Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Rose Madder

As with so many King books there were definite moments in this when it just felt overly long and that we totally had the point but can we please move on now to something happening. I have learned to lean into that with this author as so often when you get to the end you suddenly realise that all of those moments were actually needed to tell a complete and detailed story. However I am not sure that is true this time. Yes it is somewhat true but not completely.

I found some of the chapters will Norman's inner dialogue were almost repetitive in nature and I have to say that large body of italic text was not that easy to read. I keep trying to differentiate it from the rest of the story but bloody hell that italic was hard.

SLIGHT SPOILER

This is a book where I feel like King had tried to be too clever and the result was it lost me a bit. The domestic violence story totally had me hooked and I so wanted Norman to get his comeuppance but the whole painting and super natural part of it seemed to derail that and I was oddly disappointed that Norman's fate does not lay in reality.

However, King writes violent misogynist so well. Normal literally made my skin crawl and the second half off the book where he is hunting Rose was such a gripping page turner that I couldn't put it down.

But then the end, well I won't do spoilers but it just didn't work for me and I the very very end, I didn't even really understand the significance of it and it left me feeling like I wasn't smart enough for this book as my Greek myth knowledge was lacking.

CW: Vivid descriptions of violent domestic violence, miscarriage, physical trauma from abuse and violent misogyny.

Content Warnings

pkc's review against another edition

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3.0

This is a tough one to try and review. On one hand, it had most of the traits, tropes and archetypes I’ve come to expect from a King novel, but on the other…it had most of the traits, tropes and archetypes I’ve come to expect from a King novel. This just wasn’t the place for them and as such, I’d be hard pressed to recommend this in good conscience to anyone. However, overall, this was an engaging novel with more than a little air punching from me by the end.

The plot concerns Rose Daniels, nee McLendon as she is impelled by a drop of blood in her bed to flee her abusive marriage, and she does so, armed with her husband’s bank card. However, her husband, a policeman, doesn’t take this well at all and pursues her across hundreds of miles and the boundaries of reality and unreality. It’s the unreality part where my feelers started to go off. The descriptions of the abuse that Rose suffers are gratuitous at best, and as ever, King pulls no punches. I just felt that with the subject matter, it really didn’t sit right with me as I read. I also felt that as the story started to explore more of the fantastical elements (yes you read that right) the abuse was almost a conduit to an expansion of his other mythology and the main story just managed to resolve and make sense by the end. Kind of. I’m not convinced though.

Norman, her husband, as a character was so brashly written and there was no nuance. It seemed like there were attempts at giving his behaviour over to some unspoken mental illness or neurological problem. I’m pretty sure if you can think of any pejorative word against a marginalised person, Norman used it at some stage. He read as a pathetic chauvinistic bigot, which he was in so many ways, but his brute strength and apparent ability to evade consequence gave him an otherworldly slant that felt like too much credit.

Rosie as a character was probably the best realised character in the book and while she made some odd choices in the way she spoke to people (her tone was indecipherable at points) she was ultimately successful as the complex heroine and the fantastical elements worked best as they pertained to the founding of her new life. Special credit also to Bill Steiner who was a gorgeous romantic core, a calm port in really choppy seas.

All in all, to try and sum this up, I enjoyed this book, but I don’t think I’d recommend it to anyone. It’ll be 30 years old next year and I’d say it’s showing its age quite a bit. It feels like the last bastion of a certain era of King’s oeuvre. I adore his work, and I know that he has distanced himself from this book in the intervening years - it’s easy to see why. The three stars come purely from the hopefulness I experienced for Rosie and how the unreality and reality married together in the end.

Content Warnings

emmiemopho's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

What my husband hears when I read Stephen King: “Stephen, why do you have to say it like that” and “I just don’t have the ability to put up with your nonsense tonight, Stephen.”

It’s true. I don’t like reading most SK stories but there are a few that I really like. And with a silly little goal to read the rest of his books, I hope I can add some more faves to that list. But sometimes, I’m just fed up and at this point, on a first name basis with Stephen when complaints arise.

Rose Madder is horrific and there should be so many trigger warnings on it. The first chapter jumps in with detailed abuse, rape, and lots of blood. I think I was nauseous for about 80% of the read. Would I recommend? Definitely not. But if you do, just know the detailed abuse is on the same level as the parts they had to take out of 13 Reasons Why on Netflix.

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bookishchaos's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Giving this 4 stars because I was pretty entertained but it's about 100 pages too long. I loved Rose's journey to find herself but the supernatural stuff came out of nowhere and it felt unnecessary.

Content Warnings