Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: I feel that Rose Madder is indeed an interesting book. It gets you really involved with the main character Rose and the horrible life she lived until she found a picture in a pawn shop. Although interesting it's not one of Stephen Kings best books. I feel that the story was a little too fairy tale like for me. It's not a horror book, it's more emotional then it is scary.
Rating: 
Summary: Combining the modern thriller with mythological justice
Review: The story opens with the heroine, Rose Daniels, huddled against a wall, in terrible pain, suffering a miscarriage from her husband Norman's abuse. Nine years later she wakes one morning to find a drop of blood on her pillow, legacy of the previous night's nosebleed.As if waking from a dream, she sees her future - death might be a sweet release but helpless crippling is the more realistic probability. Already her kidneys are damaged. Rose flees, taking only her purse and her husband's bank card. Thus far the violence has taken place off-stage and the reader experiences it in horrific fragments as the core of Rose's life. The terror that travels with her is palpable and riveting. Like Rose, we expect Norman, a canny and experienced cop, to pounce on her at every street corner, enraged at her audacity. But, through the kindness of strangers, Rose Daniels becomes Rosie McLendon (her maiden name), discovers friendship at a battered women's shelter and begins to put her life together. The day before she moves out of the shelter she stops in a pawn shop to see what she can get for her ostentatious engagement ring. The ring is a phony but the pleasant young proprietor is willing to trade it for a mediocre painting of a classical scene which Rosie suddenly has to have. The painting of a woman on a hill in a rose madder chiton calls out to her although the temple at the foot of the hill is clearly out of perspective. Rosie also gets a job out of the encounter - a customer who admires her voice turns out to be a producer of audio books - and a romance with the shop owner, Bill.
Meanwhile, Norman is on his way. King begins to alternate between Norman's unraveling psyche - a polluted and vile but cunning place - and Rosie's continued blossoming. While Norman becomes more and more savage, Rosie enters the realm of the painting in the book's first supernatural scene which is, while obligatory, not half as scary or involving as her real life. The painting seems to embody some version of the Furies - female earth dieties who exact retribution from human transgressors. The leader, the one Rosie identifies with, is no fairy godmother. A dangerous creature, consumed by madness and some leprous disease, she demands a perilous mission from Rosie which involves crossing the river of forgetfulness and entering a dead version of the garden of Eden as well as outwitting the Temple bull in a maze.
For the climax, King no longer spares us the violence up close. There's lots of blood and gore as well as supernatural interference on both sides. A page-turning good read.
Rating:
Summary: One of Stephen King's BEST!
Review: Rose Madder is about a woman who is abused my her cop husband Norman. Then one day, she justs gets up and leaves him for good.
She takes the Greyhound to another city, and starts a new life, with the help of a abused woman's program, she gets a job making audio books, and moves out of the boarding house, and into a apartment.
But when her husband Norman comes home and she is not there, he uses his detective skills and is now on a murdering rampage on trying to find her, and killing the people who helped her.
Then she meets a guy named Bill, he is nothing like Norman, he is sweet and gentle, she meets Bill because he works in a pawn shop, and that is where she finds this magificiant painting.
She buys it, and puts it in her apartment, but she notices that it is alive! She then has this dream of El Toro chasing her into this dark area of the painting, and trying to kill her.
Norman then comes back into the picture with the beating of one of the women at the boarding house, almost killing her.
She then notices that the woman in the painting needs help, she is a black woman with a white dress on, and the only way to get rid of El Toro is to get inside the painting and kill El Toro for good.
Norman then finds this mask of El Toro and he wears it when he goes out to kill. Then he takes it off and talks to it like it was real. Anyway, this is a good book, so I am not going to spoil the ending, but it is good.
Rating:
Summary: GRIPPING!
Review: I loved this book! I read the first 30 or 40 pages, then put it down and could never have the time to pick it back up again, but once I did, I was captured and was literally reading it almost non-stop to find out what was going to happen next! What was Norman going to do? What exactly did Rose have in store for him for when they got face to face again? What was going to happen with the picture that Rose bought? All these questions and more were going through my mind and every time something happened that would bring me closer to the answer, it would then get further away and then more suspenseful. Of course, there are some humerous anecdotes in the book as most Stephen King fans know he likes to put in his books it seems more often. This book had me laughing out loud at some times (i.e. when Gerdie [i think that was her name] "met" with Norman) but then also had me white knuckling the book trying read as much as I possibly could just to find out if Norman get's it in the end! I totally recommend this book for anyone! Stephen King has done it again!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Reading of a Great Book!
Review: This was one of my favorite King books when I first read it the 'old-fashioned way,' page by page. It's a great story about a woman's newfound independence, and what she has to go through to acheive it. The story itself is worth the price. When I listening to it as an audiobook, one finds that the reading can make or break the presentation. Fortunately, King teams up with Blair Brown, with Ms. Brown reading all of the parts told from Rose's perspective, and King reading the parts told from Rose's violent husband Norman's point of view. Blair Brown is a wonderful reader for any book. I've gotten to the point where I'll listen to an audiobook just because she reads it, whether I'm really into the book or not. She brings an individual subtlety and life to each character, without making it corny or overdone. The fact that Rose, the main character, takes a job as a reader of audiobooks about midway in the novel makes it all the more fitting. King has always read his own work well, and this is no exception. His parts, because they are the parts of the 'villain' are not always easy to listen to, but they are always well-performed. His reading style, surprisingly, works well with Brown's. This is not an easy book. The subject matter is difficult, ranging from miscarriage to spousal abuse of the worst kind. The calculated nature of Norman's character makes it all the more disturbing. The plot has twists and turns like any of King's best novels, and despite a slight misstep at the end, still leaves the reader (or listener) pretty well-satisfied. The reading is as close to perfect as one could hope. This is one of my favorite audiobooks, and a prize of my personal collection.
Rating:
Summary: She's Rosie Real
Review: Rose Madder is a deeply touching story that mainly focuses around the struggles of Rose Daniels and her need to be free of her husband and his oppressing dominance in her life. Rose has been the victim of her husband's rage for the past fourteen years. She really has no "identity" of her own in her marriage; she lives to serve her husband. If things aren't as he wants them to be, she suffers the consequences of his violent rages. For fourteen years, he has been putting her through unspoken horrors, and Rose has been enduring this torture in a deep daze - until the day she saw the spot of blood. It only took a spot of blood to wake her from her dreamy state and send her running for the high hills. It wasn't the fact that she had bled. She's bled many times in her life. It was the fact that that one betraying spot represented everything that was wrong in her life. So, Rose leaves her husband. She finds herself in a strange city, alone and afraid. She doesn't really know what to do. She's been her husband's punching bag for so long that she doesn't know how to function without him at first. It's her sheer determination to survive (and the help of a stranger) that leads her to a shelter for women. She gets her life together, learns to depend on herself, and starts gaining confidence. She's even found a painting to decorate the wall of her new apartment - never mind the painting seems to be expanding. For the first time in a long time, things are looking up for Rose. Her troubles aren't completely over though. Her husband has made himself a solemn vow to find her, and when he does, he's going to "talk to her up close"... King has given us a chilling novel that delves into a life an abused woman. He has given us insight into her thoughts and fears and has painted a truly believable heroine for his readers. You'll find yourself angered at Rose's husband, disgusted with the things he put her through, while cheering her on. You'll always watch a broken woman struggle to put the pieces of her life back together and learn there is more to life than being her husband's rag doll. We watch Rose tap into her strength. Above all I think it reminds of what most abused women go through. Of course, Stephen King added a fantastical element to the story, but I won't give it away. mortal_belleza
Rating: 
Summary: Sensational thriller until it becomes far fetched
Review: This is an excellent escaping domestic violence, evil villain tracking down his victim, will she escape story. It is probably the best of this genre I have read until you get near the end of the book. Strange supernatural world and transformation from human charachter to an animal charachter. What the? This book didn't need the far fetched ending, it was probably King's greatest achievement up until then. The end chapters do taint the beginning of the book as you are gripped into the lives of the characters and Norman is a brilliantly put together evil character. I especially liked his Talk to you Up Close saying which made him seem particularly evil. His dealings with other characters in the book while tracking down Rose are exceptional in turning this book into a thriller. You just want to read a realistic ending and see Norman either get his comeuppance from Rose or have Rose escape forever or whatever but the ending will be but you want it to be realistic. You should still buy this book as the majority of it is brilliant but just be prepared for an ending which is different to the way the rest of this brilliant story is going. I realise King is a horror, supernatural world writer but I didn't think there was a need to introduce that element in this book as it was already a terrifying thriller without it.
Rating: 
Summary: mixed
Review: no matter how i look at this work, ican't be satisfied. a wife runs from an abusive husband. she must create a new life. her husband begins to hunt for her. but that is part A. part B is that there is another world welcoming rose, trying to protect here. here is where the real goodies are. good descriptions, though not that great in concept. pretty bad actually. but this is where it gets interesting. actually the book may not be so bad, but it got abit confusing. was i supposed to experience thrills? horror? drama? this seemed to be a mix. the synthesis isn't healthy. some of the stuff here gets...corny. especially between rose and her "admirer". this could have been a good read, but it's so mixed i'm having problems digesting it. it just seemed incomplete, confusing, or a bit amateurish.
Rating:
Summary: Non STOP thriller
Review: Stephen King has really taken it away with this one. He keeps you on your toes as you turn from one page to the next. Once you start turning those pages it is really hard to stop. You yurn for more and more and have to fight yourself to put the book down. The book starts out with a very dramatic scene of a woman being battered for 14 years who finally decides she has had enough. She has been beaten since about a month after the wedding but after having her own baby beaten out of her, finds the courage to leave. However as the book continues this tough journey away from her husband, Norman, is going to be a bigger battle than Rose thought. She almost bets this is a battle that she will lose.
King really keeps you on your toes and uses great details throughout the entire book really letting you feel like you are there. You can feel the wind blowing or hear the man creeping up on you. sometimes you can even fell Norman whispering in your head, like he is talking to you and not Rose. He never leaves you in the dark with whats going on, but keeps you in the dark about what is getting ready to happen. It keeps you intensified and keeps the book in your hand. From harsh language to even worse beatings, King gives you enough details to help you visualize that you are really there.
As King takes you on a thrill filled roller coaster, the chase down of Rose Daniels gets more intense. At moments you will think the book is coming to end and another adventure will just be beginning. It is one thrill right after the next. And the thrills get more exciting as the book goes on.
However throughout the book King also makes it easy for a person to put theirself in that situation, and as one begins to put themself in that position that fear only becomes more exciting and real. it alomost becomes personal. While reading the book one might become scared for Rose's life but when a person puts theirself in that mind set they begin to fear for their own life and might even forget that they are only reading a book.
King does not avoid confusing you in this book however. There are times when the reader might think that they are never going to figure out what he is talking about but within time it will be very clear.
That is another great point about this book is that things that might seem unclear at first, but they always explain themselves later.
This book is overall about a young bride who lives in a world of hell for fourteen years. Her husband is a cop so she has noone to run to. Her family is gone and she feels alone in this world. The book takes you through her long journey that she must face if she wishes to become a free woman. A woman that will no longer be beaten by a man who can not possibly really love her. But will she realy ever escape him and find new love and be allowed to live a happy life? Read this one of a kind, spine chilling, mind boggling, Stephen King thriller and find out for yourself. Live Rose's life through this book and experience the battles lost and the battles won.
Rating:
Summary: OOook
Review: I thought this book was going to be another fantastic King work. It was just ok, and the whole idea was kind of hokey. There weren't that many times when I stoped reading for a moment only to find myself biting my nails in sheer nervousness. I gave it a three for a decent effort.
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