Hardly ever will I give a book 2 stars, (almost) solely for its pacing. But Misery has changed that. The first 150-200 pages were nothing. I understand that character/location background-setting is important, but 200 pages of it is unnecessary. In this 200 pages we are not even given an in-depth back story on how our plot came to be, or any sort of subplot. It isn't until over halfway through that we learn who our captor is, and things ~sort of~ pick up. It wasn't actually feeling suspenseful until the last quarter, or which only 20 pages had me actually wanting to read more.

I wanted to DNF this book, and wish that I had. It felt so long with very little to show for it. The drawn-out-edness of the book made 'exciting scenes'

including the axes, the fire, the cops showing up, etc.

lose their 'oomph'. 

It still gets 2 stars because I did appreciate the quality of writing, which is really hard to find in thrillers. I never felt like the story was cringe-worthy, despite how many unrealistic things occur. I also felt that despite us having very little backstory on our MCs, I felt relatively close to them due to King's writing style.

This was my first Stephen King, and probably my last. His books are way too long for a plot that could be fit in a 45 minute episode of Criminal Minds!!!!