Xanadu’s Reviews > Rose Madder > Status Update

The transparent build to Peter Slowik being mangled is a little tedious, as are the unsubtle breadcrumbs of the martial arts training and the comments about if someone finds you there it won't be because someone here told them. The unnecessary coincidences will heighten the tension but it strains disbelief when the husband is still completely one-dimensional and prescience is seemingly commonplace in this town.

This novel will complete my Constant Reader Haunted Painting Motif series: Duma Key, Road Virus Heads North, Billy Summers, Rose Madder.

...Rosie found time to wonder-not for the first time since she had come to D&S-why so many men were so unkind. What was wrong with them? Was it something that had been left out, or something nasty which had been unaccountably built in, like a bad circuit in a computer?

Classic King line, but still a lot of Bachman writing:

“Ouggghhh, I’m gonna EEEEJECT!”

Fine-uh-lee: He turned the picture around. Printed in soft, slightly blurred charcoal strokes on the paper backing were the words ROSE MADDER.

This is the kind of shortcut language that makes me think of Bachman: "This was how her mind-sane, reasonable, and quite unprepared to admit or even recognize anything which smacked of the supernatural or paranormal-simultaneously explained, rationalized, and justified her sudden spike reaction to the picture of the woman on the hill."

This is like if Richard Bachman wrote a Beverly Marsh novel.

Yes indeed! I can dust, I can wash dishes, I can make beds, I can vacuum the floor, I can cook meals for two, I can sleep with my husband once a week. And I can take a punch. That’s another skill I have. Do you suppose any of the local gyms have openings for sparring partners?” Then she did burst into tears.

And you don’t need to thank me, or Peter Slowik, either. It was Providence that brought you here-Providence with a capital P, just like in a Charles Dickens novel. I really believe that. I’ve seen too many women crawl in here broken and walk out whole not to believe it. Peter is one of two dozen people in the city who refer women to me, but the force that brought you to him, Rose… that was Providence.