Rating: 
Summary: Rose great
Review: Reading other reviews, I found many people thought this an unusual King book. I have to disagree. This is pure SK. "Rose Madder" has all elements that make King a great writer (I have read more than 20 of his books). Rose Daniels is the abused wife who suddenly escapes the prison that was her marriage. In a new city, she discovers a people who will help her get over her violent husband and a life of abuses. Then she founds a new job, and, possibly, a man totally different from Norman Daniels, her husband. But Norman won't let it go at that. He will go after her to hell if needed, and if he finds her, he will send Rose right there, if he can. Norman and Rose are extremely interesting characters. They are complex, real and very well developed. When a writer is able to have characters like that, the story can be nothing but good. Norman is raving mad, but in the middle of that madness he is able to find some lucidity and act accordingly to get to his final objective. Rose finds in her new life the strength she always needed and couldn't get because she knew nothing else. Sometimes people forget fiction is just what it is: immagination; it all came from someone's head. Of course, this book, like most stories, has its flaws, either psychological or factual, but fiction, at this level, is pure enterteinment and should be treated accordingly. "Rose Madder" is like other books by Stephen King. "Bag of Bones" and "Dreamcatcher", for example. They blend day-today facts with a little "unusual" stuff. King does that very well, and I think this "unusual" counts in a positive way. Grade 8.6/10
Rating: 
Summary: It would have been better if he'd wanted to write it
Review: Between the publication of The Wastelands and Wizard and Glass, Stephen King's career was in a sort of a queer doldrom. It seems obvious that he wanted to write another Dark Tower book--he admitted to as much in his forward to the latter piece--but he was afraid to continue the series from the point at which he'd left off. The end result was a short series of books that were ostensibly stand-alone titles, that unfortunately became mired in his rather obvious desire to write about something else. It is from that period, unfortunately, that Rose Madder comes. The book itself shows some obvious high points. Now, I'm sure that anybody who's ever been battered (or a woman, for that matter) will find some errors in King's depiction of Rose, but overall, I think it comes out okay. The characters are all pretty well developed, and all are believable. Gretta (the Refrigerator Perry lookalike who teaches the women self-defense) may well be the most accurately written female character Stephen King has ever created. More importantly, King finally seems to have washed himself of most of the borderline misogynistic tendencies in his writing (quite apparent in It) and the queer, and utterly false, association between battered women and lesbianism that showed up in Insomnia. The good, then, is that Stephen King has managed to transcend some of the views and tendencies that held his previous work back, to create a much more realistic and accurate depiction of the issue he tries to deal with. Unfortunately, this book has a rather substantial downside as well, and that downside is the Dark Tower. Stephen King is well known for leaving little literary Easter Eggs sitting in his books for the attentive reader, but this amounts to much more than simple egg dropping. If you haven't read the Dark Tower books, I can personally guarantee that you WILL be confused at some point, and the plot and character motivations will become exquisitely obtuse and difficult to understand. This'll happen right around the time that supernatural things start creeping in (the section entitled The Temple of the Bull). It WILL detract from the experience. This problem is only compounded by King's rather ham-fisted handling of symbolism throughout this piece. In most of his writing, you won't find too much in the way of abstract symbolism. Steve tries to break that pattern here, and he doesn't do it very well. I was personally sick of reading the phrase "Rose Madder" (used to refer to an actual color) around the time I was two thirds of the way through, and some of the symbols he introduces (notably the fox and the tree) are too obscure for even me to understand. Indeed, this would have been a much better novel if the entire epilogue had simply been sheared off--I can find no discernible purpose behind its inclusion other than confusing the reader. The character change that he induces in Rosie near the end of the book seems arbitrary and disturbing--an attempt to say something about something, but just what either of those somethings are escapes me. All the same, read superficially, this is still a good book. The plot is realistic where it should be, and fantastic where it should be, and the whole is spun together into a fairly coherent story. While the plot may leave those who aren't familiar with King's magnum opus a little confused at points, it's still a good way to pass a few hours, even if it does fail as a conveyer for any message.
Rating: 
Summary: Stephen King's ROSE MADDER
Review: After years of mental and physical abuse by her husband, Rosie Daniels is shocked into making a stand when seeing a single drop of blood. With no contacts, no skills, and nowhere to go Rosie finds strength in a peculiar painting she finds in a pawn shop. Slowly she begins creating a new life. But she knows her husband Norman is searching for her with instincts developed from being a career cop. If this story had been written by just about any other writer of horror it would be considered a success. But King has always proved himself a cut above the rest and ROSE MADDER is run of the mill by his standards. However, he still does a great job developing the two main characters. Watching Rosie blossom and Norman regress is a real treat...
Rating:
Summary: Great premise which got wasted
Review: This book started out great but lost the intrigue for me. It has a great premise. How do you start a new life when your abusive husband is a respected cop and police resources at his finger tips? But Norman gets on Rose's tail with really very little effort and then violently kills and mutilates everyone in his path. This book could have been so much better.
Rating:
Summary: Great King novel
Review: King has written a masterpiece with "Rose Madder". The tale involves a woman pursued by a monster much more terrifying than any vampire or werewolf, namely the woman's abusive police officer husband who's weak grip on sanity breaks as he trails his runaway wife. King's great characters shine as does the realistic plot. I had read many King novels that came out before "Rose Madder" and had noticed that some of them started to repeat themselves plot-wise (basically small town people tackling a monster of some sort). I had thought King himself had run out of ideas until I read this book. King has once again proved himself a great storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Book!
Review: I recommend this book to teens and adults because most teens and adults are intereseted in Stephan King's work. This book is basically about a women who thought she met the love of her life when she was a teenager, but she did not know that she would be stuck with him for years beaten, abused, and told what to do, she was scared out of her mind to leave him, because she knows that he would just find her and beat her even more, but she knew out of one of those beatings she would most likely be murdered. Thats why I recommend this book because the book is a good insight on abusive relationships.
Rating:
Summary: Another #1 Best Seller
Review: Rose Madder is another one of King's best novels. Everyone has heard of someone in an abusive relationship, but King shows how frightening it can be. King uses very vivid descriptions to show how abusive some people can get. When the wife decides it must stop, things get worse.
What would you do if you had a cop that would rather see you dead as to look at you? I recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense and action. This book is loaded with action from the start. Few authors could make so many number one best sellers but King has done it. This was a great action packed book.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been 5 stars
Review: Rose Madder begins as Rosie leaves her abusive husband after 14 years of violence. What a great start! The characters are King's most real and 3 dimentional ever. Rosie exibits all the classic signs of an abused woman. She show the strength to leave and try to begin her life again. Norman, her husband, is the scariest villain in any King novel. This is because he is belivable. He is driven by human emotions: hate, pride, lust, insanity. Norman could give Hanibal Lector a run for his money. Which brings me to why I gave 3 stars instead of 5. Just when things start to get interesting King introduces a supernatural element. I know, I know, I'm reading a Stephen King novel, but I feel this one could have done without his usual ghosts and demons. The supernatural elements felt forced and out of place. The characters alone could have driven this novel to a satisfing conclusion. Good but could have been better.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat good, somewhat bad
Review: The first half is good, let me get that out of the way. In fact, the first 2 thirds are good. When we saw Rose running away, I cried, atleast nearly. I just felt so sorry for her. However, that's the kind of heart I have, the reason I loved Dolores Claiborne. However, near the end, this book slows down to a confusing mess. The ending just doesn't hold you, and the people involved in this other world are not explained. I'm not giving this book a hard time because it's different then most Stephen King books, but because it lacks good writing near the end, as if King was rushing to finish it. Only a reccomended read for those who are nearing the end of reading all of King's books.
Rating:
Summary: This is a wierd book...
Review: Hi there. I'm giving this book 3 stars on the King scale, not on the 'regular old author' scale. I think we all understand what that means. If I'd been a woman, or ever suffered serious abuse, or been over thirty, I'm sure I would have loved this book or at least appreciated it way more. But I don't fit into any of these categories. I'm a 24 year-old male King junkie who gets off on books like Firestarter, Misery, Pet Sematary, etc. I picked this book up after reading the author's introduction to the short story "The Road Virus Heads North" (from the newly released collection "Everything's Eventual.") In his introduction, King says that Rose Madder is 'probably the best read' of his novels. So of course I had to check it out. To the book: It was pretty good. There was alot more subtle symbolism than I'm used to and I'm sure alot of it went over my head. Rose descends into the maze to rescue her inner child from Ze Bool? That's all my simple mind can make of the wild supernatural symbolism in this book. Maybe I'm missing something, but I think this book could've been just as good without a magic picture. Then again, maybe I am so used to 'fast-food' writing that I can't see a good symbol when it slaps me in the face. Of course, I loved Norman. This guy's scenes were wacked. It was great to follow him from cruelly brilliant to completely insane. I felt much more connected to Norman's slow decline than I did to Rose's slow ascent. This is a good book for more mature King fans. For the youngsters among us, we might want to skip it in favor of, say, Dreamcatcher. If you're a woman recovering from abuse and need to get in touch with your buried rage, then pick this book up today.
| 
