ROSE MADDER

"Roused by a single drop of blood on the bedsheet, Rosie Daniels wakes from fourteen years of a nightmare marriage and suddenly take flight. She uses her husband's ATM card to buy a bus ticket, determined to lose herself in a place where Norman won't find her. She'll worry about the rest later.

Alone in a strange city, she begins to make a new life, and good things start to happen. Meeting Bill Steiner is one; and finding a junk-shop painting is another. It may be bad art but it's perfect for her new apartment - and somehow, it seems to want her as much as she wants it.

Still, it's hard for Rosie not to keep looking over her shoulder, and with good reason. Her husband is a cop, with the instincts of a predator. He's very good at finding people. The fact that he's losing his mind might even be an advantage.

Rose-maddened and on the rampage, Norman Daniels becomes a force of relentless terror and savageness, a man almost mythic in his monstosity. For Rosie to survive, for her to have a chance in her brave new world, she must enter her own myth - a world that lies beyond the surface of a work of art - and become a woman she never knew she could be: Rose Madder."

from front flap

When I first started reading Rose Madder by Stephen King, I thought it was going to be an awesome novel. And for the most part, it was. There were only two parts of the entire book that I feel could have been changed to make it 100% better. As with his other book, King is very detailed and slightly creepy in the way he tells the story, but it is a great plot. It makes you jumpy and I got very involved with the characters; I ended up hating Norman and I was proud of the things Rosie accomplished. While their story and back story was very interesting to read, the entire idea with the painting was terrible. It was hard to follow and it just didn't add anything to the story. I think he could have used something else in place of the painting and the story would have been amazing. I wouldn't say those parts ruined the book, because the rest was so good, but don't go into this book thinking that it's going to stay about just Rosie and Norman in reality, but cause reality was lost in a good chunk of the book.

Now, I don't know if I want to start back with Little Women, give The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo another chance, or wait for one of my books to be available at the library (Mrs. Kimble and The Romantics)...decisions, decisions. In the meantime, I'll be catching up on Grey's Anatomy. Only 3 episodes left!! And I can't believe the new season is going to start back next month!