Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I loved this book. In fact, I had thoughts while reading it that it may be a hoax, but finished it anyway. While searching the web for the "missing excerpts" did I realize the dupe. Oh, but what an exciting dupe it was. Great marketing ideas for the miniseries. I highly recommend the book. Especially, if you are at all voyeristic.
Rating: 
Summary: mildly entertaining, but wait for the miniseries
Review: I have to admit that I finished this in a night -- it does have a pull that keeps you reading till the end. However, I would advise you to save your money and just watch it on tv. If this indeed is King's work, then he's going downhill. This is "The Shining" revamped, and my love for that other, greater, book and movie is probably what kept me going through this one. The attraction of this book is mainly that "is it real or isn't it" feeling -- had the book been released as a work of fiction from the beginning, it's mediocre writing, predictability, and at times slow pacing would surely do it in. Hold out for the miniseries/paperback!
Rating: 
Summary: A Cry In The Night
Review: Rose Red: The Diary Of Ellen Rimbauer is a surprisingly good book. Being a fan of Stephen King's work, and having awaited the Rose Red miniseries with impatience for some time now, I bought this book to wet my lips a little before tasting the main course. And surprise, surprise! The book is actually very entertaining and, at times, very suspenseful.We are brought to Ellen Rimbauer's world who, at the age of 19, marries John, a man much older than herself. He builds her a house as a wedding present. The house will be the largest, most luxurious, most impressive house in Seattle. But little do they knwo that they have built this house on an Indian burial ground, which gives the house a soul. As the years go buy, the house grows hungry and more powerful. And so does Ellen. The book is actually very well written and polished. You do get the feel and mood of the time (early 1920s to late 1940s) and you do get to know the real Ellen Rimbauer very well. She hides nothing from us. She tells us her every secret, her every desire. I felt a little bit like a voyeur reading this book. The book itself is very beautifully done, though I didn't really like those childish drawings that appear randomly throughout the book. They serve no real purpose. I would have preferred more of the photographs which are displayed in the first part of the novel instead. This book should be read before watching the miniseries, as it gives crucial information that will only help to your understanding of the film's plot. This is a very original, very suspenseful and very well written novel. I have to admit that I was surprised. Very pleasantly surprised!
Rating:
Summary: Lights on for this book, please!
Review: I read this wonderful book in one sitting, into the early morning hours, wanting to read it before the Stephen King mini-series comes out. I live in Seattle and I bought the whole thing hook-line and sinker. As a matter of fact, I was planning to take a drive to try to find the Rose Red mansion this weekend, even though the directions didn't quite make sense to me. The top of Spring Street? Isn't Spring Street interrupted by the I-5 Freeway? Then I thoroughly investigated the Beaumont University website and everything except the info on Rose Red is "under construction." I, too, have been wonderfully dupped! I loved it! Mr. King is the best in the business and he is the Master of suspense & horror.... and the last laugh! (I admit I still plan to take that weekend drive.. just in case!)
I thoughly suggest you read this book. It is a marvel.... but please, keep the lights on and hopefully your cats won't keep looking to the front door and at shadows that aren't there... or are they?
Rating:
Summary: Very clever and very scary!
Review: Rumors abound that this is the work of Stephen or Tabitha King. Indeed stylistically, it comes very close to the prose of Mrs. K and frankly I can't imagine any man being able to write so well of feminine intimacies with such candor and understanding. This is an incredibly fun book with some clever marketing ploys thrown in. This one was definitely of the I-couldn't-put-it-down variety with fast pacing, fascinating characters whom you came to love or despise without knowing too much, and a plot that thickens like a Seattle gumbo! Great reading for a cold wintry night. Too bad Rose Red is only a fiction; it'd do wonders for the Pacific Northwest tourist trade.
Rating: 
Summary: sucked in
Review: Being my book was not in the fiction section, but lost among the magazines at a discount store, when I purchased Rose Red I thought it to be a diary of an actually person. I believed that the events to unfold would be of a psychological nature, not the paranormal. I did find the book entertaining, but found it too hard to swallow for truth. Instead of a publicity stunt or a funny way to create and entertain, I saw a weird little prof behind it all trying to push her research. People can believe anything if they want to. It was not until I visited her so-called Beaumont University and wanted to check credentials, if there were any, that I became even more interested. Is this book cousin to the successful, though only mildly entertaining Blair Witch Project? A lot of hype, too hard to believe, though entertaining....especially omitting the explicit sexual escapades of our Rimbaur's. Leaves much to the imagination and is a bit refreshing, though the implied is very implied. I perhaps would have enjoyed the book more if Ellen was a bit more believing. A proper woman, or really even an improper woman, at the turn of the century would not write that way. Not to mention her diary became at times too narrative. Overall, get it from the library if you get bored.
Rating:
Summary: If you like Stephan King, you will like this book.
Review: Of course Mr. King wrote this book. It is wonderful to have this if you intend to watch the mini-series. It scared me. It is Mr. King at what he does best, i.e. the ghost story. Sure there are hints of other tales here. The Winchester house, Amityville Horror, the one about the house that repairs itself by killing off people...you know the one with Oliver Reed. But it is better because it has it all. I can't wait for the TV series. Of course I love Stephen King and I'm not at all ashamed of loving his books. So if you are a fan, enjoy...if not...why not?
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book
Review: This book was a very good weekend reader. A real page turner. I read this book late into the night and had to put it down because I got spooked. :) Woke up at 6AM the next morning just to finish the book. THE GOOD: It is a wonderful tale that will take you around the world to Africa and back to the Northwest US, from the underbelly of a China Town district to the Grande Ballroom of a haunted house. It dabbles in dark magic and dives head first into Psychic Phenomena. Very well written. I love the cover, and the pages are the old antique like pages (uneven, rugged pages) with flowery decorations on each page. There is a nice map of the ground floor of Rose Red on the front and back covers of the book. This was great when I was trying to visualize what was happening and where, but I would have loved to seen a diagram of the other three floors. THE BAD: WARNING: I would not reccommend this book to anyone who would be offended by bisexual experimentation or anyone who is under 18. THE UGLY: I could have done without the cheesy cartoon-like drawings.
Rating:
Summary: Fun read
Review: Any fan of haunted house/ghost stories will like this book. In response to some comments about it being melodramatic - well of course it is! It's written in the first person perspective as the diary entries of a young, sheltered, soon-to-be-married girl in the early 1900's. Her personality is melodramatic. All in all, a fun and quick read that does what it's meant to do - build anticipation for the miniseries. I think it's brilliant marketing to release this ahead of the miniseries and give some extra insight into the motivations of the characters. To those of you upset because it isn't a real diary - quit pouting and chill out. Enjoy the fact that you read a piece of fiction so well written that you were fooled!
Rating:
Summary: Clever Marketing Ploy
Review: Rose Red is definitely a good read and a clever marketing ploy. The writing is first rate, and reminds me very much of Stephen (or possibly Tabitha?) King's. ... for confirmation that this is an elaborate hoax. Beaumont University does not exist(check the listings in any collegiate dictionary), and every link return's to the "exerpts" from the book. Who wrote it? My money is on one of the King's (see page 190 for a clue). I found other clues that convinced me the book is a hoax on pages 119 and 225. Ther are probably others, but my history is not good enough to recognize them. If you accept that this book, combined with the website and upcoming miniseries, is fiction, then you're in for a rich and titillating read(I confess--I fruitlessly searched the website for the supposedly edited entries mentioned on page 221). To whoever is responsible for this clever marketing ploy: great job! A multimedia first I believe.
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