Now available for the first time in a mass market premium edition—master storyteller Stephen King presents this classic, terrifying #1 New York Times bestseller. When a game of seduction between a husband and wife ends in death, the nightmare has only begun… alone out here. I am all alone.”
Once again, Jessie Burlingame has been talked into submitting to her husband Gerald’s kinky sex games—something that she’s frankly had enough of, and they never held much charm for her to begin with. So much for a “romantic getaway” at their secluded summer home. After Jessie is handcuffed to the bedposts—and Gerald crosses a line with his wife—the day ends with deadly consequences. Now Jessie is utterly trapped in an isolated lakeside house that has become her prison—and comes face-to-face with her deepest, darkest fears and memories. Her only company is that of the various voices filling her mind…as well as the shadows of nightfall that may conceal an imagined or very real threat right there with her…
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Wow. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read a Stephen King book! I will definitely be reading more. Never before have I ever had such a physical reaction (aside from tears ) from reading a book. So vividly descriptive and gruesome in parts, and yet impossible to stop.
Gerald’s Game tells the story of Jessie, and a little game her husband liked to play; handcuffing her to the bed. Only these weren’t playful handcuffs with quick release mechanisms, these were proper handcuffs that required a key. A key he left on the bureau across the room.
When Jessie decides she doesn’t want to play the game anymore, things take a deadly turn. Jessie’s old fears and memories creep to the surface and she comes face to face with a monster.
Fantastically told with leaps between past and present, this story will have you riveted.
One of my all-time faves. Highly recommended.
I read this book back when it first came out and just thought it was a great idea. A simple fun adult game goes horribly wrong, the kind of thing that could happen to anyone. Leave it to Stephen King to find the horror in everything! I’d like to reread it one of these days. Loved it back then, though!
Stephen King is a skilled writer that can make even the most outlandish concepts convincing and believable, but everything in Gerald’s Game is almost mundane. Everything is completely within the realm of believable, everyday experiences but King creates a story that was more frightening to me than almost anything else of his that I have read, with the possibile exception of his book It.’
Poor Jessie.
What was meant to be a salacious but fun romp with her husband Gerald soon becomes a harrowing battle for survival against the elements, against time itself, against the things in the woods, and against her own inner self.
Gerald’s Game makes great use of the ‘self contained’ horror trope. Trap a character alone in a single location and see how much of a story you can get out of it. Stephen King does an amazing job here, primarily by making strong use of a couple key ingredients.
The first is with the protagonist Jessie. How does one get an entire novel out of a singular character’s thoughts/dialogue, you may ask? Well, the trick is that there are more than just Jessie present through the plot. It’s just not so obvious at first. Jessie is struggling to survive. It’s a harrowing experience. Coupled with her life experiences, she has created many personas to cope with what is happening alone in this cabin on the lake. She talks to herself, but it’s really not to herself. There is entirely separate character work and dialogue going on here, and it plays very well.
Mostly. SK is often infamous for inserting turns of phrase and ‘interesting’ dialogue to give characters more…well…character, and that is good to do so. But sometimes he goes overboard, especially with the born-and-raised-in-Maine characters he often creates. Jessie is an example of that here. Some dialogue is eye-rolling, unfortunately. But the mechanics of it all are top-notch.
Another great effect in this book is the almost-Stephen King-horror way he has of teasing the reader with the supernatural in this story. You think it’s heading down that path, and then you question it, and then bam. You get your answers. But again, there is a caveat; even when you get your answer, it becomes very long and drawn out, and leads into what is unfortunately the weakest part of this story. The ending. It’s long winded. It’s almost like a forced after thought. There is a good 50-100 pages that could likely get cut and still have an intense, incredible ending. Oh well.
Also, for the eagle-eyed, there is a sequence mentioned subtly that involves the eclipse but at a different location, with an unknown woman. This ties into another Stephen King book, one which originally published the same year as Gerald’s Game I believe. It’s the same eclipse, but two different places, two different characters, both of whom I believe have the Shine and would fit into the Dark Tower mythos in their own ways…
A great self-contained horror/thriller that unfortunately gets really bogged down by its overly long and needless ending.
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This is one of King’s lesser known novels, but it’s a clear favourite of mine. And the reason I love it so much is that I don’t have to suspend my disbelief. Vampires, people risen from the dead, the devil re-incarnate, possessed cars, all of them require my buy-in. Gerald’s Game doesn’t. The situation described is harrowing, horrifying and safely unlikely to ever happen to anyone. But it could. It really, really could.
So the protagonist and her man decide to have a romantic break away in a remote log cabin. Check. They get frisky. Check. She gets playfully handcuffed to the bed. Check. And then… she can’t get free… Unlikely, yes. But entirely plausible. What happens to her as she desperately tries to escape is truly something else (believe me), but again it’s not King’s more typical, less credulous supernatural threat. It’s real life, and, to me at least, it’s so much more scary. Check. It. Out.
This book messed up my dreams while I was reading it, that’s for sure. I loved it because you honestly didn’t know what was real or what was a manifestation. Was the whole entire thing in her head? Jessie and Gerald go to their lake house to play their “game”, but when things take a turn, Jessie is left handcuffed to the bed with her dead husband and only the voices in her head for company. She is forced to deal with things from her traumatic past and as she does that, new voices and visions pop up. The reader is left to determine what is real and what is in her head.
I loved this book because of the twists and turns it took. The ending really shocked me, and I love when that happens.
I loved this. It was one of the first of King’s books that was pure horror without being supernatural. Be prepared for spine-tingling terror.
Couldn’t put it down until I finished reading it
After reading this book I thought it would make a great stage play. Only a daring of actors could pull it off, but its a great story. It definitely kept my interest.
Magnificent writing and story. One of Stephen’s best in my opinion
Not for the faint at heart. Sexual situation gone wrong.
Book much better than movie. Good book easy read.
This was a great book I could not put it down …I was up most of the night reading I could not put this scary yet entertaining book WONDERFUL READ !!!!!