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coudnt put it down THIS IS IS A VERY INTERESTING BOOK. IT KEEPS YOU INTO IT THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE BOOK. IT PUTS YOU IN THE PLACE OF ELLEN WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT. YOU START TO PICTURE THE HOUSE, PEOPLE AND EVENTS. I HIGHLY RECOMEND IT. Wonderful and suspensful!!! RARLEY do I read mystery/thrillers...but a friend mentioned she wanted to read this, and after looking it up, it sounded really good. I'm so glad I bought it! This book kept me up very late for 2 nights in a row...but it was worth it. I love the format of the book, being all journal entries from Ellen's diary...starting in 1907 (age 19) till 1928. It's a fascinating and riveting journey into the life of Ellen and her philandering husband John, and one cannot forget Rose Red herself. You go on to read about the demise of Ellen's sanity, and how their palace of a house starts to take on a life of it's own. It's an excellent book all around. I highly recommend it. To those who read thriller/mysteries all the time, this is probably no big deal...tame stuff. But for someone like me...it was the perfect amount of suspense and creepiness. This should have been the Miniseries! I picked up "My Life at Rose Red" right after seeing the Stephen King Miniseries on TV. At the time I wasn't sure if this was a Stephen King book or not. Once I discovered King did not write the book, I put off reading the "diary" for awhile and actually forgot about the book entirely. Just last week while cleaning out the basement I discovered "My Life at Rose Red" and decided to finally read the thing. Knowing that King had little to do with the novel, I had low expectations. I figured it would be a cheesy prequel targeted to a prospective audience for the miniseries. I was wrong. The "diary" is a wonderful story of the supernatural, and the story of a young woman's descent into madness. The character of Ellen Rimbaugher really comes to life in the pages of her diary, as does her dispicable husband John. You can just feel the tension as the diary entries progress and you begin to geniunely feel for Ellen's plight. After finishing the novel, I felt that Ellen's story should have been the one made into a movie, not the story of the obsessive Joyce Reardon and the autistic child psychic. "My Life at Rose Red" will keep you entertained and you will not want to put it down. The only reason I did not give "My Life at Rose Red" a higher rating is that the ending is pretty ambivilant, which makes sense in a way, because they want you to watch the show. And also, this work is presented as a diary, so you really have to suspend belief while reading, becuase there are quite a few passages which recount dialog & character actions, that seem a little too in depth to be a supposed diary entry. But overall, "My Life at Rose Red" will keep you entertained, and if you enjoyed the "Rose Red" miniseries, now on DVD, you should really like this fleshed out backstory. I see used copies here listed for under $.50, and Ellen Rimbaugher's story is surely worth that. A house of horrors. This is an account of a diary, a real one this time. Yet it is not like one you would enjoy as it is so sordid. Ellen relates the deviant behavior she learns from her older, disreputable husband and her unhealthy relationship with her foreign maid. It also shows how a house is constructed against all odds and its deadly consequences. Murders occur which are never explained and people disappear. I want to think that this is a true story, but how could a well brought up woman write such filth? It is not easy to read unless you want voyeur feelings into the lower life of the very rich and the things they can get away with. A good, but not great piece of Gothic horror By now almost everyone knows that the "Diary" is really fiction and was written by Ridley Pearson, not Stephen King. Even though it's a tie-in to a television mini-series, it works just fine as a stand-alone piece. I haven't seen the television show for which this is a prequel and am in no hurry to do so. Nonetheless, I found this book to be an enjoyable and relatively quick read. As it's title indicates, the story is told through entries in the supposed diary of the main character, Ellen Rimbauer. It starts out innocently enough, although even the first entry has hints of the darkness to come. Attacted by his wealth and social status (as well as by his physical presence), the virginal and seemingly innocent young Ellen puts her doubts aside and marries a richer, older man. He proceeds to control her life, dominate and debauch her sexually, and generally make her miserable. They spend their lives at Rose Red, the grand house he begins building at the beginning of the novel and whose construction continues through it. Ellen's premarital misgivings are quickly proven to be true, and her marriage disintegrates. Inexplicable acts of violence and disappearances punctuate the novel, as the massive house assumes an increasingly evil personality of its own. Much of the story focuses on trying to figure out why these things are happening and what the house wants. It becomes increasingly apparent that the house and Ellen are inextricably linked. "The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer" owes much to the traditions of Gothic literature, especially as regards the focus on the "innocent" heroine, the spooky house, and the repressed violence in the husband's character. Many of the standard elements of modern horror are there as well--the disturbed Indian burial ground on which the house was built, the African maid who possesses mysterious powers, the lost child, and the more explicit handling of sexual matters. Pearson weaves them together fairly skillfully. This may not be the best work of horror ever written, but it's certainly good enough to while away a few hours. See also:
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