Misery vs The Silence of the Lambs: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Fiction
Misery
Novelist Paul Sheldon has plans to make the difficult transition from writing historical romances featuring heroine Misery Chastain to publishing literary fiction. Annie Wilkes, Sheldon's number one fan, rescues the…
1 film adaptation
vs
The Silence of the Lambs
“Behavioral Science, the FBI section that deals with serial murder, is on the bottom floor of the Academy building at Quantico, half-buried in the earth.”
The Silence of the Lambs is a psychological horror novel by Thomas Harris. First published in 1988, it is the sequel to Harris's 1981 novel Red Dragon. Both novels feature the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal…
1 film adaptation
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Misery has the widest readership — 855105 ratings behind its score.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Misery | The Silence of the Lambs | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.2 (855105) | 4.3 (13299) |
| Hardcover | 4.1 (1323) | 4.2 (715) |
| Google Books | 4.5 (3) | 5.0 (1) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (1023) | 4.5 (1096) |
Reception
| Misery | The Silence of the Lambs | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 855105 | 13299 |
| Editions | 99 | 72 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 543737 | 354849 |
| Reading it now | 19231 | — |
| Written reviews | 41012 | 13299 |
| Wikipedia attention | 14535 | 22246 |
| Pages | 384 | 325 |