Rose Madder

by Stephen King

1996

Status

Available

Publication

Signet (1996), Edition: Open market ed, 480 pages

Description

Fiction. Horror. HTML: This is the story of Rose Daniels, "the most richly portrayed female King's ever created" (Detroit Free Press). Escape from her macabre marriage is not as easy as fleeing to a new city, picking a new name, finding a new job, and lucking out with a new man. Not with a husband like Norman....

User reviews

LibraryThing member JoClare
"Rose Madder" is a great read, and one of my favorites by Stephen King. It's the stuff nightmares are made of, a terrified wife who leaves her abusive husband to begin a new life, and is on the run from Norman who isn't so "eager" to separate from Rose. Rose soon finds a job, and purchases an
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unusual painting of a woman in a red dress that seems to call out to her. She finds herself traveling between two worlds, the real world and the fantastic world found within the canvas. All too soon, Norman finds Rose, and is ready to talk to her "up close".

Stephen King carefully crafts Rosie, who is brought to life through his intense descriptions of her subconscious, diving into her fears and thoughts so that we can imagine the possible consequences she will suffer later from her deranged husband Norman, who just gets maddened with rage as each little nuance of his wife's departure unfolds. This book blends just the right amount of fantasy with reality as the story builds to a rather climactic finish, as hunter becomes hunted, predator becomes prey.

In Rose Madder, Stephen King takes a very different turn and explores real humans and their emotions just as vividly as his horrific creatures have been. I recommend this book to King fans and non-King fans alike.
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LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
This is certainly a book of two halves for me. The first 300 pages were very powerful, in fact the first three chapters are for me some of the very best I have ever read,but the latter 300 were less so seeming to rather peter out.

The opening chapters details Rosie's abuse at the hands of her
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husband Norman Daniels and are pretty horrific so it is easy to like and feel for her. That said the best character for me is that of Norman. Norman is a police officer and seen by the public as a hero but in private is a psychotic monster who is slowly losing his mind.(Although for me this too was a little overdone in the end).

Rosie takes Norman's credit card and escapes from his clutches but Norman is not about to give her up and comes looking for her. Rosie visits a pawn shop and spots a painting which grabs her attention and seems to want her as much as she wants it. At home Rosie escapes into another world via the painting.

It is this part of the story which rather lost it for me. Although there have been other books about domestic abuse, so it might not have been overly original, but personally I would have preferred the story to have stayed as a simple chase one. The dream sequences baffled rather than entralled me.

Overall I felt that the author started off with a good premise but in attempt to be original or at least to give it a twist he rather lost the plot. An OK read but no more than that.
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LibraryThing member gbill
It was interesting to see where King would take this story of a battered woman, taking it on the run from her (very) violent husband, who is also a cop. His characters, the action, and the supernatural aspects are all over-the-top, but that’s what the genre is about, and I liked how he used
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restraint in the places where he subtly points out that violence against women is horrifyingly common. It’s a page-turner that you could easily imagine being made into a movie.

Quotes:
On art that moves us:
“…it filled her eyes and her mind with the sort of clean, revelatory excitement that belongs only to the works of art that deeply move us – the song that made us cry, the story that made us see the world clearly from another’s perspective, at least for awhile, the poem that made us glad to be alive, the dance that made us forget for a few minutes that someday we will not be.”

On men:
“His sex-drive had gone on vacation, perhaps even into permanent retirement, and maybe that was just as well. The plumbing between his legs had gotten him into a lot of trouble over the years. It was a hell of a note, the sort of thing that might lead you to believe that God had more in common with Andrew Dice Clay than you maybe wanted to believe. For twelve years you didn’t notice it, and for the next fifty – or even sixty – it dragged you around behind it like some raving baldheaded Tasmanian Devil.”

And:
“…Rosie found time to wonder – not for the first time since she had come to D & S [Daughters and Sisters, a shelter] – why so many men were so unkind. What was wrong with them? Was it something that had been left out, or something nasty which had been unaccountably built in, like a bad circuit in a computer?”

On violence against women:
“She had a sudden and far from pleasant realization: she was not novelty at Portside. This man saw women like her all the time, women hiding behind dark glasses, women buying tickets to different timezones, women who looked as if they had forgotten who they were somewhere along the way, and what they thought they were doing, and why.”

And this one, which made me pause:
“She didn’t know why she had stayed with him, any more than she knew why, in the end, it had taken just a single drop of blood to transform her entire life. She only knew that the shower had been the best place in the house, dark and wet and full of steam, and that sometimes half an hour in Pooh’s Chair felt like five minutes, and that why wasn’t a question that had any meaning when you were living in hell. Hell was motiveless. The women in Therapy Circle had understood that; no one had asked her why she stayed. They knew. From their own experiences, they knew.”
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LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
A brutal read, due to the main topic - domestic violence. Norman, the abuser, is a sick, sick man who does terrible things to his wife, Rosie. She escapes and he follows. And with a super natural painting, she escapes again. It's a good story, with great characters (I loved Gert!), and its slow
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pace benefits its complexity! I wasn't a fan of the "through-the-painting" parts of the tale, and the epilogue did nothing for me. Still, it thrilled me and chilled me, and really, what's not to like when it's Uncle Stevie? Viva Ze Bool!
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LibraryThing member asha.leu
In 'On Writing', Stephen King describes 'Rose Madder', as well as 1994's 'Insomnia', as "stiff, trying-too-hard novels". It's a critique that I can only agree with. 'Rose Madder' is certainly better than 'Insomnia', a book I have tried and failed to complete on two separate occasions, but it is
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lacking that undefinable... something that usually makes King's writing so compelling.

My main problem with 'Rose Madder' is its supernatural B-plot about a magical painting connected with Greek mythology, which always feels unnecessarily tacked on to an otherwise gripping thriller about a battered wife escaping her abusive, psychopathic police officer husband.

In fact, the A-plot is so captivating and filled with suspense and paranoia that one wonders just why King felt he had to shoehorn in the surreal dreamworld of the Rose Madder painting or the bull's mask that takes over the antagonist in the book's climax. Rosie's husband is a frightening enough antagonist in his own right, and her attempts to flee and start a new life and his dogged pursuit an interesting enough plot without any added supernatural elements.

Maybe King thought the book lacked a sufficiently "Stephen King"-esque hook, or perhaps he just wanted to explore Greek mythology at the time, but either way what could have been a classic in the spirit of 'Cujo' or 'Misery' instead feels like King-by-numbers, the plot grinding to a halt and bordering on self-parody whenever Rosie goes into the painting or anything else magical enters the story.
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LibraryThing member CDVerhoff
I was taken in by the painting, too. This was an imaginative piece. Perhaps not as suspenseful as some, but I enjoyed it.
LibraryThing member srboone
A total misfire. The rape survival story is bland and Harlequin Romance quality. The Greek mythology aspect is interesting, but the marriage of the two is overworked. King tried too hard on this one.
LibraryThing member srboone
A total misfire. The rape survival story is bland and Harlequin Romance quality. The Greek mythology aspect is interesting, but the marriage of the two is overworked. King tried too hard on this one.
LibraryThing member bhowell
This is an excellent thriller, again King's strong theme of domestic violence and male abuse of family, harrowing, like Delores Claiburne.
LibraryThing member selkins
A woman on her own, a painting that may be a gateway -- to another world, or to her subconscious? Is she going crazy? Is her husband already there? Who's the woman in the painting? Is the Minotaur real? Who can be trusted, under what circumstances? Great read, evocative imagery.
LibraryThing member buffalogr
Another great Steven King production. Listened with much interest to what seemed, at first, like a cop novel and a battered woman...but, along came with a twist .
LibraryThing member TLMorganfield
I listened to this as an audio book, and that's probably why I actually finished it. Good stuff up until Rose goes into the painting the first time (had I been reading this instead of listening, I probably would have put the book down here. And not because I don't like supernatural--I quite love
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fantasy--but for some reason I'm less fond of SK's supernatural elements than I am of his real world elements.). Gets better once she returns to the real world again: actually, it gets really good, but then things get solved by going back into the supernatural world and so the ending felt lackluster for me. I was pleased to see that characters I really liked survived Norman's pursuit of Rose (Gert and Bill); I was really afraid that King was going to axe at least one of them.
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LibraryThing member queencersei
Rosie Daniels is the battered wife of police officer Norman Daniels. After enduring fourteen years of horrific abuse one day Rosie suddenly 'wakes up' and flees her husband with just the clothes on her back and $350 that she took from his ATM account.

Free from Norman Rosie first finds herself in a
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women's shelter, but quickly transitions into a good job giving voice to books on tape and her own apartment. Deciding to sell her engagement ring she finds herself in a pawn shop, where she meets Bill, an honest to goodness nice guy. But Rosie also meets something else in that shop, a curious painting entitled Rose Madder, which she buys on a whim. As Rosie settles into her new life, she knows in the back of her mind that Norman has not forgotten her and in fact is coming for her. But now Rosie has an ally. Something Detective Norman will never see coming, Rose Madder. And Rose Madder will repay Norman for his cruelty.
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LibraryThing member smitkevi
This book is fairly typical for Stephen King. It contains many of the familiar ingredients we're used to seeing (small town paranoia, alternate universes, psychotic villains), but his realistic way of portraying an abusive relationship between two brilliantly painted characters forced me to invest
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emotionally in the story in a way I rarely find myself doing. As a result, I found the suspense much more engaging and the terror (unfortunately I'm rarely scared by horror but this one got me a few times) more real.
In the end, it wasn't the best of King but it was far from his worst.
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LibraryThing member Anagarika-Sean
This was good. Mr. King loves using portals/doors into other worlds that can always turn sinister in less than a second.
LibraryThing member cathymoore
Classic Stephen King centred around a domestic violence victim and her attempt to escape her psychotic husband. Really good, even at the point where, as King is apt to, the story suddenly shifts to a parallell universe. I often feel that when this happens it seems like a bit of a cop-out, as if the
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author got bored of writing the story almost. In this case though when the story moves into the paranormal it continues to read really well. I was also pleased to find parts of it really quite frightening as well, which is what we all want from a good horror story isn't it?
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LibraryThing member oxlena
My favorite Stephen King book to date. It's a little 'out there,' and probably not as "good" as a lot of his other novels, but it sucked me into it. It takes endurance to get through it if you're not used to the fantasy-mythological stuff. It was confusing, and has a less-than-perfect ending, but I
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found it entertaining regardless. 4 out of 5 psychotic cops on a major head-trip.
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LibraryThing member Blazingice0608
A very underrated novel for King, this book gets a lot of negative feedback, and while it definitly has its flaws, it is still a very wonderful book and a must read for any fan of Stephen King. Really shows King's mastery of characterization, Rosie and Norman are both amazing characters, one being
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the heroine, one being the villian. Rosie's journey and the transformation she makes is stunning, and King uses some beautifully descriptive writing to take us through it, especially in the supernatural parts of the book, his imagination is astounding. The bad part is, around the middle of the book, it becomes rather bloated and a little boring, but the rest of it was very interesting and nicely paced, followed by a pretty good ending. Also, it would have been better as just a psychological thriller, rather than just that but with a supernatural theme, which is why i only give it 3 and a half stars rather than 4+ stars. All in all though, as i said its a wonderful read, especially for diehard fans of King and Dark Tower since it has some connections to it as well.
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LibraryThing member ChromiumDomium
Quite simply unputdownable
LibraryThing member Nazgullie
If I could, I would give this book a full five stars. I loved it. I had a really hard time putting it down, and certain parts had me looking around my empty house unnerved.

I had been told by a few people that this isn't the best of King's work, but I'm going to go ahead and say that I have placed
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King in my 'favorite authors' category because of this story.
Without giving out any spoilers I'll say that King's female characters are strong, unapologetic, and in this story he creates a world where women's strength and resilience shines, and is the center of the story. The mythology that he created to drive this message home was subtle (to me anyway), and I'm surprised that it was written by a man. Which leads me to believe that maybe this might have been difficult for men to read and fully enjoy.
The elements of horror however are more rooted in what is real to us, and not some supernatural force, although King blends those two worlds seamlessly.

I shied away from giving it a full five stars because I did have some issues with the writing style, and I'm guessing that this is some of King's earlier work, so it's not a big deal. The story was fast paced, it sucked me in, managed to outrage and horrify me, and I couldn't put it down.

A huge plus, and something that I was looking out for was diversity in King's characters. He delivered, in a big way.

I would recommend this book to anyone, and will be recommending it to my children when they've begun to express a beginning interest in horror novels.
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LibraryThing member barpurple
Everyday horrors blended with a touch of unreal supernatural make Rose Madder hard to put down. King's skilful story weaving had me in tears at some points and wanting to scream "look out!" at others. This is an example of horror that's all the more spine chilling because of its everyday nature.
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Brilliant, plain and simple.
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LibraryThing member andyray
This is the first of four books SK wrote while he was in early sobriety. You may note the absence of blood and gore in this, the Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, Hearts in Atlantis, and Gerald's Game. A different more sane insane King!
LibraryThing member techeditor
ROSE MADDER doesn't rate near the top of all the Stephen King books I've read. Only one part near the 300-page mark was quite a page turner, but it didn't last long enough.

A 32-year-old woman named Rosie (not Rose Madder, a color) has been married for 14 years to an abuser, appropriately named
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Norman because he's also insane. And he is a police detective.

One day she finally leaves their home in an unnamed state and takes a bus to an unnamed Midwestern state. There she finds help and is beginning to get her new life together.

But crazy Norman uses his police training to look for her. Most of ROSE MADDER is about his search and Rosie's response.

Stephen King is such a great writer, this book surprised me. There is nothing wrong with the premise, but he could have made it so much better!

The parts taken up with Norman's viewpoint (italicized) certainly emphasize his insanity, but they are overly long and repetitive. The rest of ROSE MADDER is better, but too much of it is spent inside a painting. While everyone knows that King can deal well with life inside a painting (or a drain or a hole in the ground, etc.), he doesn't in this case. It is too ridiculous.

ROSE MADDER was published in 1995, but I had never heard of it for more than 10 years. Now I know why.
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LibraryThing member bibliophile_pgh
This is one of Stephen King's more disturbing books. It deals with domestic violence in which a wife tries to escape of husband who is a cop in order to start her life over. There are some supernatural aspects of the story. But the disturbing aspects of the story is really how he creates the
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nightmare through the wife's point of view.
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LibraryThing member XanaduCastle
this is a book i was not sure at first i would be into but after knowing about how it combines weird supernatural to a drama kinda fascinated me i ended up liking it more than i thought.

i loved seeing where the Rosie journey to get away and then shifts to see norman going the same path. it was very
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fun and thrilling and once they finally see each other its quite surreal but also cool. i also like the aspects with the painting in this one. i think Rosie is a well written character and Norman is made to be super unlikable and makes you hate him but i wish we got to know more about his backstory. you gets hints at a little wich works but i think it would have been better to get a bit more. the other characters are decent but it is mostly a Rosie story wich makes sense.

i know some people were not a fan of where this book goes for that its so off the rails but honestly i actually really liked that. it was part of the reason i read this and enjoyed my time with. that being said as much as i like this one, i dont consider it to be top tier king book but i think i do like it more then a lot of people give it credit for.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1995-06-26

Physical description

480 p.; 4.25 inches

ISBN

0451186362 / 9780451186362

Barcode

1602419
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