Gerald's Game, book review. (Stephen King)

Much like Dolores Claiborne - whose twin this novel is - Gerald's Game has a small cast, and on picking up this book I had to wonder, yet again, how the author was going to keep me entertained over three hundred plus pages with just two characters. Well, he did of course and there are more than two characters, one of them is even a feral dog, and along with Jessie's dead husband and her childhood self, there is more than enough narrative to speed you through yet another Stephen King novel.

The basis of this book is no big secret - the cover gives that away - so to say that one of the main characters is a dead man and therefore isn't actually there, other than in his wife's head, could make things confusing but when you add all the other things in Jessie's head like: her childhood self, memories of her father from when she was a girl, a strange man who she sees in the shadows at sunset (who might actually be there), memories of her mother when growing up, a school friend and her sister, you end up with what feels like one character living multiple personalities, which is kind of weird but also compelling.

So Gerald's game is a sexual one, which Jessie reluctantly agreed to months before, but is no longer keen on. Gerald needs the game - handcuffing his wife to the bed - to get aroused, his wife no longer being enough, and it is here, very early on in the book that you realise this is going to be a battle of wills - Jessie's will against Jessie's will in fact - because within a few pages her husband, who isn't taking no for an answer, is dead.

That battle of wills is very much in her head, from summoning the will to get a drink - bizarrely one of the best parts of the book - through coming to terms with the abuse she received on the day of the eclipse as a child; to seeing her dead husband being eaten by the feral dog and having to flay her own hand. The gory horror is infrequent but the emotional horror is constant and certainly speeds you through what is a really rather superb book.

It never gets boring, bogged down, there is always something new to explore, with the author revealing just enough to keep you guessing. Whether it's the question of the dog eating her husband, which I thought was a given, to whether she ever escapes, which I had my doubts about, to whether the psychological damage she experiences will be her downfall. And the way this book is written really does get your heart racing and has you asking questions like: Is her husband really dead? Does she really have to go back to the day of the eclipse and remember what happened? Did her dad really do that to her? Turn her into the woman she is, the woman who lets men do as they please? Is the strange looking man in the shadows with his portmantua full of bones real or also in her head? Will the nightmare ever end? Will Jessie survive? Mentally and or physically?

Well, to answer those questions you'll have to grab yourself a copy and read it and I recommend that you do too because the writing here is right up there with some of the authors best work and, to add to that, all might not be quite what it seems!

Four stars.

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Cujo, book review. (Stephen King)

An early one this and all part of last year's, year of the reread. It's been so long since I first read Cujo that only a few bits came back to me as I sped through its pages, but speed through I did.

Like a lot of King's books the premise is simple but the how and why are complicated, which is one of the reasons he's such a successful and well revered writer, I guess.

Set in Castle Rock (yes, that Castle Rock, the one that's recently been exposed to all the non-bibliophiles in the world by Amazon/Starzplay), one of many fictitious towns the author has created in Maine over the years, Cujo is not just about the fear of a rabid two hundred pound St Bernard trying to eat your child but the fear of separation, loneliness; losing your house because something's screwed up a work, losing your wife because she's so, so lonely and scared shitless that it will only get worse when her son starts school.

It's about being satisfied with your lot in life too, and if not, doing something about it, like Charity, who takes her ten year old son, Brett (Cujo's owner), to see her sister, something she had to bargain for in spite of the ever present threat of violence from her husband, in order to show her son that a better life was possible, even if she later decided that just having money to buy stuff wasn't necessarily better. It's about the bond between friends, like when Vic and Roger are in Boston trying to save their business and Vic his marriage (his wife has been having an affair) but Vic can't get his wife or kid on the phone and his partner shows the compassion we would all wish for in such circumstances and sends him home because, let's face it, family is more important.

Cujo is about all of those things but it is also about a two hundred pound rabid dog that gradually loses its mind and just can't stand the light, the heat and people anymore; people who might have done this to him, hurt him, been nasty to him and so, he must kill, kill, kill. The build-up, the way the book is more about the lives of the people in Castle Rock, working, drinking, raising their kids and more, is the real crux of the novel, but it just so happens that they're all connected in the end by death and a rabid St Bernard.

King's writing here is a bit archaic compared to his more recent novels but then that's borne out in a lot of his 70s & 80s books - a sign of the times one might say but not all books of this vintage are so inflicted, so! - and you might even wince at a few bits, but overall it doesn't detract too much from what is actually a clever and, especially towards the end, tense thriller.

Three and a half stars for Cujo then and on to the next one - I'm trying to read all of Stephen King's books within ten years, so I'll keep them coming.

Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books and if I haven't read them, message me with your recommendations.