Rose Madder
by Stephen King
★ Top 5 book of 1995 · #5 on Best Books of 1995
After fourteen years in a violent marriage, Rosie leaves her husband and starts over in a faraway city, building new relationships. Her husband Norman, a cruel police officer, uses his connections to hunt her down.
Best for: Thriller readers who want a tense story of escape and pursuit
Rose Madder is #5 on BookWard's Best Books of 1995, out of 28 1995 books that cleared our data bar.
What Rose Madder is about
Rosie Daniels has spent fourteen years married to Norman, a police officer who beats her, once so badly that she lost a pregnancy. One day she takes his debit card and boards a bus to a Midwestern city, determined to start over. A women's shelter run by Anna Stevenson gives her a foothold, and she finds work as a hotel maid.
Then she trades a fake-diamond ring at a pawnshop for a painting of a woman in a rose madder gown, and the picture turns out to be a doorway into another world. Meanwhile Norman is searching for her, using every skill his badge has taught him. Stephen King blends a story about domestic violence with Greek myth, in a dark, suspenseful tale of escape and self-reclamation. King himself later judged it harshly in On Writing, calling it one of his stiff, trying-too-hard novels, but its subject and its heroine's resolve remain its heart.
Rose Madder on the Best Books of 1995
Rose Madder came out in 1995. Of the 28 books first published in 1995 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #5 on our Best Books of 1995 list.
Why it made the list: 512 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (33 ratings); 28 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1995 list
- Northern Lights Philip Pullman, #3
- Mindhunter John E. Douglas, #4
- Wicked Gregory Maguire, #6
- The Demon-Haunted World Carl Sagan, #7
See all Best Books of 1995 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1994 Best Books of 1996.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 406 want to read it, 28 are reading it now and 78 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.2 out of 5 from 33 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 82 | 55% |
| Reader love | 89 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 79 | 20% |
Questions about Rose Madder
When was Rose Madder published?
Rose Madder by Stephen King was first published in 1995.
Was Rose Madder one of the best books of 1995?
Rose Madder is #5 on BookWard's Best Books of 1995, out of 28 1995 books that cleared our data bar. 512 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (33 ratings); 28 are reading it right now.
Why is Rose Madder on the Best Books of 1995 list?
512 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (33 ratings); 28 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 1995
- The Lost World Michael Crichton, #1
- Emotional Intelligence Daniel Goleman, #2
- Northern Lights Philip Pullman, #3
- Mindhunter John E. Douglas, #4
- Wicked Gregory Maguire, #6
- The Demon-Haunted World Carl Sagan, #7
See the full Best Books of 1995, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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