Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Rose Madder

A suspenseful and gripping book, but there’s a bit too much explicit domestic violence for my taste. Also I wasn’t a fan of the painting part. Why did it “choose” Rose, who were the women? All in all I liked it but I’m not a fan of this one.

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cheymac's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book feels refreshing in the way it approaches the difficult topic of domestic abuse. Despite its extremely raw depiction of this cruelty, it spins a narrative that allows for growth and healing and never once falls into victim blaming or shaming — it outright rejects these things at many points along the way.

While King has dismissed this book as one of his not so great ones, I think quite the opposite is true. It feels self aware in how it leans on cliches or uses the supernatural to neatly resolve otherwise messy storylines. The horror it evokes is a very real horror, and the closure it offers feels well deserved. I loved this book. From the moment I started it, I couldn’t put it down.

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sheryl_macca's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm always going to enjoy a book written by Stephen King, his books are deep in my comfort zone, and this one was no different. I must admit that the premise didn't fully entice me from the blurb. I read this one initially with a note of caution but I quickly let that go and was fully absorbed.

Rose Madder is a combination of a quintessential King thriller and Greek mythology. The story is told from the 2 main characters points of view in alternate chapters which very slowly reduce in length. It's barely noticeable until the final third of the book where you are being swept into the faster pace this trick creates, like a whirlpool.

Rose Madder is brutal, tense, thrilling, violent and supernatural but it's also moving, emotional and hopeful. For me, the mirror world/largest metaphor ever used was almost too much. It takes a significant suspension in disbelief but I learned to appreciate it.

I also found it difficult to believe that a woman traumatised by domestic abuse would so easily enter into a new relationship and so smoothly. I was rooting for them though.

My final criticism is in the very end of the book. It's hard to describe it without giving any spoilers so I'll just say that I found 'remember the tree' unnecessary.

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2booksandacoffee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a decently paced thriller from the very first page. I was expecting a lot of scene and character development before my heart started pounding. No ma'am, not this time.
For being such a heavy read, and by heavy I mean there is A LOT of abuse in this book. Its the entire plot. Physical, sexual and mental.
Rose is married to a detective, their relationship started out normal. However the issues didn't start until they got married and that's when the abuse started. 14 years of abuse, fourteen years, before Rose had her ah-ha moment and woke up. One day she knew that the next time he was going to kill her, so what did she do? She ran for her life. She had moments through out the book where she was looking over her shoulder and she could hear Norman's voice telling her that he was coming for her.
This definitely felt more of a psychological thriller to me rather than horror. The cat and mouse game through out, getting the two points of view throughout the book really gets us into the inner workings of Rosie and Norman's minds. King is the absolute best at being able to do that, and with Norman's sick and twisted mind it was quite interesting to see his side if these psychologically speaking.
I'm going to be very blunt, this was a fucked up story. But it is well worth it if you can get through the horrifying acts of violence.

TW: physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental abuse, murder, violent scenes, miscarriage.

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podanotherjessi's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Interestingly, my normal complaints for King novels weren't a problem with this one. The language and swearing used felt appropriate, the sex content seemed to fit, and the ending was actually pretty good. The main issue I had was the inclusion of the husband's perspective. In thrillers and horrors, I just don't like hearing the bad guy's thoughts. For one thing, they are super uncomfortable and gross to read, but for the other they take some of the suspense away. I think I would have been more scared if I were as uncertain as Rose was about what he was doing.
The other thing I had an issue with was the racism, homophobia, and fatphobia. The first two mostly came from the villain of the novel, so it's unclear if it was meant to be just a bad thing the bad guy thinks or if the narrative was supporting those ideas. The fatphobia was clearly coming from the narrative itself, not just the villain's perspective.

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