very frightening, the thing I found disturbing was, unlike some of Stephen King's stories such as Firestarter or IT, this sort of situation could possibly occur in real life. Seriously, after reading this, whether you are male or female, you will be put off bondage / sex games for life!I feel the story flowed very well generally, however I'm not sure about the serial killer / person with jewellery bag part of the story, this just seemed like a random addition in my opinion and didn't really need to be in the story? But that's just my opinion.You can pick this book up second hand for literally pennies, so it's definitely worth adding to your book collection.Hopefully, they may make a film of this story one day!

I wasn't sure about this book when I first picked it up, but I'm glad I did. Only King could write a 400 page book involving one main character and he pulls it off brilliantly. It put one woman in a nightmare situation and only pure will to survive keeps her going. It's a fascinating read and keeps you wanting to know how the outcome will turn out. She delves into her troubled past and comes across a few unexpected guessed in her nightmare scenario which just add to the whole experience. Great book and well worth a read.