It’s as if the people who made them were speaking inside our heads.” “That’s really all art is about, I think, and not just pictures-it’s the same with books and stories and sculpture and even castles in the sand.

I won’t soon be forgetting the source of the novel’s title, or why there’s a bull skull on the cover. And the horror here felt different and original in ways that resonated with me. There are portions of Rose Madder that I truly believe are just as freaky and disturbing as the aforementioned books. I’ve read a lot of King by this point, including most of his horror classics like The Shining and IT and ‘Salem’s Lot and Pet Sematary.

While I developed some deep feelings regarding both protagonist and antagonist, what really sold me on this book was the horror element. “It’s best to be ruthless with the past.”

Her resilience and optimism is inspiring. The way she grows over the course of the novel made me want to cheer. She feels incredibly real, and both her hopes and her terrible fears rang very true. But Rose, on the other hand, is possibly the best female character King has ever created. He’s one of the most disturbed, chauvinistic, narcissistic, deranged excuse for a human being in whose head I’ve ever had the displeasure of being. Norman might just be the most despicable fictional character in the history of fiction. “The concept of dreaming is known to the waking mind but to the dreamer there is no waking, no real world, no sanity there is only the screaming bedlam of sleep.” However, there are odd powers at work here, and Norman is going to find this plan much more difficult to carry out than he ever imagined. And he plans on it being the last conversation Rose ever has. And when he finds her, he’s going to talk to her. But Norman Daniels refuses to let his wife go. Now Rosie is finally embarking on a life of her own, for the first time in her adult life. After 14 years of extreme spousal abuse at the hands of her policeman husband, one drop of blood on a bed sheet is her catalyst for leaving this horrible half-life she’s been living and starting over somewhere new. “It ain’t the blows we’re dealt that matter, but the ones we survive.” Talk about a protagonist you can root for. Though not perfect, Rose Madder is now one of my favorite King novels outside of The Stand and the main Dark Tower series. But it was next on that list, so I found myself a copy. I can’t say I would’ve thought to pick it up had I not been so invested in the extended reading list for the Dark Tower. It’s not one commonly listed as a favorite, or even mentioned that frequently from among his works.

This is one of those King books I honestly didn’t expect much from.

Rose madder novel