Finished Gerald’s Game by Stephen King.
References to other books: There are two police officers from Castle Rock (Norris Ridgewick and John LaPointe—I know they were in Needful Things and I think maybe a few others, too). And there’s a link between this and Dolores Claiborne.
This is one of only a handful of Stephen King books that haven’t been made into a movie. This is probably because (a) the heroine spends almost the entire book tied to a bed [and the rest are spoilers] (b) a wild dog eats part of a corpse and (c) there’s some creepy pedophilia and incest. And it’s dark and twisted in ways that don’t really lend itself to movies.
There are a lot of Stephen King books that I’ve read many times (Carrie, Pet Sematary, It, The Shining, Needful Things, The Dark Half…basically all of his earliest things except for The Tommyknockers) but this isn’t one of them. I think this is maybe only my third time reading it (and maybe just the second). And that’s weird, because it’s actually really, really good. It’s very unsettling in parts, too.
A while back (and probably when I say that, I mean several years ago), I was talking about horror movies with a friend of mine. We were discussing the movies that scared us and which specific parts were the scariest and why. I mentioned The Grudge and there’s a part where a character is killed in bed. And that completely freaked me out because (as someone who loves sleep), I consider bed to be a safe zone. And that’s why this book creeped me out, too. That is not a safe bed.
If you haven’t read this one, absolutely check it out. :)
I always found “Gerald’s Game” to be incredibly menacing, and different from most of King’s big hitters, simply because there’s really nothing supernatural about it. It’s a psychological thriller, more than anything. In retrospect, it grosses me out that when I was dating Stacey, I used to call her “Punkin.” (Thank God there were no total eclipses during our tenure together)
Also, when I read Dolores Claiborne, I shuddered when the eclipse happened, just because I remembered it from Gerald’s Game.
I remember liking Gerald’s Game a lot more than I thought I *should* have given the touchy material — certainly it was back when it was written.
These days, I bet someone could make it for HBO or Showtime without raising an eyebrow.
I might have to re-read this one.
I feel like the incest may be a sticking point. But you’re probably right. :)