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A review by 2booksandacoffee
Rose Madder by Stephen King
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Torture