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  • Rose Madder

  • Written by: Stephen King
  • Narrated by: Blair Brown
  • Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (127 ratings)

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Rose Madder

Written by: Stephen King
Narrated by: Blair Brown
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Publisher's Summary

The number-one national best seller about a woman who escapes an abusive marriage is "one of Stephen King's most engrossing horror novels. Relentlessly paced and brilliantly orchestrated...fueled by an air of danger immediate and overwhelming" (Publishers Weekly).

Rosie Daniels leaves her husband, Norman, after 14 years in an abusive marriage. She is determined to lose herself in a place where he won't find her. She'll worry about all the rest later.

Alone in a strange city, she begins to make a new life, and good things finally start to happen. Meeting Bill is one, and getting an apartment is another. Still, it's hard for Rosie not to keep looking over her shoulder, and with good reason. Norman is a cop, with the instincts of a predator. He's very good at finding people, even if he is losing his mind.

Fixed on revenge, Norman Daniels becomes a force of relentless terror and savageness, a man almost mythic in his monstrosity. For Rosie to survive, she must enter her own myth and become a woman she never knew she could be: Rose Madder.

"Riveting, engrossing...packed with suspense" (People), Stephen King infuses this novel with an edge-of-your-seat, chilling atmosphere. Rose Madder is "an eerie, remarkably mature and moving novel" (The Washington Post).

©1995 Stephen King (P)2009 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about Rose Madder

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not my fav king ending

i enjoyed the first 3 quarters of the book and I know Stephen King does have. tendancy to end his books in ways that don't seem to satisfy me but this one really lost me at the end I found myself just waiting for it to finish at around the 2-3 hr mark

1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Ok, kind of disappointing.

The music is way too distracting. Performances were good, but the story was disappointing to me.

1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome!!

One of my favorite Stephen King novels. Loved being able to listen to it whenever I wanted.

1 person found this helpful

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Boring

This has to be my least favourite King novel ever. The story bored me so badly.

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cool story, terrible music

I really disliked the musical transitions. They didn't enhance anything about the story, just irritated the ear.

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Favorite of all

I read this book once a year it is by far the best king book in my opinion.

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It's good

First things first: the music was awful, horrendous. It added nothing to this audiobook and detracted from the story. Also, it seems I'm at least part canine because some of the higher-pitched screeches passing for music set my teeth on edge and made me want to scream. I docked the whole thing 1 star just for the terrible music. The narration, by Blair Brown, was fantastic! Five stars for her narration. Her voice needed no extraneous music.

Okay, that's out of the way, I'll move on. 😏

A year ago I read "Sleeping With The Enemy" and it was the worst. "Rose Madder" is the version of SWTE that I needed. Somehow I missed reading it back in 1995 and never tried until now. It's a story about a battered woman who leaves her husband and moves 800 miles away. He's a cop who specializes in finding missing people, so he tracks her down. He's completely nuts, psychotic and extremely violent. The story takes a turn at the halfway mark. It turns into traditional King kind of tale, where good meets evil, they hash it out and along the way a fantasy/ supernatural element appears.

I wondered at all the reviews I saw complaining about the fantasy elements. I guess this must be their first Stephen King? 🤔

I enjoyed the story, its plot and its themes. Almost no one builds characters like King. I've definitely read better characters of his, but I liked Rosie, Bill, Anna and the rest.

Recommended for fans of King-with-20-years-under-his-belt (which is much different than early King and yet still different than King-with-almost-50-yrs-under-his-belt).

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A missed opportunity

Rose Madder is a tale of two halves. The first half details the awful struggle of a woman escaping an abusive partner and it is gritty, mostly realistic and both protagonist and antagonist are really well written. I find the antagonist very despicable, which is great to read....then it makes a turn. There is a dream sequence interlude in the middle that turns the second half of the story more supernatural in vibe and I feel it kills the awful realness of this story. It doesn't turn bad by any means, but it turns into a more stereotypical King novel. A missed opportunity to tell a better story in my opinion.

In terms of the audio, Blair Brown does a fantastic performance and Stephen King does the villains perspective which normally I don't like his narration but for some reason it really worked for me this time. This is one of those audiobooks with music clips in between each POV change and I thought they were tastefully done and except for one part, were mixed well without drowning the audio.

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  • JJ
  • 2022-07-23

Really good

The book was all around better than audible. It felt more as if I was listening to a harlequin romance at times rather than Stephen King. Fast forward allot due to the cutesie little girl voice of Rose.

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Entertainment at its best

I love Stephen King and this is one of his better books. Every moment was pure enjoyment well written and read! Definitely recommend!

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  • Nathan
  • 2016-04-28

Excellent!

If you like King you will probably find much to enjoy with this one. My only complaint is really just a quibble. This recording has bumper music to separate various sections of the book. The music is at times very creepy which is very cool. Occasionally the music is too loud as it plays over the narration. Any overall very enjoyable.

41 people found this helpful

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  • Albuquerque
  • 2016-09-12

Not Accessible

What disappointed you about Rose Madder?

The background noise at the start of the book's narration made it difficult for me to understand the narrator. I have a hearing loss and I struggled to separate out the narrator's voice from the noise. I was driving and started to listen to the book (I generally listen to books from Audible when driving long distances). At first, I thought the noise was the sound of the car's tires on the pavement; then I realized it was background "ambiance" for the narration at the start of the book. I had to listen to the beginning of the book several times to catch everything. I purchased the book to hear the narration, NOT the "ambiance". I'm not interested in going through this periodically throughout the book. I'm returning the book. I'll purchase and download the Kindle version of the book and just read it. I'll listen to other Audible book on my next trip.

38 people found this helpful

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  • Kim
  • 2016-06-01

Beware the background "music"

If you don't like music I the background of your audiobooks, avoid this one. It's not so much music as squawking and overtakes being able to hear the actual text. I love Stephen King's work and hadn't read this one yet so it was disappointing to hear another production with these horrible musical transitions that add nothing to the story or audible experience. Insomnia was this way also, from now on I'll be researching the production company and info before any more SK audiobook purchases.

38 people found this helpful

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  • Deb Hatch
  • 2016-04-19

Completely brought me in

From Page 1, he brought me into the story. Having experienced some of the things that the main character had, with domestic violence, the book was riveting and emotional for me. Sometimes it was difficult. I was ALL in. Fantastic!!!

29 people found this helpful

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  • Keith
  • 2019-07-16

Cat's claws on a chalkboard

SCREECHING SOUND EFFECTS. I have listed to more audiobooks than I can count, and I have never heard one with such awful audio quality. Not only do the screeching sounds effects and music overlay the narrators, but they are so jarring I found myself having to rewind to figure out what just happened. Moreover, Stephen King does the voice of the antagonist, and for all of King's considerable skills, he is NOT a narrator. I also hate saying all this because Blair Brown is a skilled orator and does not deserve to have her name associated with this. I strongly suggest reading the dead-tree edition of this.

The story itself is a theme that King writes about very well: abused women. I found protagonist, Rose, to be sympathetic and interesting in the beginning, but a bit weird (the painting) as the story went on. Her husband, the antagonist, is a sadistic psychopath. In the hands of any other writer, I would not have been able to suspend disbelief over his character, but somehow King, as usual, makes it work.

Solid novel, TERRIBLE audio.

19 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2017-08-17

Great performance by Blair Brown

This is an excellent book made even better by Brown's excellent performance interspersed with King reading Norman's parts. The ONLY thing about this recording that I have any complaints about, is the music that occasionally barges in. Music can certainly enhance the story when done well but in this case it's too loud, jarring, and distracting, pulling you out of the story instead of wrapping you up in it. A small complaint, but a justified one. Luckily the excellent story and wonderful performance of the narrator makes it easy to overlook this small fault.

15 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • MissSweet
  • 2016-05-05

Wonderfully read...

The reader was great, I just wish they'd cut out the "music" it was distracting.

14 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Rose
  • 2016-05-04

So great, so Stephen King

Wow great villain, great characters, great story. A bit long at the end but minor issue. The story was so worth it. I'd recommend this book to everyone. (Unless you can't handle the King that is)

11 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • GD
  • 2016-01-05

Good acting, not King's best in my opinion

Blair Brown and whoever does Norman's chapters both perform very well, and were a pleasure to listen to. The sound effects, however, were often rather off-putting, at least to my ears.

While the story was compelling, I didn't find that it drew me in in the same way that some of King's other works have.

9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Kiki
  • 2016-03-30

My favorite Stephen King book

I truly loved this book. only downside, the music could sometimes over power the reader.

5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Gourio
  • 2023-01-15

Enjoyed it but…

A few things bothered me :
- First, the music between chapters overlapping the reading is disturbing : disrupts the story and of very bad quality.
- Second, the male narrator is not doing justice to the story, especially against the beautiful and impeccable performance by Blair Brown.
- Last, the ending to me falls a bit short in regard of all the anticipation built before that.
But overall, I loved it, especially thanks to Blair Brown exceptional work.

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  • Caro
  • 2020-04-18

great story and narrator

I love this story, I had already read it twice. and the narrator is really good. the only annoying thing is the "music" they put over the voice at the end and beginning of each chapter. you can't hear the voice properly.