Stephen King's Rose Madder is an almost totally original, unique novel. It contains many standard king story staples and many elements other Horror novels make use of. But its the way in which he orchestrates the story and uses all these various elements that make the novel such a, no pun intended, novelty.

It is the story of an abused housewife,Rose, who has went through hell at the hands of her psychopathic husband,Norman. Well, one day she gets the courage to up and run, taking his friggin' credit card, by god. She manages to make it to a large city and attain a, for the most part, normal life. But ol' Normy aint called it quits yet. as you might have guessed, he pursues.

I won't give away any details, but there is the grand scope of things. As an aspiring novelist, I must say I was blown away by king's marvelously breakneck narrative, his very lifelike characters, and his amazing ability to balance reality and fantasy so perfectly.

This is a novel for anyone who likes a character-driven story; Its also a story for anyone who likes visceral shocks, it's one of king's most brutal. I Don't think this is king's best, but its still damn good.

Rose Madder, copyright 1995 Stephen King

A single drop of blood on her bedsheet causes Rose Daniels to take control of her life. She leaves her abusive husband, finds a job, begins a new romance and tries to forget the all too terrifying life she left behind. Her new life is wonderful but shadowed by the threat of being "found" by her husband Norman. Norman is obsessed with finding Rose and finds other women to terrorize during his search for her. This is a story of terror and salvation, fear and freedom, hate and love, betrayal and friendship. Rose finds her answers in a picture, a mystical portrait of a mysterious woman. One of my favorite characters in this book is a brave, tough and courageous woman named Gert. And of course there is the mysterious woman in the portrait, a woman who always "repays".

The terror in this book crosses back and forth between "real-life horror" and "camp-fire story" horror.  "Rose Madder" is rated a 10 out of 10 on my scale.

LadyntheLake