About the only thing positive I can say about this book is that the premise is interesting. Of course, the idea of a house that is itself an evil entity isn’t original, but the notion that the house’s owners are also its servants who feed it until they are themselves absorbed is pretty fun. The execution is lacking, though. I finished the book out of mild curiosity to see how the story played out and because I needed the Supernatural bingo square for the 2016 Halloween Bingo.

This book was written as a movie tie-in, intended to serve as a prequel and Blair Witch style marketing hype. It refers to supplemental materials on a now-defunct website for the fake university that the fake author supposedly taught at. I suppose this is one of the downsides to the multimedia book idea that I enjoyed with Night Film. The book is forever, but the online supplementals are transient and render the book itself forever incomplete.

On a side note: I see that I originally rated this book 4 stars when I read it eleven years ago. Funny how our tastes and judgement change over time.
( )

meh

This one tried to be feminist but it failed to do so for a few reasons.
Because it was based on a tv show that already had problems,
and
because it tried to mimic the writing styles of other authors (Steven King and du Maurier come to mind)
and,
because it's racist, fatphobic (hey like S.King is, following tradition!) and all around gratuitous while trying to emulate both books like Hell House and Rebecca.

I'd much prefer it if it actually was the feminist prequel it's pretending to be, because it was actually fun to read! ( )

I have absolutely no strong feelings about this book in any direction. It just...is. I like the Rose Red TV mini series, but these characters didn't feel like the ones in the show, nor did they feel like fleshed-out people at all. I wasn't thrilled with the audio narration, nor did I find the diary format believable or compelling. Nothing was scary or creepy or disturbing, especially because we know we're being told it in a diary entry after the fact. The weird sexual dynamic at the end seemed bizarrely out of place. I would recommend any fans of the show just fill in the blanks of the Rimbauer family with their own ideas. ( )

My favorite sub-genre of horror is haunted houses. Rose Red is an awesome haunted house. Stephen King should write a few more like this, even if it takes a pseudonym to bring out the haunting. ( )

fiction, printed as if a true diary and totally ridiculous. the main character was a nut! ( )