Gerald’s Game is a suspense/terror novel, written in 1992.    It is set to coincide with a full solar eclipse in Maine in that year   He wrote 2 books (Dolores Claiborne is the other) and the two books are connected by the eclipse and similar themes (abuse).     This book will challenge the reader at several levels.    It is similar to Misery and perhaps Cujo, but may be more scary and may be distressing, horrifying, and unsettling.

The story starts with a married couple at a remote cabin in the off-season.    The husband (Gerald) wants to play a sex game involving bondage.     He buys regulation handcuffs and uses them, but at the last moment, the wife  (Jessie) doesn’t want to participate, so she objects, and kicks her husband where it hurts, stimulating a triggering of intense pain, followed by a heart attack.    He dies beside the bed.     The keys are across the room and there is no one around.    Jessie is trapped.    Over a couple of days she faces thirst, pain, distress, and a bit of a mental collapse.    Many voices arise in Jessie’s head and she finds herself reliving traumatic events of the past.   To complicate matters, a feral hungry dog and a grotesque stranger come to observe her.   Much of the book follows Jessie’s efforts to free herself and to rail against the demons in her head.    She suffers and becomes delirious, with a similar feel to parts of Duma Key.    If the reader can get past all the suffering (including the reader’s), there is a story of resilience and redemption.    The ending of the book is very strange, but it serves to explain events that may or may not have been real.

It is a very good book, but the topics are not for everyone.    Stephen King always provides fine writing, outstanding characterization, and creative story-lines.    Gerald’s Game is not an easy book to read, but it is a fine one.    4.6 out of 5.0 stars4.6