Gerald's Game
Stephen King

On a warm weekday in October, Jessie and Gerald Burlingame are alone in the bedroom of their Maine summer house, playing a game that isn't listed in Hoyle's. But suddenly, as Jessie hears the click of the second handcuff locking her to the bedposts and sees her husband looming over her, a nerve snap of recognition tells her that this time Gerald is playing for keeps. Her next move is furious, violent, and, she is shocked to discover, deadly. Giving up control is scary enough; it is terrifying when there is no one left to give it to.
Except that Jessie is not alone. Over the next twenty eight hours, trapped in a lakeside house that has become a prison, Jessie will come face to face with all the things she has ever feared, and the unlatched back door banging fretfully in the breeze is an open invitation to horrors she has never imagined. Inside the darkening bedroom, shadows gather in mute menace, while inside Jessie's head a taunting chorus of voices whispers and shrieks: "Women alone in the dark are like open doors... and if they cry out for help, who knows what dread things may answer?"

This book is not for the weak stomached or anyone who is squeamish. It's about a woman who gets handcuffed to her bed by her husband and is stuck there when he dies of a heart attack. With no way out, and the keys all the way across the room, she is trapped on the bed with only her thoughts.

Or, at least, it is only her thoughts until a stray dog comes in to make a meal of her dead husband. And until a strange specter visits at night, showing her his collection of bones and jewelry from the dead.

It is hard to believe that a book that takes place almost entirely with a woman handcuffed to a bed would be interesting, but it is. In fact, it's rather hard to put down and has many edge-of-your-seat moments.

It also has some neat references to other books. From the eclipse that happened in Dolores Claiborne (and the revelation that this was the girl that Dolores had her vision of when she pushed her husband into the well) to the lake house being on Kashwakamak Lake (Kashwak = No Fo from Cell) there are some Easter Eggs hidden for those who have read other King books.

I found this book to be suspenseful and the addition of the dog and the specter (which Jessie believes is Death and whose true identity is revealed at the ending) make the book truly terrifying without resorting too much to the supernatural. The specter might seem supernatural at first, but in the end, what he really is is far more terrifying than if he actually were Death himself.

I would recommend this book, though I would recommend it to the high school and above crowd not only because of adult themes, but also because of everything that Jessie goes through - both while being handcuffed to the bed and what she faces in her own mind.

My rating: Four out of five snails.