Please!! Not the Handcuffs! (Gerald's Game - Stephen King)

Member Name: barbara107

Product:	Gerald's Game - Stephen King
Date:	07/10/01 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 445 gripping pages

Disadvantages: None

I found this is one of the most fear provoking King books on the market because most of the story could happen to anyone (Well if your in to wearing handcuffs at your remote holiday cottage it could!!)

How may times have you been in a situation where, if the person you were with died on the spot you would be trapped and alone?

This is what happens with Jessie.

Jessie is married to Gerald, an overbearing slob who enjoys handcuffing her to the bed during sex. This is his "game,"this is "Gerald’s Game."

They are at a remote cabin when he suddenly drops dead from a heart attack, leaving Jessie handcuffed naked to the headboard. Panic strikes first, and then fear. Who knows they went to the cabin? Will anyone look for them? The unlatched front screen door is banging in the wind, and she can hear a dog howling and the faint sound of a chainsaw. And night is near. She's feeling stupid and foolish, wondering why she ever went along with this charade. How can she possibly recover from the embarrassment and humiliation when she's finally discovered? And she is so very vulnerable right now, which makes her even more angry and scared. She wonders how she could be so stupid, but it's not the first time she's felt that self-hatred. And then there's Gerald, laying there on the floor like a piece of furless roadkill. How could he do this to her?

These emotions are intertwined with hauntings of her childhood, and Jessie is forced to face them all head on to survive this ordeal.

This book gripped me because Jessie experiences true human fears. Everyone can relate to the "if only" syndrome: If only she had kept the key next to the bed... If only she had told people where they were going... If only he had latched the screen door... If only he took better care of himself, he wouldn't have had a heart attack... If only she had stood up to him and said no... If only she
had stood up to her father years ago, and told him no...

During the course of reading the book, I found myself trying to come up with escape scenarios for Jessie (imagine my husband's surprise when he came in to our bedroom and found me laying on the bed with my arms up on the bedposts trying to WILL Jessie's escape from her silent prison!) Can she push the mattress off the frames? Could she get a foot to the floor to push the bed across the room? Could she escape at all?

A must reading to every woman who likes great fiction, married or not, to give you insight into the male ego of all men! And don't forget, it is terrifying as well. This book affected me long after I was finished reading


Sleep well, don’t have nightmares!!

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