Rating: 
Summary: A Compelling Story - and very well read
Review: One of my all time favorite stories. In typical King fashion, we get deep into the hearts and minds of the characters. We can totally empathize with Rose, the terror she feels towards her brutal husband, her paralyzing fear as she goes out into the world all alone. We cheer for her as she begins her new life, finds friends, finds herself, and maybe even love. This was the first audio book I ever purchased, and I have to admit, it's been hard to find ones that measure up to this. The story is written from two perspectives - the villain, Norman, and his wife, Rosie, who finally leaves him after years of violent abuse. At first I thought it was odd that there were "Rose chapters" and "Norman chapters", but as the story progressed, I found that it really enhanced the story. As Norman goes 'trolling' for Rose, their stories begin to overlap. As he closes is on her, the chapters seems to close in on each other as well - it really adds to the tension. It's actually quite brilliant. The story is read by Stephen King (who reads the Norman chapters) and Blair Underwood (who reads the Rosie chapters). Although I am not usually a big fan of Stephen King's audio reading (I find his voice kind of annoying), in this case it suits the story. And Blair Underwood is absolutely amazing. Since hearing her read this book, I've purchased other works she's read, just for her reading. This is definitely an audio book worth getting!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Intriguing Novel
Review: I David, havn't read this yet, but have read numerous opinions of it. I have read all of SK's novels xcept for 5. IT was my 1st novel & favorite. I hope this gives relations to his Dark Tower series, The Talisman, IT, The Dead Zone, Black House or The Tommyknockers.
Rating: 
Summary: Least favorite King Book
Review: I am very surprised at how many people rated this book 5 stars. The first half of the book was good, but the second dropped in a hurry. First of all, I did like the main character, although she did not grip me like most of kings characters do. Secondly, the dream sequence, drags on for what seems like eons. I finally got so bored I started skimming, I should note this is the only King book I have ever skimmed, or even been tempted to skim. Perhaps that is why the end was so confusing to me, maybe I missed some key element. But from what I could gather, the end was just a rehash of the dream sequence. This one seemed totally uninspired, and as I said in other reviews King is my favorite writer, and maybe I hold him to impossible standards. It was just a hard one to swallow after reading the brilliance of some of his other works. If you are a diehard King fan like I am, you will probably read this anyway if you havent already, buf it you are choosing between this one, and almost any other King book, my vote would instantly be for the other one. definately on the bottom of his list.
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.
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