Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Rose Madder by Stephen King

22 reviews

stars_and_stags's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, however it is very much a book of its time. 

The first chapter is very dark and the opening pages are horrific to read. 

There are also quite a few words & phrases that were quite shocking to hear in 2023. 

Overall, I like the journey Rose goes on but I perfectly understand why some choose not to read this. It’s a tough read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

tifftastic87's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Another that I loved as a teen but didnt hit the same way as an adult. 

It made me more emotional this time around for sure but it was... Definitely 90s. Its always hard when King writes from his villain's perspective because they are always truly horrible and its hard to hear the language they use about other people. However it does truly make you hate Norman. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

legithdnelson's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage

gemdnnlly's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.25

I don’t even know where to start with content warnings for this. Filled with racist, homophobic and antisemitic slurs. 

There’s so much repetition and it feels like King was just trying desperately to reach 500+ pages 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Antisemitism

srags's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

dani_j_norwell's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

For me, this book is between a 3- and 4-star, but I appreciate King's world-building, character development, and use of literary devices so much, I'm pushing it up to 4-stars. Even so, I would warn Stephen King fans that this is definitely not like the other books of his you've probably read.

Personally, I'm mostly only familiar with King's most popular titles (The Shining, Pet Sematary, Misery, 11.22.63) and so I was intirgued when I found this older book of his that I hadn't heard of in an Audible 2 for 1 sale. I'm glad I listened to the audiobook for two reasons:

(1)it was a really cool experience; the production of it was excellent with music, sound effects, and background noise related to the scene AND Stephen King himself reads the parts of book that tell Norman's story but also
(2) I truly don't think I could have powered through this book if I had read it.

Rose Madder needs some serious trigger warnings.
I expected domestic violence due to the blurb of the book, but I was not prepared for how detailed and explicit it was. In particular, the book opens with a scene of Norman abusing his pregnant wife, Rose, and, as a result, she loses her baby. The way I just wrote that is ions and ions more gentle than the delivery in the book, however. Sure, it established how evil of a character Norman is from the very beginning but in a story this long and winding, I think such information could have been delivered in a less revolting manner. Aside from that, there's a lot of murdering (with graphic detail, blood, and other bodily fluids), and there's some really sickening thought processes from Norman as he loses his mind. Childhood sexual abuse is also mentioned. 

As long as you're prepared for the dark nature of this story, I think you'll find that King's real talent for creating characters with depth, flaws, and demons shines through in this book. No one person is pure evil nor pure benevolence, and King's character development clearly shows that. I found the fantastical, mythological elements of this story to be interesting, but at the same time, (not having a deep knowledge of such things) I didn't quite understand the need for so much of it. Unlike in other King novels, I felt like the story relied heavily on the symbolism of the Rose Madder painting but the significance of/necessity for that was never really made clear.

All in all, I don't think this is one of King's best works. It drags on a bit and it gets disgusting at time, but I don't regret reading it. If nothing else, it was cool to experience a lesser-known novel of a well-known author and therefore analyze all the ways in which it was similar to his more popular tiltes as well as the way it was not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, and Torture

nessa_lou30's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, and Cannibalism

Minor: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Violence, and Murder

shirtypantser's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism

Minor: Homophobia

lorelurking's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

This book was very satisfying in a way, but I can also see how it would be incredibly triggering for someone to read. Please be aware there is sexual assault, violence, use of racial slurs and racism, drug abuse, spousal abuse, homophobia, child abuse, and gore (though the descriptions aren't usually incredibly graphic). Oh, less severely there are spiders.
Otherwise the characters were very fleshed out (though the main antagonist does sort of devolve into a bit of an almost cartoonishly evil character for "plot reasons") but it's a Stephen King novel if that makes sense so there's sexual violence and weird thinly veiled fetishes in my opinion (really Stephen? ANOTHER man eating spider)?

For what it's worth I read this entire novel in a single sitting (with Covid).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

a_novel_craving's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Murder, and Gaslighting