THE DIARY OF ELLEN RIMBAUER
My Life at Rose Red
By "Joyce Reardon" (Ridley Pearson)
Hodder & Stoughton - June 2002
ISBN: 0340825588 - HB
Horror
1907-1928 Seattle and various other locations

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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First there was The Blair Witch Project, and then came Stephen King's Rose Red TV miniseries, complete with faux documentary to launch it. To add to the docu-fiction genre, here is Ellen Rimbauer's diary, telling the whole eerie tale in the character's own words, as she goes from callow, privileged society girl to angry wife, devoted mother and inhabitor of the ultimate haunted house. Also living within it are the exotic Sukeena, Ellen's maid and confidante from Africa, whom she picked up on her honeymoon world tour and the house's creator, John Rimbauer, a insatiable power-hungry man who lusts after all women. Rose Red is built on a Native American burial ground, but maybe something even more ancient is unleashed when the building starts and the disappearances begin.

It's all stirring stuff as the horrors pile up, amid the parties and social events enjoyed by the high-society Rimbauers. This book doesn't pause for a second. Indeed, as one strange event followed another, I began to feel that a few short periods of normalcy would enhance the suspense. Coming in such fast succession, a style which would be more suited to the television screen, the horrors lose some of their impact on the printed page.

Still, it's appealingly creepy, especially the concept of a partially sentient house that desires to increase its size, not only by means of bricks and mortar, but by consuming people. If you like haunted houses and things going bump in the night, this is for you!