On This Page
Description
An erotic game with handcuffs between husband and wife. One of them won't make it through the night. For the survivor, death would have been a blessing..
Tags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
sturlington These two books are thematically related and tied together by a full eclipse of the sun that occurs at a climactic moment.
20
beckylynn Not exactly a ghost story like Bag of Bones, but thrilling to the end. Starts off fast (however does have sexual content).
13
Member Reviews
This is one of my favourite books, I started it (foolishly) before bed, finished it in one sitting and then didn’t sleep without a light on for a week. It narrates so well, it’s so real-life, gripping, flits back and forth through her life/past/trauma, their relationship, losing grip on what is and isn’t real and desperately trying to survive. You’re right there with her trying to work out what her options are, how on Earth she can survive and most importantly what is hallucinations and what is reality. This is one of the rare books that sticks with me and still freaks me out, typical King playing with those deep dark fears we all have, a must read
This is a second read for me. It’s strange about Kings stuff, I remember very little of the details and so a second read is just as interesting as the first.
There were a lot of things I could not relate to in this book. The voices are one. Sure, they were a cunning device to goad Jessie into some action. She needed to reconcile her past and deal with her present. But, voices? Of other people? In your head? Nope, can’t relate. I did like the bit about the dog, though. That’s got to do some damage to one’s psyche, watching your spouse being eaten by a stray dog. Lassie come home.
The ending too, was interesting. King just couldn’t leave without trying to really gross you out one more time. At least he proved Jessie wasn’t show more hallucinating as well as hearing voices. Pretty gross Joubert’s nocturnal graveside activities. And he remembered her. I’m glad she spit in is face. Not that it was justice, or anything close, but if she didn’t he’d show her up in her mind with Ruth, Goodie and Punkin. What a crew.
I didn’t really see the connection between what Gerald was doing and her father. I suppose it cold be the view of women as having only one function for a man. Like the violation she felt when her brother goosed her. It must have shaken her pretty badly for her to block it out until she was chained to a bed next to her dead husband.
One of the things I remember from this was a quote that went something like this: a man only puts a ring on a woman’s finger because the law no longer allows him to put one through her nose. I think every man alive should read this book. Many really don’t see us as people for the most part. Everything they think about us is qualified with “for a woman”. Like my humanity is less valuable because I don’t have a penis. Humanity should be measured by the brain. As far as I know there are no physical differences between a male brain and a female brain. show less
There were a lot of things I could not relate to in this book. The voices are one. Sure, they were a cunning device to goad Jessie into some action. She needed to reconcile her past and deal with her present. But, voices? Of other people? In your head? Nope, can’t relate. I did like the bit about the dog, though. That’s got to do some damage to one’s psyche, watching your spouse being eaten by a stray dog. Lassie come home.
The ending too, was interesting. King just couldn’t leave without trying to really gross you out one more time. At least he proved Jessie wasn’t show more hallucinating as well as hearing voices. Pretty gross Joubert’s nocturnal graveside activities. And he remembered her. I’m glad she spit in is face. Not that it was justice, or anything close, but if she didn’t he’d show her up in her mind with Ruth, Goodie and Punkin. What a crew.
I didn’t really see the connection between what Gerald was doing and her father. I suppose it cold be the view of women as having only one function for a man. Like the violation she felt when her brother goosed her. It must have shaken her pretty badly for her to block it out until she was chained to a bed next to her dead husband.
One of the things I remember from this was a quote that went something like this: a man only puts a ring on a woman’s finger because the law no longer allows him to put one through her nose. I think every man alive should read this book. Many really don’t see us as people for the most part. Everything they think about us is qualified with “for a woman”. Like my humanity is less valuable because I don’t have a penis. Humanity should be measured by the brain. As far as I know there are no physical differences between a male brain and a female brain. show less
The book starts out in surprising territory for King: a sexual game being played by Gerald Burlingame, who has just handcuffed his wife Jessie to the bed. This is not the first time this game has been played -- it's an old routine at this point, one which Jessie never particularly liked and has now grown quite bored with, to the point of frustration. She tells her husband that she doesn't want to do it this time, but he presses on. In the ensuing struggle, he has a heart attack and dies, leaving her handcuffed to the bed, in the middle of nowhere.
That's when the story really starts. King's real strength in this story is not just in telling what happens to Jessie in her predicament, but King uses this device to tell the story of how she show more got there in the first place. What sort of woman is Jessie? What events led her to this place, this man, this scenario? In the course of the story, as Jessie struggles to free herself from her bonds, we also find out why she is there.
In the end, "Gerald's Game" is not one of King's easier stories to read. It deals with some real issues, and its terrors are only too plausible. Unlike "The Shining" or "Cujo," it's difficult to put this book down at the end and convince oneself that the same thing couldn't happen to you. It's not a book about the scary monster that comes from under the bed. No, in the final analysis "Gerald's Game" is about the monsters who sleep in the bed with you, cleverly disguised, and about those monsters who were there to shape your past. show less
That's when the story really starts. King's real strength in this story is not just in telling what happens to Jessie in her predicament, but King uses this device to tell the story of how she show more got there in the first place. What sort of woman is Jessie? What events led her to this place, this man, this scenario? In the course of the story, as Jessie struggles to free herself from her bonds, we also find out why she is there.
In the end, "Gerald's Game" is not one of King's easier stories to read. It deals with some real issues, and its terrors are only too plausible. Unlike "The Shining" or "Cujo," it's difficult to put this book down at the end and convince oneself that the same thing couldn't happen to you. It's not a book about the scary monster that comes from under the bed. No, in the final analysis "Gerald's Game" is about the monsters who sleep in the bed with you, cleverly disguised, and about those monsters who were there to shape your past. show less
Stephen King sin duda alguna es un escritor fuera de serie, por supuesto su imaginación no tiene límites y a pesar de que él siempre diga que lo han encasillado en cierto género, la verdad es que más bien creo que a él le encanta escribir sobre toda esa parte retorcida de los seres humanos.
La historia de este libro es increíblemente agobiante, Jessie y Gerald se van de fin de semana a una casa de campo para tener unos días juntos y además probar algunos juegos sexuales, así pues, Gerald ata con unas esposas a Jessie en la cama y sin entrar en detalles Gerald muere y Jessie se queda esposada en la cama sin posibilidades de que nadie la escuche, vaya a buscarla y sin poder moverse.
La historia es una genialidad no solo por el show more argumento que acabo de contar, si no todo lo que sucede en la cabeza de Jessie, toda su retrospectiva, su angustia, su miedo, su pánico, su terror, los mecanismos de autodefensa y este eterno monólogo que tiene Jessie durante el proceso y todo lo que le sucede, a partir más o menos del 35% del libro viene un quiebre de historia, de ritmo narrativo e incluso del ambiente creado alrededor de los hechos. Desde la primera hasta la última página este libro es absolutamente genial.
Pero más allá de la historia, tenemos la pluma de Stephen King, la manera en que nos ha creado el ambiente, se siente la angustia, de hecho, me ha costado mucho trabajo leer este libro por eso mismo, me costaba continuar porque de verdad me asfixiaba, lo había abandonado por ese motivo en una ocasión y en esta segunda oportunidad, no digo que quise abandonar, pero sí que me costó tener que pasarme el trago de la angustia.
Ahora bien, la genialidad no se queda en la forma en que nos recrea ese ambiente, si no la forma en que King va cambiando de ritmo, de ambiente e incluso de estilo narrativo conforme va avanzando la historia, así como Jessie va evolucionando en la historia, así King con su estilo narrativo, donde había asfixia y angustia, ahora hay miedo y pánico, donde había miedo, ahora hay calma y luego el ritmo narrativo se acelera para volver a caer en bajada para terminar en la calma.
De verdad ha sido fascinante ir recorriendo este camino con Stephen King, me cuesta trabajo expresar con palabras la mucha inteligencia literaria que he visto en este libro, que, como he dicho, va mucho más allá de una simple historia.
El final fue completamente inesperado para mí, por supuesto que me gustó y también me gustó mucho el personaje de Jessie, tan complejo.
Fue fascinante leer este libro, por la historia y por la manera en que este señor genio literario va cambiando y adaptándose a su propia historia. show less
La historia de este libro es increíblemente agobiante, Jessie y Gerald se van de fin de semana a una casa de campo para tener unos días juntos y además probar algunos juegos sexuales, así pues, Gerald ata con unas esposas a Jessie en la cama y sin entrar en detalles Gerald muere y Jessie se queda esposada en la cama sin posibilidades de que nadie la escuche, vaya a buscarla y sin poder moverse.
La historia es una genialidad no solo por el show more argumento que acabo de contar, si no todo lo que sucede en la cabeza de Jessie, toda su retrospectiva, su angustia, su miedo, su pánico, su terror, los mecanismos de autodefensa y este eterno monólogo que tiene Jessie durante el proceso y todo lo que le sucede, a partir más o menos del 35% del libro viene un quiebre de historia, de ritmo narrativo e incluso del ambiente creado alrededor de los hechos. Desde la primera hasta la última página este libro es absolutamente genial.
Pero más allá de la historia, tenemos la pluma de Stephen King, la manera en que nos ha creado el ambiente, se siente la angustia, de hecho, me ha costado mucho trabajo leer este libro por eso mismo, me costaba continuar porque de verdad me asfixiaba, lo había abandonado por ese motivo en una ocasión y en esta segunda oportunidad, no digo que quise abandonar, pero sí que me costó tener que pasarme el trago de la angustia.
Ahora bien, la genialidad no se queda en la forma en que nos recrea ese ambiente, si no la forma en que King va cambiando de ritmo, de ambiente e incluso de estilo narrativo conforme va avanzando la historia, así como Jessie va evolucionando en la historia, así King con su estilo narrativo, donde había asfixia y angustia, ahora hay miedo y pánico, donde había miedo, ahora hay calma y luego el ritmo narrativo se acelera para volver a caer en bajada para terminar en la calma.
De verdad ha sido fascinante ir recorriendo este camino con Stephen King, me cuesta trabajo expresar con palabras la mucha inteligencia literaria que he visto en este libro, que, como he dicho, va mucho más allá de una simple historia.
El final fue completamente inesperado para mí, por supuesto que me gustó y también me gustó mucho el personaje de Jessie, tan complejo.
Fue fascinante leer este libro, por la historia y por la manera en que este señor genio literario va cambiando y adaptándose a su propia historia. show less
it's easy to see where this started - that 'what if' this happens question that authors can't help but answer. king manages to write a book that is 95% just one person in one room (plus flashbacks, which helps) and keep it exciting and the pages turning. i thought it was actually a really smart way to make it work - combining the flashbacks with the 'voices' in jessie's head, making it as if there are more people than just jessie that we're reading about. (otherwise it's a tall order to really have only one character that you're writing about, even with the flashbacks.) also, he throws in the question of whether or not jessie is going crazy (which would be understandable in that situation) that could really go either way up until the show more end.
i thought that king also does a pretty passable job at talking about misogyny and sexual assault. (maybe not as well or as in depth as women would, but he does a good job, and it matters to have men talk about it and acknowledge it the way he does.) i'm glad that he didn't leave this stuff out in a book about this, that he was willing to write about it head-on. i think that's important, and this is a better book for it.
this is different than i remember. the premise was all i still had in my head, and i didn't know it was more about a woman dealing with her past abuse and coming back to herself more than anything else. the shades of aaron ralston's story (between a rock and a hard place) came to mind and kept it exciting, for sure, but this was more about healing and becoming, even friendship.
"Twelve-twelve-twelve, the clock flashed, and whatever time it really was, it was time." show less
i thought that king also does a pretty passable job at talking about misogyny and sexual assault. (maybe not as well or as in depth as women would, but he does a good job, and it matters to have men talk about it and acknowledge it the way he does.) i'm glad that he didn't leave this stuff out in a book about this, that he was willing to write about it head-on. i think that's important, and this is a better book for it.
this is different than i remember. the premise was all i still had in my head, and i didn't know it was more about a woman dealing with her past abuse and coming back to herself more than anything else. the shades of aaron ralston's story (between a rock and a hard place) came to mind and kept it exciting, for sure, but this was more about healing and becoming, even friendship.
"Twelve-twelve-twelve, the clock flashed, and whatever time it really was, it was time." show less
I'm revising my previous estimation of this book up one star.
I'm gonna be a little spoilery. :)
Why? The re-read was actually rather satisfying. Yes, it's a novel about survival and all the kinds of crap that men make women do to satisfy themselves, but it's also a rather moving novel about keeping (or losing) one's sanity in the face of all those expectations.
Never mind the sheer horror of being handcuffed to a bed without hope of being saved because your lover just keeled over, or watching a dog eat your husband as you go thirsty. It's a lot more than just that. It's memories and other humiliations and the struggle to find oneself through one hell of an ordeal.
Plus, I kinda like the fact that we're dealing with a very Poe-ish or show more Aristotelian art-ethic here. It's very focused in time and place, forcing us to go down deep into the subconscious. I can't help but appreciate that more now than when I was younger. *shrug*
Either way, I also enjoyed the almost tacked-on feel of the extended denouement. It really gave a sense of reflection and of shoring up her defenses after having them all stripped away, both literally and figuratively. I felt the power of the positive reversal.
Now, I should say that I'm revising this from my three stars to four based mainly on the fact that the novel is good on its own, but when I chose to give it three (from memory), I did so based on my enjoyment in comparison with the rest of Stephen King's works. It isn't his strongest novel by far, but it was still quite enjoyable.
I think I'm going to really enjoy the movie in a few days. :) show less
I'm gonna be a little spoilery. :)
Why? The re-read was actually rather satisfying. Yes, it's a novel about survival and all the kinds of crap that men make women do to satisfy themselves, but it's also a rather moving novel about keeping (or losing) one's sanity in the face of all those expectations.
Never mind the sheer horror of being handcuffed to a bed without hope of being saved because your lover just keeled over, or watching a dog eat your husband as you go thirsty. It's a lot more than just that. It's memories and other humiliations and the struggle to find oneself through one hell of an ordeal.
Plus, I kinda like the fact that we're dealing with a very Poe-ish or show more Aristotelian art-ethic here. It's very focused in time and place, forcing us to go down deep into the subconscious. I can't help but appreciate that more now than when I was younger. *shrug*
Either way, I also enjoyed the almost tacked-on feel of the extended denouement. It really gave a sense of reflection and of shoring up her defenses after having them all stripped away, both literally and figuratively. I felt the power of the positive reversal.
Now, I should say that I'm revising this from my three stars to four based mainly on the fact that the novel is good on its own, but when I chose to give it three (from memory), I did so based on my enjoyment in comparison with the rest of Stephen King's works. It isn't his strongest novel by far, but it was still quite enjoyable.
I think I'm going to really enjoy the movie in a few days. :) show less
WARNING: Here, there be language. If naughty words offend you, putter on past.
GERALD'S GAME is best if you know nothing about it. If you plan to read it, skip this review. It is also the only King novel that I'm sure will never see film. And I kind of like that about it.
Stephen King took a huge chance with GERALD'S GAME. First off, this is a three-hundred-plus page novel about a woman handcuffed to a bed. Even in a master storyteller's hands, a tale like this can become tedious. The novel does suffer from a metric fuck-ton of repetition, which is the only reason this wasn't a five star read for me.
I first read this novel the year it was released, when it came in the mail through my mother's book club subscription. I was young, show more probably twelve or thirteen, and most of the sex stuff was lost on me because I didn't understand what was going on. Nowadays, I'm a thirty-three-year-old boy, and the sex stuff was about as interesting to me as changing a shitty diaper.
So why did I enjoy this book? Three reasons. The dog, the de-gloving, and the corpse-fucker. Intrigued? Good. Read the book. Appalled? Skip this book.
This is one of those books that a great many readers will hate. It hops through the years of this woman's life like a broken time machine. There is no rhyme or reason to when these flashbacks occur. This isn't an every-other-chapter, past/present/past/present, type of deal. You'll be plodding along in the present and then all of a sudden you're in the past. If that sounds annoying, skip this book. I didn't mind it.
King's vulgarisms even caught this foul-mouthed sonuvabitch off guard. More than once, the phrase "A woman is just a life support system for a cunt," was used in one form or another. And I'm talking more than ten times. A sanitary napkin is even referred to as a cunt-diaper. Not in dialogue, mind you, but in the narrative. If you're turned off by that, you know what which book not to read.
Then you have the tie-in with one of my favorite King novels, DOLORES CLAIBORNE. Both novels were published in the same year and have similar themes (child molestation and the after effects). Oddly enough, the main character's recollection of an event that happens to her during an eclipse of the sun in 1963 runs parallel to Dolores pushing her husband down the well. I thought this was cool, but I'm biased. There's no reason why the MC has this connection with Dolores. None whatsoever. I'm actually shocked this stayed in the book after editing. Then again, most readers will tell you Stephen King hasn't had a good editor since the original, chopped up version of THE STAND.
Be forewarned. I'm an odd duck. I have strange tastes, and will completely ignore huge plot problems if I find the overall story palatable. In other words, if I find the subject enjoyable, anything the author says goes. It can happen because they said it could happen, that sort of thing. In this book, the three things I listed above were well worth all the repetition, time jumps, and plot holes. show less
GERALD'S GAME is best if you know nothing about it. If you plan to read it, skip this review. It is also the only King novel that I'm sure will never see film. And I kind of like that about it.
Stephen King took a huge chance with GERALD'S GAME. First off, this is a three-hundred-plus page novel about a woman handcuffed to a bed. Even in a master storyteller's hands, a tale like this can become tedious. The novel does suffer from a metric fuck-ton of repetition, which is the only reason this wasn't a five star read for me.
I first read this novel the year it was released, when it came in the mail through my mother's book club subscription. I was young, show more probably twelve or thirteen, and most of the sex stuff was lost on me because I didn't understand what was going on. Nowadays, I'm a thirty-three-year-old boy, and the sex stuff was about as interesting to me as changing a shitty diaper.
So why did I enjoy this book? Three reasons. The dog, the de-gloving, and the corpse-fucker. Intrigued? Good. Read the book. Appalled? Skip this book.
This is one of those books that a great many readers will hate. It hops through the years of this woman's life like a broken time machine. There is no rhyme or reason to when these flashbacks occur. This isn't an every-other-chapter, past/present/past/present, type of deal. You'll be plodding along in the present and then all of a sudden you're in the past. If that sounds annoying, skip this book. I didn't mind it.
King's vulgarisms even caught this foul-mouthed sonuvabitch off guard. More than once, the phrase "A woman is just a life support system for a cunt," was used in one form or another. And I'm talking more than ten times. A sanitary napkin is even referred to as a cunt-diaper. Not in dialogue, mind you, but in the narrative. If you're turned off by that, you know what which book not to read.
Then you have the tie-in with one of my favorite King novels, DOLORES CLAIBORNE. Both novels were published in the same year and have similar themes (child molestation and the after effects). Oddly enough, the main character's recollection of an event that happens to her during an eclipse of the sun in 1963 runs parallel to Dolores pushing her husband down the well. I thought this was cool, but I'm biased. There's no reason why the MC has this connection with Dolores. None whatsoever. I'm actually shocked this stayed in the book after editing. Then again, most readers will tell you Stephen King hasn't had a good editor since the original, chopped up version of THE STAND.
Be forewarned. I'm an odd duck. I have strange tastes, and will completely ignore huge plot problems if I find the overall story palatable. In other words, if I find the subject enjoyable, anything the author says goes. It can happen because they said it could happen, that sort of thing. In this book, the three things I listed above were well worth all the repetition, time jumps, and plot holes. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Stephen King Bibliography
77 works; 3 members
Derry and Castle Rock Books By Stephen King
21 works; 3 members
The Worst Bestsellers Podcast
293 works; 5 members
Fiction with Men's Given Names in the Title
302 works; 11 members
Books Read in 2018
4,360 works; 110 members
Books Tagged Abuse
152 works; 4 members
Eerie eTales
192 works; 3 members
Sinister AudioTales
65 works; 1 member
Stephen King books
81 works; 1 member
Talk Discussions
Past Discussions
May's Flavor of the Month - Gerald's Game in King's Dear Constant Readers (September 2012)
Author Information
966+ Works 867,771 Members
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, on September 21, 1947. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, he became a teacher. His spare time was spent writing short stories and novels. King's first novel would never have been published if not for his wife. She removed the first few show more chapters from the garbage after King had thrown them away in frustration. Three months later, he received a $2,500 advance from Doubleday Publishing for the book that went on to sell a modest 13,000 hardcover copies. That book, Carrie, was about a girl with telekinetic powers who is tormented by bullies at school. She uses her power, in turn, to torment and eventually destroy her mean-spirited classmates. When United Artists released the film version in 1976, it was a critical and commercial success. The paperback version of the book, released after the movie, went on to sell more than two-and-a-half million copies. Many of King's other horror novels have been adapted into movies, including The Shining, Firestarter, Pet Semetary, Cujo, Misery, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers. Under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, King has written the books The Running Man, The Regulators, Thinner, The Long Walk, Roadwork, Rage, and It. He is number 2 on the Hollywood Reporter's '25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list. King is one of the world's most successful writers, with more than 100 million copies of his works in print. Many of his books have been translated into foreign languages, and he writes new books at a rate of about one per year. In 2003, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In 2012 his title, The Wind Through the Keyhole made The New York Times Best Seller List. King's title's Mr. Mercedes and Revival made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2014. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 2015 for Best Novel with Mr. Mercedes. King's title Finders Keepers made the New York Times bestseller list in 2015. Sleeping Beauties is his latest 2017 New York Times bestseller. (Bowker Author Biography) Stephen King is the author of more than thirty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are "Hearts in Atlantis", "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", "Bag of Bones", & "The Green Mile". "On Writing" is his first book of nonfiction since "Danse Macabre", published in 1981. He served as a judge for Prize Stories: The Best of 1999, The O. Henry Awards. He lives in Bangor, Maine with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. King's book, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories, made the 2015 New York Times bestseller list. (Publisher Provided) show less
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Has the adaptation
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Gerald's Game
- Original title
- Gerald's Game
- Original publication date
- 1992-05
- People/Characters
- Jessie Burlingame; Gerald Burlingame; The Space Cowboy; Ruth Neary; Nora Callighan; Alan Pangborn
- Important places
- Maine, USA; Castle Rock, Maine, USA
- Important events
- Total eclipse of the sun (July 20, 1963)
- Related movies
- Gerald's Game (2017 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- {Sadie} gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer.
"You men! You filthy dirty pig! You're all the same, all of you! Pigs! Pig... (show all)s!"
-- W. Somerset Maugham,
"Rain" - Dedication
- This book is dedicated, with love and admiration, to six good women:
Margaret Spruce Morehouse
Catherine Spruce Graves
Stephanie Spruce Leonard
Anne Spruce Labree
Tabitha Spruce King
Marcella Sprice - First words
- Jessie could hear the back door banging lightly, randomly, in the October breeze blowing around the house.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)When a cold February wind blew beneath the eaves and moaned in the chimney, she burrowed deeper beneath the comforters. . . .but that small, wise smile did not fade.
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.54
- Canonical LCC
- PS3561.I483
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 9,787
- Popularity
- 1,028
- Reviews
- 99
- Rating
- (3.32)
- Languages
- 22 — Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Portuguese (Portugal)
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 126
- UPCs
- 3
- ASINs
- 59