A review by sarrie
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red by Joyce Reardon

3.0

As far as horror goes this is definitely not the worst I've read. This was the companion to the Rose Red miniseries which I haven't seen yet, though my husband wants to watch it soon. It's meant to be the background to the events of the series telling the story of Rose Red from it's first foundation till the owners died.
It has it's spooky moments, and it's readable to the extreme. You can fly through these pages. I will note however that it's not the most convincing 'diary' I've ever read. Scenes of dialogue are perfectly rendered in the 'writer voice' and at times it feels less like she's recounting things that have happened and more like they are happening (done I assume so that the author could add some tension and atmosphere). Not terrible, but it is obvious it's a fiction story masquerading as a diary. (I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the representation of Ellen's sexuality throughout the whole thing, but for the length and purpose of the book I don't see that it makes an impact at this point.)
Like I said it does have it's spooky moments, I'll be interested to see the series. It's definitely a popcorn kind of book.