I would like to start by saying I am a huge Stephen King fan! The entire novels setting is taken place in a summer cabin on Lake Kashwahamak where you are introduced to the two main characters of the whole story; Jesse and Gerald. Gerald is a lawyer, who comes off as extremely narcissistic, I disliked his character immediately upon introduction. Jesse on the other hand is a bit more likeable, although I personally found her to be a bit whinny in some parts. Yet, overall, a very interesting character who can be easily identified with throughout. Gerald and Jesse have what many would call a ‘kinky’ sexual relationship which is exactly how you come to meet them in King’s intense opener. Gerald and Jesse are taking a weekend get away together at their summer home for some adult time. Gerald has convinced Jesse to allow him to handcuff her to the bed for some sexual fun. Jesse soon realizes that she has in fact changed her mind and no longer wants to participate in ‘Gerald’s Game.’ Jesse asks Gerald to remove the cuffs and stop at once, Gerald on the other hand is completely wrapped up in his love game leading him to believe that Jesse is playing along with his fantasy. This leading Jesse into kicking Gerald off of her in defense to his continuing advances, turning a get away weekend into a nightmare. Jesse succeeding in getting Gerald to stop soon realizes that her husband is also now suffering from a heart attack. Screaming at him to awake, Gerald lay motionless on the bedroom floor, leaving Jesse to realize her husband is dead and her alone, trapped handcuff to the bed. Jesse soon passes out due to shock from the events, upon waking she realizes Gerald is still dead on the floor. Her hands/arms have gone numb, she is incredibly thirsty and worst of all there is a dog howling near by. With lack of options and quickly realizing the severity of her situation Jesse’s mind starts racing with possibilities on how she could escape her unthinkable dilemma. Jesse exhausted from the days events falls into a deep slumber only to awake to the barking dog, inside her lake house! To her horror Jesse is forced to watch the stray dog eat away at Gerald’s deceased body (King in true fashion goes into great detail about this horrifying event). As the book continues Jesse proceeds to narrate her nerve-racking trials and errors of attempting to not only escape her hand cuffs but reach a glass of water. Throughout Jesse brings the reader on a wild ride of past childhood trauma to present day trauma including her husband being devoured by a stray dog. Jesse’s strength and sanity soon starts to dwindle leaving her to believe Death, with his skin bag of horrors, starts to visit her in the night … closing in on her time. Left with no other option Jesse cuts her wrist, peeling skin, to pull her hand free of the cuffs to reach the keys and escape a deadly fate. King once again gave an award winning unexpected ending to a very detailed, gruesome, horrifying tale of one woman’s nail biting escape. The characters were well written, you felt as if you personally knew them in real life. I really enjoyed how Jesse was made to narrate the novel for the reader, giving glimpses to her childhood and relationship with Gerald up to the end. Everything that I expected to happen did not, leaving me constantly needing to know what happens next. My only complaint with this novel was some of Jesse’s flashbacks were not what I had expected going into this book. I felt a good chunk of this shorter edition spent a lot of time in the past, with an almost second story type feel. The ending was unexpected and a bit confusing in some aspects, yet overall a true King classic.

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