So I combed the recommendations from an online book club for promising horror books to fulfill my horror genre. I used to be a huge fan of horror books and movies. I think I have lost my nerve as I've gotten older. So I was looking for a milder horror book, one that wouldn't give me nightmares. I know that Stephen King is the "King of Horror." He earns his title well. That man has a very sick mind. One really has to have one in order to come up with the stories he does. A book club friend tells me that he came up with The Shining and the character of Jack because "there are times when I felt very angry toward my children and have even felt as though I could hurt them." Okay. But the recommendation said that Rose Madder was not one of those scary horror books, so I went with that.
Basically the story begins on a surprising note. And not in a good way. Rose, pregnant, is beaten up by her husband for reading what he considers trash. Needless to say, Rose has a miscarriage and Norman covers it up. Rose feels that noone would take her word against the word of her husband, a cop. Rose suffers in silence for years, until one day a spot of blood on the sheets pushes her to run away. It was a hard road for Rose to take because for over a decade, Rose had meekly followed and taken Norman's abuse. But somehow she did it. Rose managed to escape by bus to a town that she thought would be far away enough. And luckily, she met a man at the bus depot who directed her to home for abused women. In this new place, Rose thrives and learns to be independent for the first time in a long, long time.
Meanwhile, Norman has not forgotten her. He considers Rose his possession and will never let go. He is just temporarily detained because he is being honored as a "hero" for a big case he has just solved.
Rose decides to pawn her engagement and wedding rings because they no longer hold any significance for her, only to find out that the diamond engagement ring that Norman told her was worth a lot of money was not real. This really brought to home how little Norman thought of and valued her even in the beginning. As she leaves the pawn shop in utter embarrassment, Rose finds herself mesmerized by a painting. The painting is of a woman standing in the middle of a field with her back to the viewer. Rose has to have this painting. She trades her two rings for the painting. As Rose leaves the pawn shop with her prize, another patron of the pawn shop stops her and offers her a job. He is owns an audio book company and thought that Rose had a wonderful voice that would tape beautifully. So things are slowly falling into place for Rose. She has found a safe haven away from Norman. She has a job for the first time. She has her own apartment. And she meets a man. Bill is the clerk at the pawn shop. Rose thinks she is safe since it has been a while since she has escaped from Norman. Meanwhile, Norman is finishing up business and begins to slowly follow leads to track Rose. He is in no hurry because he "knows" he will find what belongs to him.
In the meanwhile, the haunting painting that Rose found at the pawn shop holds much significance. The title of the painting is Rose Madder who Rose assumes is the female figure in the painting. Rose begins to notice subtle changes in the painting. Rose also begins to have dreams about the painting where she seems to enter the painting and finds that there is more to the painting than what she first sees. Apparently there is a monster that is similar to the Minotaur in the Greek myths.
Norman succeeds in tracking Rose to the town she now calls her home. He tortures and kills the man who first directed Rose to the women's shelter. He tries to stalk her at a fair sponsored by the women's shelter and almost succeeds in getting her. He injures two of her friends. Norman escapes after donning a mask that interestingly enough makes him look like the Minotaur. During his escape, Norman begins to have conversations with the mask and it begins to "influence" his actions.
Now things start getting intense. The police are now actively involved. Norman goes back to the women's shelter to find out where Rose lives. There he takes the life of the director of the shelter. Rose and Bill go back to her apartment, knowing that the police believe her claims of her husband's cruelty and have sent police patrol to guard her apartment. Unfortunately, Norman had gotten there first. Norman, having killed the two patrolmen, was disguised as one of the officers in the patrol car to give Rose the peace of mind to unlock the front door of her building. Rose and Bill just barely manage to make it up to her apartment by pure luck and the skin of their teeth. To escape the madman, Rose and Bill enter the Rose Madder painting. Rose will get help if she follows direction which is to lead the monster/Norman to a certain destination. And it is there that Rose Madder of the painting attacks and destroys the monster/Norman.
Hereafter, Rose and Bill leave the painting and one would think there would be a happily ever after. Rose and Bill marry and have a child but Rose has periods of rage and actually has abuse tendencies. She was warned by Rose Madder it would happen. Rose Madder had foreseen Rose's rage and had given her seeds and the warning "to remember the tree." This is the tree at the lake that Bill had brought her to. The seeds grow into a beautiful but deadly tree, I believe representing the poison that caused her rage.
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