She's Got Game. Review on Gerald's Game - Stephen King

GERALD'S GAME is about one woman's overcoming obstacles: literally, the handcuffs; figuratively, past bonds which threaten to destroy her future.

I read this book on a cruise. I couldn't put it down. I read it in 2 days. The great thing about King's writing is you can picture everything just as if it's happening. You feel like you are living it. Some parts are so scary and yet it's King's ability to cause your own imagination to conjure up horrors that may or may not come to pass.

While the past can often haunt us in the present, it can also come to our aide if we heed it. One of the more inspiring elements to the story is overcoming obstacles. Figuratively as well as literally.

GERALD'S GAME refers to a kinky sex game between a husband and wife. Gerald has been somewhat bored with his predictable sex life with his wife. He's found a way to take the ho-hum out of the act. He likes to tie his wife to the bed and play like he's asaulting her. Hey, to each his own, but...the problem is that Gerald's wife, while being turned on the first couple of times, has started to be disgusted with GERALD'S GAME. It makes her feel dirty and used.

Up until now Gerald's always just used ties of some kind like a belt from his bathrobe. But this day he has brought home a surprise for his betrothed. A pair of handcuffs. He commences to cuff his wife to the bed board and begins to undress when his wife gets p.o.'d and demands to be let loose. He refuses and in fact, he gets more turned on than ever at the sight of his wife's rage. It's all part of the game, he says. You're playing your part very well, my dear.

Well, at this point his wife loses it and when Gerald gets on top of her a fury is unleashed which kicks her husband off the bed. She's not playing games anymore, no sir. Then she's horrified to realize that her blow has killed Gerald.

Then the horror of her situation begins to hit her and just builds and builds until she's enveloped in panic. She's cuffed to the bed in a house with a corpse and nobody knows she's there. She's basically left to conquer her inner demons as well as somehow try to get free from the bed. Talk about the bonds of holy matrimony, yikes!

I don't like to give everything away in my book reviews, but she does come up with some ingenious plans of escape. A major theme is also her relationship with her father when she was growing up and how that relationship has helped shape her attitudes towards men. The inspiring part of this story is how this woman actually uses her memories of a painful past to unlock her future.

Non-King fans may think he merely writes ''scary stories about things that go bump in the night'', but true King fans know the truth. His stories take you to places you don't normally let your mind go. But he takes you there on these wild rides; rides that leave you breathless, yet wanting another.

I would recommend this book for someone looking for something quite different from standard horror fare. It's more about games of the mind, the tricks it plays on us, as well as how mind over matter isn't always just a meaningless cliche. It's about one woman's overcoming obstacles: literally, the handcuffs; figuratively, past bonds which threaten to destroy her future.