Consider this a placeholder for Anvil of the World by Kage Baker. A pretty unremarkable book, not good or bad. If I ever feel like I have something to say about it, I'll put it here...
Rose Madder, by Stephen King, on the other hand, is both very good and very bad. It really comes to down to the characterization; Rose, the central character, is very well drawn indeed. I like the way that different parts of her character can be both a strength and a weakness, depending on the situation (the practical, sensible part, for example, who doesn't like new situations, wants her to stay in an abusive relationship, because at least it's the devil she knows. But the practical sensible part also protects Rose from some disastrous decisions once she's actually run away. Her impulsive side is similarly good and bad).
All the other characters, though, are cardboard cut-outs. This is mostly OK, since we spend 90% of the time in Rose's head, and few of the other characters show up for more than a dozen pages; but it's a terrible problem for Rose's antagonist, her husband. He's a collection of tics ("I wanna talk to you... up close"), not a character. The problem is, we spend a fair amount of time in his head as well, and he's just not very interesting. He's much scarier as an external force, almost a malign force of nature, than when we're listening to his monologues. He goes off the deep end too early for his fall to be compelling (unlike, say, Jack in The Shining), and his verbal tics ("I'm going to kill you twice") get dull with repetition.
Overall, I liked the book because Rose is such a strong character, but it's probably the weakest King book I've read (and I've been trying to avoid the ones most people consider less successful).
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