He didn’t need a psychiatrist to point out that writing had its autoerotic side—you beat a typewriter instead of your meat, but both acts depended largely on quick wits, fast hands, and a heartfelt commitment to the art of the farfetched.

Being a fan of Stephen King film adaptation, I never read a Stephen King novel. Misery, the film adaptation, focuses on the relationship between Paul and Annie Instead of the complicated relationship between writer and fan. The book is so much more terrifying than that of its film counterpart. Paul, a writer with a deep hatred of his creation, sets out to finish a book that deviates from his typical storytelling dealing with a character named Misery. In the early beginnings of the book, Paul get into a car crash rescued by Annie. Annie, self-deemed "Paul's number one fan." At first, Annie appears to be an innocent fan of Paul's work. But as the story progresses, the reader starts to realize along with Paul that Annie is not a typical fan.

The book misery does show a horrific aspect of a famous figure dealing with their fan. The fan who considers themself to be supportive of a creator, but once the creator deviates from the expected genre; their fans turn against them. For example, at the beginning of the novel, Annie is borderline friendly to Paul but starts to go off the rails after Misery's death, which results in her forcing Paul to bring Misery back. Paul, being creatively tortured, reluctantly begins writing Misery's Return for Annie.

The book also plays on that myth of pain equals creation. The belief of where there's pain, there's art. This belief is the primary motivator for Paul not to escape sooner. The power of wanting to know how Misery's Return ends is the only thing keeping Paul alive, literally. As Paul is writing the final chapters of the novel, Annie starts to become frequently unhinged. It isn't until Paul realizes his upper hand and executes his plan successfully in escaping Annie. Watching Paul continuing to endure Annie's episodes for the sake of Misery's Return is the most painful thing.

The book has an interesting take on fans and fandom. With Paul killing off his moneymaker trilogy about Misery, he feels a sense of freedom to begin writing new stories. However, through an act of the devil, he is held captive by a Misery fan and is forced to revisit the world of Misery. In this, Paul is held prisoner physically, mentally, and creatively, which is probably every writer's nightmare of being tortured by a person obsessed with their creations.

In the end, we see that Paul never truly heals from his time in captivity with Annie. Instead, we see a man trying to gain a sense of normalcy but is continuously plagued by Annie's horror. There are bouts of him going to alcohol to wipe out the memory of Annie. Despite the pessimistic outcome resulting from Paul's captivity, it does end on a high note as Paul begins to write again.