Rose Madder - Boring, even for a Stephen King fanatic

Rose Madder, published in 1995

So, I recently finished reading "Rose Madder", a novel published in 1995 and belonging to the one and only Stephen King. Now, keep in mind that I am a huge Stephen King fan and my personal library is made up of 42 of his novels, both standalone novels and short story collections and I do plan on owning everything he published. However, Rose Madder was ... okay, I suppose, but only because I noticed some elements that appear in all of King's novels and I was interested in how they will influence the story.

All in all though, I think this is one of his weakest novels so far. It still doesn't beat "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", but my dislike towards this particular work may be subjective. I don't know anything about baseball so keeping up with the plot line while also trying to understand the rules of baseball was a bit too difficult for a non-American reader.

Summary 

Rose Madder focuses on the story of Rose Daniels, a battered wife that manages to escape her violent husband and find a new life in another town. However, he follows her by "trolling" (ha ha), which is a technique he uses in order to "get into people's minds" and eventually finds her. Rosie's whole world crumbles bit by bit as he attacks several of her best friends, managing to even kill some, but she is not deterred. After he FINALLY finds her address, after 400 something pages, she jumps into the painting she bought (Rose Madder) and enters the all too familiar world of Roland, of Jack Sawyer (from "The Talisman") and many others, "The Territories". 

He follows her here as well because his hatred has clouded his judgement and of course, after a long chase of another 100 something pages, he is killed by Rosie's double in "The Territories". She then returns to the real world and leads a happy life. 

The pattern 

Now, having read so many novels belonging to Stephen King, I began noticing some elements that appear in all of his books and short stories. If you are the same, you sure noticed them as well. 

First of all, the painting Rose buys sounded eerily familiar to me. While I can't say for sure, I do believe that it resembles the one Jack Sawyer in "The Talisman" sees for the first time in Speedy Parker's room. The one there, if I remember correctly, pictures The Territories, the world in which Jack "flips" and the one in which he finds the talisman. The difference here is that Rose actually has to step into the painting in order to reach The Territories, which kind of makes sense, considering the fact that she has no fundamental business, if I can put it like this, in this world. 

Second, Rose mentions "ka" and as any person that read "The Dark Tower" knows, refers to "faith". Nobody can escape the wheel of ka, indeed, at least in Stephen King's world. 

There may be others, but I think these two are the most important ones, because they show that yes, Rose Daniels is part of the world of The Dark Tower and she is abused for 14 years by one of the creatures of the Tower. Sad, sad indeed. 

The main word that characterizes it - Boring 

Now, I tried very hard to like this novel, I did. It did keep me on my toes, when I was reading, but after putting it down, I could not find a real reason why I should pick it up again. I did finish it because I wanted to see if there were any other clues in regards to The Dark Tower, but that was probably the only reason. I think it is one of his weakest works, though it did make me cringe at times. And I do hate Normal Daniels. A lot. Not as much as I hate Big Red John, but still, pretty close.

Likes: 

The scene where one of Rose's friends beats Norman and then pisses on him. Fricking loved that one! Also, the paragraphs where Rose finally becomes angered and decides to face Norman. Being a feminist myself, it's nice to see a woman finally standing up to an abusive man and deciding to destroy him once and for all. 

The world of Rose Madder and the chapter in which Rose brings back her baby from the Bull's Maze. Creative and it did make me curious to learn more. 

Dislikes: 

The monotone tone at some point, especially after Rose meets Billy and she falls in love with him. I understand why Stephen King used these scenes, but I didn't really like them. 

All in all, if I were to recommend a Stephen King book to someone, Rose Madder wouldn't be my first choice. I just did not enjoy it as I did other novels written by King.