Rating: 
Summary: Don't expect too much
Review: First, remember that this is a movie tie-in book. They are usually written in a hurry and are basicly the script fleshed out. In other words, don't expect too much from this book. Second, Stephen King did not write this, thank goodness and neither did his wife, Tabitha. It has some lovely, spooky moments and is low key, atmospheric horror mixed with a large dose of woman-as-eternal-victimolgy. It's not the greatest or even extremely good but it's not bad either. It does what it set out to do, which is to promote the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't finish it
Review: This was truly dreadful. I gave it 100 pages and was bored half out of my mind. I've been an avid King fan for 20 years, but this was a horrible addition to his library of work. I'm just glad I borrowed it from the library.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: If this was fiction it slide by me! This is a book that I had to finish to even be able to sleep! Scary stuff! I did go to the Beaumont site and did read the excluded excerpts and found it hard to believe it was all a hoax!
Rating:
Summary: Can't put this book down!
Review: I got the book after I saw the movie, I was skeptical at first and thought Stephen King must have written it. So I went onto the website noted in the proluge and found Dr. Joyce Reardon's information, I even saw the courses offered at Beaumont University and that you can gain 3 credits for the Rose Red field trip. This can't be fiction! I can truly feel for Ellen Rimbauer and was fascinated/ horrified by the ongoings at Rose Red. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: The Macabre Meets Harlequin Romance
Review: Okay, so maybe it was my fault since I'd just finished Gao Xingjian's masterpiece, Soul Mountain. And maybe I shouldn't have gone to the library to check out books when I have dozens here at home I've yet to read. But, I was looking for something new and different- a different genre perhaps as I am wont to read mostly Asian literature.
I saw the word "diary" and the voyeur in me was drawn to the work much the same as one is drawn to other diaries, reminiscences, autobiographies, even biographies. As I know most of us feel, it's okay to read someone else's personal thoughts if they're in published book format and sanctioned by the subject(rather than pilfering through a friend's or loved one's journals). It's also responsible psychologically.
Anyhow, I was distraught to find that the book is not an authentic diary (see "fiction" on the back jacket)and equally distraught to find that Joyce Reardon, PhD is actually Stephen King or Ridley Pearson or whoever. Now I have nothing against Mr. King or Mr. Pearson, although it is difficult to revert to Andre once one has sipped from a glass of Krug! Read: It's tough going from a Pulitzer Prize winner to this writing, which I consider to be for the masses. For the most part, give or take one or two well-written works, I've never subscribed to the books on bestseller lists.
Nevertheless, I gave the book a chance and am sorely disappointed I wasted my time. Ellen's stilted language, part of King's attempt to give color and authenticity to early 20th Century mores in circles of wealth, reads as if the author is just trying too hard to capture what Ellen might sound like. King's attempt at humor, "Douglas Posey," John Rimbauer's homosexual business partner, is again just too obvious. Even Ellen's erotic musings on her awakening sexual desires and what she would attest to as deviant thoughts, seem too pat as if it is not Ellen confiding in her diary but someone else (King perhaps and not a possessed Ellen like we are encouraged to believe)penning what they believe someone such as the character would write. Even the drawings and photographs peppering the pages, sadly, do not supplement what the author lacks in skilled authorship.
Rating: 
Summary: rose red
Review: i feel rose red is an excellent book. i highly recommend it to anyone. i saw the movie based on the book and the movie doesn't even compare. however, with reading and seeing the movie i fully understand how ellen felt on a daily basis. the movie does the book no justice. this is one journey that i was glad i took in my mind not in person.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: This one just happened to catch my eye at the library, and it was so unusual, I just had to pick it up.
First off, I wish somebody would've warned me that halfway through the book that a curse is written in upon anybody who reads this diary, so I shall warn you here. ;)
As the title suggests, the book is a diary, begun when Ellen was 19 years old. She chronicles her hopes and expectations to her upcoming marriage, but her doubts and fears as well. I found the words to be very real, and heartfelt, which completely drew me in. As events grew more scandalous and strange, it drew me in even further.
She writes of her husband's sordid activities, and the horror that surrounds the house with murders, suicides, and mysterious disappearances. Ellen slowly transforms into a person with doubt as far as the spiritual world goes, but becomes a believer as time goes on, eventually becoming half-mad with the events that surround her life.
Even though events grew more suspicious as the book wore on, I still believed it was true, and was completely surprised to find out that it was work of fiction by Ridley Pearson!
Excellent work, and an excellent tale.
Rating:
Summary: Corporate man-bashing chick book
Review: Now that lesbianism is in vogue for pop culture, I suppose we'll be seeing it quite frequently, especially in "scary" books. But don't get me wrong. I'm writing this from my male point of view, and pardon me if I veer towards my pig side while writing this. It's not that I don't want to read about her lesbian, as well as sexual awakening thoughts. On the contrary, bring 'em on! But I don't need to get the thought introduced, and then it being abruptly dismissed with quotes like "which I will dare not reveal" here. This mentality of "introduce the topic but not too much" smacks of corporate decision-making more than story-writing, which is why that word appears in the title. The fact that it leaves "the rest" to the imagination makes it a chick book. I'll get back to this, but it's fair to describe the plot. Our heroine is introduced as a nineteen-year-old woman at the turn of the twentieth century. She is about to become engaged to a very wealthy man. He is planning on building a huge home. It is giving away nothing to say that this house is being built on an Indian burial ground, which we know is going to cause nothing but problems. Her problems with the home, as well as her marriage, make up the story. Yes, the guy is a cad. On the other hand, the lady is wealthy beyond most of our dreams, and he does seem to give her all the money she wants. He also makes occasional reconciliation attempts, but throughout the entire book, she is pretty much miserable. It doesn't help that people keep disappearing (women) or getting killed (men) around the house. Another problem I have with the book is that we are well into the story before the supernatural element starts emerging, which I thought was too long to wait. But back to our heroine. OK, we're supposed to feel sorry for her and her terrible husband. But even with all of her curious thoughts about coupling, her attitude about marriage is that it, and I quote, "to provide men with unspeakable pleasures". Gee, where do you even begin with a statement like that. Or my favorite of the whole book. In a rare moment of contentment, she actually develops a playful streak. Her line on this is "I am not without a sense of prank". Wow! What a party chick! Sorry, but I'm not sure that I blame the husband with a wife who cuts loose like this. I wouldn't moan about the above so much if we got more horror story and less abbreviated titillation-without-payoff. Which is my biggest problem with the book. Once again, why would a male need to read this?
Rating:
Summary: Anonymous author no more
Review: Dude, check it out! I know who wrote this! Ridley Pearson, baby, doing a fav for the King! Saw it in King's web site!
Rating:
Summary: Waste of good paper
Review: I haven't been this disappointed in a book since Jean Auel's last one. Embarassed I even bought it. I would never have bothered to finish it but was on an airplane with nothing else to do.
|
