Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder

Rate this book
In art as in life, you've got to change in order to live. Even when your audience—and maybe your friends—thinks it would be great if you stayed the same forever. In some cases, literally forever.The author of over seventeen SF and fantasy novels published over the last half-decade, Elizabeth Bear won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2005, and the Hugo Award and the Sturgeon Award in 2008 for her short story "Tideline."

18 pages, ebook

First published July 14, 2010

4 people are currently reading
171 people want to read

About the author

Elizabeth Bear

312 books2,469 followers
What Goodreads really needs is a "currently WRITING" option for its default bookshelves...

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
17 (12%)
4 stars
58 (41%)
3 stars
41 (29%)
2 stars
17 (12%)
1 star
7 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
Profile Image for karen.
4,012 reviews172k followers
April 16, 2020
Oh, sure. There was hope. While there was life, her mother used to say, there was hope. And if hope seemed more like a punishment than a protection, that was hardly God’s fault, was it?


elizabeth bear is just so good.

with a lot of these free tor shorts, they're fun, but they're ultimately just diversions for me. they're a great way to sample an author's style and skills, or as a little snack for me to read before continuing with whatever full-length book i'm reading at the time.

but this - this is a STORY.

it's not as long as many of the tor shorts, but it manages to develop character and atmosphere and explore a more important question than many of the longer novelettes appearing on the site.

i'm trying to make a day of reviewing the fifteen free tor shorts i've neglected to review so far this year, and this is the fourth one i've reread today, with reviewing and notetaking in mind. and, unlike the others, with this one i just got sucked into the rereading of it, enjoying the story all over again without really thinking about how to review it. and i'd happily read it again. it's that good. this is actually the third of bear's tor shorts i've read, and they've all been excellent, but there's something about this one that i thought was particularly strong and it goes beyond the actual story, which isn't something i'd be drawn to ordinarily: aging, long-grieving former rock legend faced with her own mortality makes a difficult decision centering around the question Do you make art or do you make life?

which seems almost banal when laid out like that

and yet, there's something about this character that is so powerfully appealing. she's not at all one-note, even though she lives within so few pages. her perspective is very world-weary and mature, but she's still got such a bratty punk rock girl-spark to her, laced with pride and bitterness.

Yeah. She used to be a Warlord. Some days, she got up, showered, walked the dogs, made scrambled eggs and was on her second or third mimosa before she remembered.
It was one of the reasons she lived alone. She’d had enough of fucking rock stars for two lifetimes, and the last thing she needed was some doe-eyed young creature padding across her terrazzo floors barefoot in silk pajama bottoms, looking at her like she used to be Emma Case before she’d had time to drink a pot of coffee and tie a good buzz on.


and the story is everything from funny to elegiac to resigned to hopeful. the sister stuff is wonderfully complex, the elder statesman/mentor responsibility is subtle and beautiful, all the loss and change and sustained mourning rings true, and it's a story that matters, as hyperbolic as that sounds.

so, while i still haven't really "reviewed" this one, i've at least tried to speak to how much i liked it, and how i'm sad that i only have one free tor short by her left to read.

but i renew my vow to read some of her long-form stuff soon, because she's really remarkably talented.



read it for yourself here:

http://www.tor.com/2008/09/11/rose-ma...

come to my blog!
Profile Image for Phoenix2.
1,265 reviews116 followers
May 7, 2020
The girl who sand Rose Madder surely needed more pages! The story had so much potential, but it was lost between the short length and the unclear twist. The writing was good though.
November 21, 2014
Her flight reflex had been broken for years. She made it up with housecat bravado

I adore the way Elizabeth Bear weaves a tale. In a short, 14 page story a writer has to make some choices about what lead gets buried and which gets the front light. Bear never disappoints me there, always choosing to window dress with the grit and let the fantastical settle in the hallows.

The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder is a story told through the eyes of retired 80's rock guitarist, Em. After some hard life lessons she finds herself at her brother-in-law's show.... watching him regurgitate the same sound in hollower tones that he had first become famous with. She misses the stage, she misses that world.... but most of all she misses the union of art and soul which her partner (and lover) Seth took with him to his death noose.

This is a powerful story, with a hint of the fantastical, about a woman finding herself in the winter years of her life and having to make a choice....

"Do you make art or do you make life?"
Profile Image for Alina.
867 reviews314 followers
June 5, 2017
Oh, this was a good short story, about life and mortality, about legacy and difficult decisions. Even if the general theme was handled many a time before, it's the quality of the writing and the realism of the characters, the dry humor and self irony that make this worth reading.
"Do you make art or do you make life?"
My only one problem was with the language, more exact the slang, as I'm not an English native speaker.

You can read the story here: http://www.tor.com/2008/09/11/rose-ma...
"Anyway, it could have been worse. Thank God for small mercies and all that. She could have used to be a Beatle."

"The small talk was as awkward as small talk always was"
Profile Image for Lata.
4,987 reviews254 followers
December 26, 2016
#26 short story in personal challenge. Finally caught up, and just got to get to #31.

Elizabeth Bear's people feel so real. Her main character feels so messed up and melancholy. And I like the take on death and undeath.

Liked these moments:

"Hard to believe he was even sixty, if you just looked at his abs. The chesticles were terrifying enough to make up for it, though."

"She was in the middle of a reasonably entertaining conversation with a Rolling Stone reporter (ah, Rolling Stone, another shuffling instance of the living dead)"
Profile Image for Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈.
594 reviews323 followers
December 4, 2014
This is one of the better tor shorties I've read. A middle aged former rock star ponders her own mortality and legacy as she watches her middle-aged rock star brother in law continue to relive his glory days, continue to cut albums, and continue to sell out. Em was one of the best rock guitarists in the 70s, and the fact that she was a female and bested most of the men in the arena has given her a pretty fantastic legacy to revel in. Not picking up a guitar since her on and offstage partner committed suicide, Em doesn't want to sell her soul to make crap music, but the itch to play the guitar and to keep her art alive still dwells inside her. When her brother in law approaches her before her final onstage performance, he offers her a gift that on the surface seems irresistible, but that comes with a choice: her life or her art.

I see this story as a parable that can transcend the setting and the characters, and I really enjoyed the way this author unfolded the story. I loved the backdrop of rock and roll, I loved Em' s narrative voice and thought all the elements of the setting were genuine. The fantasy/paranormal elements of the story were unveiled discreetly and carefully so the story seemed more like magical realism instead of fantasy. I liked this decision and the idea of it being more realistic really added to the overall eerie tone of the story. A solid 4 stars.

Read it here: http://www.tor.com/stories/2008/09/ro...
Profile Image for David.
Author 20 books405 followers
September 10, 2013
An aging rock star is offered immortality, and debates which is more important: Life or Art.

The damaged rock star and the Pact with a Price have been done pretty often before. Frankly, I'm kind of tired of the burned-out has-been who spends decades mourning the glory days when she was hanging out with (insert dead musicians the author adored in her salad days).

Not being an Elizabeth Bear fan (I haven't read any of her books) I wasn't sure what to expect. This was a competent short story with believable characters, good writing, and the story fit the short form perfectly. So why only three stars? Because there weren't any exciting or original ideas, and nothing really blew me away or made me wish she'd write more stories about these characters or want to go read something else by the author.

At eighteen pages, it's not much of an investment in time and the price is right, so if you like this kind of story or you really like Elizabeth Bear, it's worth reading. I just can't muster a lot of enthusiasm for it.
Profile Image for Badseedgirl.
1,480 reviews85 followers
February 26, 2017
This story completely explains Mick Jagger!

I would give this story 5 stars no matter how good it was just because she referenced Nick Cave and the Bad Seed, my favorite band of all time, and the inspiration for my screen name! Luckily it was a good story.
Profile Image for Helen.
132 reviews1 follower
August 31, 2016
Atmospheric, broody, cool short story about an ageing female rock star.
Profile Image for Peter Tillman.
4,061 reviews485 followers
January 9, 2023
Elizabeth Bear is an amazing writer, and this is one of her best shorts, that I've read anyway. You can read some real reviews nearby, but don't miss it. 4.5 stars, maybe 5 once I think about it. Really good story about getting old. Might have been even better without the fantastikal element....

$2 ebook, 1/9/23
Profile Image for Kieran McAndrew.
3,090 reviews20 followers
October 14, 2022
Art is about change. So what if change no longer happens?

Bear's "The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder" is strange, but beautiful, and ends on a note of hope despite the foreboding clouds of doom which pervade the story.
Profile Image for Doc..
240 reviews86 followers
July 29, 2017
God, but Elizabeth Bear can write.

She possesses an unusual talent for weaving fantasy with stark realism such that, once again, I’m amazed by the ease with which she resists categorisation: Is this dark fantasy? Is it magical realism? Or is it urban fantasy? I don’t know, but I couldn’t stop to think about it... because she pulled me into her tale with a firm grip. I fell into a background so believable that I almost stretched my hand forward to touch it. Within it, I met Em, a many-hued protagonist: fearless, cheeky, yet pitiable. She hooked me with her very first word, and I followed silently. Soon, I’d let down my defences, lost myself in Em’s regret, heartbreak and yearning... when along came the magic. Then I saw, to my horror, all the signs that I’d missed in my hypnotised state. I bowed my head, at last, in acknowledgement of this author’s prowess.

And yet... It’s no more than meek acquiescence; I can’t deny that I am disappointed. Maybe it’s because the lives of ageing rock stars and the quandary that haunts their twilight years have both been explored far too often. It could be because the details aren’t as sharp as they should’ve been. Partly, it’s because The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder ends “Not with a bang but a whimper”. But, were I not already aware that dazzling sentences will have flowed from Bear’s pen a year later, if I didn’t yet know that she would soon have birthed startling imagery, had the memory of Desiree* not been carved into my brain in the course of my previous encounter with this writer, I might’ve been more impressed. Perhaps that’s unfair of me—but we only expect more from those whom we have seen deliver.

...

* Meet Desiree in my favourite free short story of 2016, The Horrid Glory of Its Wings.
Profile Image for JM.
897 reviews925 followers
February 21, 2013
This was an interesting read. It made me forget due to the subject matter and narration that I was reading a genre story, so when the supernatural twist poppep up it actually surprised me.
Profile Image for Paulo Vinicius Figueiredo dos Santos.
977 reviews12 followers
January 19, 2021
Esse é um livro bem complicado de se resenhar. Porque ele tem várias surpresas guardadas para o leitor. Mas, vamos tentar falar um pouquinho dele. Elizabeth Bear é habilidosa na arte de criar o contexto para uma história. Já tive a oportunidade de ler um romance longo dela chamado Range of Ghosts, e uma das coisas que salta aos olhos é o quanto ela consegue criar personagens interessantes. Essa é uma narrativa sobre a Em, uma cantora de rock cujos tempos de estrela já se passaram há muito tempo. Ela vai a um show de sua filha Ange e os bastidores começam a fazê-la se lembrar dos velhos tempos, de sucessos passados, de amores perdidos. Ela estar com um câncer terminal também faz com que ela repense uma série de situações e a coloca frente a frente com uma escolha que mudar sua própria essência.

A escrita da Elizabeth Bear possui bastante emoção e melancolia. Ser narrado em primeira pessoa pela protagonista auxilia nesse impacto diante do leitor. É curioso o quanto a autora esconde o jogo ao longo de toda a narrativa. Nos perguntamos por que um romance como esse foi parar em uma editora que publica fantasia e ficção científica. Isso porque não vemos nenhum dos elementos típicos do gênero. Eventualmente ele aparece, mas parece aquela longa espera para ser surpreendido. Não curti totalmente, mas a reflexão que ele suscita é bem diferente dos clichês de scifi. Achei o tamanho da história adequado para a narrativa sem tirar nem pôr. A autora faz um bom trabalho de nos fazer sentir empatia por Em até o último instante. E o leitor acaba deduzindo qual seria a escolha dela simplesmente por sabermos qual é o caráter e as peculiaridades da personagem.

Arte nasce da nossa alma, da nossa energia vital dinâmica ou apenas pelo fato de estarmos vivos? Essa é uma velha discussão que Bear traz à tona nessa narrativa. Sermos mortais provavelmente nos coloca diante de uma encruzilhada e nos tornamos pessoas que vivem intensamente. É isso o que faz de expressões como música, escultura ou pintura tão criativas? Ou uma pessoa sem alma ou sem previsão de morte pode produzir algo interessante? Pelo que pude inferir da narrativa, Bear acredita que a mortalidade faz o ser humano produzir com mais urgência. O nosso "prazo de validade" faz com que não sejamos assolados pela inércia, e talvez esse seja um dos lados mais produtivos da humanidade.

A relação entre mãe e filha também é explorada pela autora. Ange possui muitos dos talentos de sua mãe, mas não é Em. Possui suas próprias preocupações e dúvidas. Mesmo vendo a história sob a perspectiva de Em, conseguimos perceber sua filha a partir do não dito. Ange não aparece tanto na história, mas fica transparente a preocupação dela quando descobre o que aflige Em. Nossa protagonista fica buscando paralelos em sua trajetória, mas ao não encontrá-los fica um pouco mais tranquila em relação ao futuro da filha. Ela sabe que fez escolhas erradas e não gostaria de ver sua filha fazendo as mesmas. Porém, Em não tem arrependimentos. Afinal sua vida nem sempre pode ser resumida em escolhas precisas, mas também das falhas. Vemos uma personagem que coloca sua vida em perspectiva embora esteja em paz consigo mesma.
Profile Image for Corrie.
1,714 reviews4 followers
January 11, 2023
The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder by author Elizabeth Bear is a short story you can read for free on the Tor.com site https://www.tor.com/2008/09/11/rose-m...

In art as in life, you've got to change in order to live. Even when your audience—and maybe your friends—thinks it would be great if you stayed the same forever. In some cases, literally forever.

Someone touched Em’s shoulder, and she spun, heartbeat drowning out whatever he said. A side of beef in a SECURITY shirt loomed from the shadows, and Em instinctively drew herself up in her boots. Her flight reflex had been broken for years. She made it up with housecat bravado.

My ongoing quest to get current with the Tor short stories. I love Elizabeth Bear’s writing. She knows how to get to me, every single time.

4 Stars
774 reviews58 followers
July 19, 2019
Rock and Roll pretend that living forever on earth both works and would be worth it. This short story examines what one woman, faced with the choice to burn on or fade out decides to do. She moves through the story with gritty rawness, but therein lies an undeniable tenderness.

I docked it a star for language, but it deserves a half a star more for nearly making me cry without feeling emotionally cheap.
Profile Image for Warlou Joyce Antonio.
175 reviews91 followers
February 14, 2019
Why was it, indeed, that no matter what you were it was never good enough? Did men get that too, or was it a feminine affliction? Seth’s death-fouled body, twisting from a noose improvised from telephone wire. No, she rather thought intimations of lethal inadequacy were a human condition.
Profile Image for ems.
1,167 reviews2 followers
August 30, 2019
not related to why i wasn't jazzed about this story, but if you're going to reference a rockstar who shaved off his eyebrows why pick bowie? is syd barrett too obvious of a namecheck? actually curious about this
Profile Image for Shane Noble.
413 reviews5 followers
September 8, 2018
What does an ageing rock star do when the world is changing and passing her by?
Profile Image for cinnamoncatgirl.
252 reviews
November 26, 2023
11.46pm i skimmed a lot of it but it reminded me of that one black mirror episode san junipero
Profile Image for harlequin {Stephanie}.
592 reviews27 followers
January 18, 2015
This story asks an important question. Do you want to survive or would you choose to really live? Would you accept a free eternity or fight for the one you have?

If you have forever what would you really accomplish? Some of the best moments in life come from the knowledge of that ticking clock.

This story drips with real emotion. The first half was disappointing. I didn't like it at all. Then the second half swoops in for a glorious save before the ball was completely dropped.

When I am near tears on a hellish day this has saved me. Puppy love is the only balm sometimes and they seem to sense it. I love how the author included this.

She dropped to her knees beside the liquor cabinet and fumbled it open. Glasses were on the top shelf. One of the wolfhounds came over and poked a cold nose into her ear while she rummaged; rather than pushing his head aside, she hooked her arm behind his ears and hugged his brindle-and-white neck. He huffed at her and pushed her over sideways, and while he stood over her, she lay on the floor on her back and scratched behind his jaw.

Profile Image for Nadine in NY Jones.
3,170 reviews279 followers
April 29, 2016
CW for cancer (because I wish I'd known).

Em instinctively drew herself up in her boots. Her flight reflex had been broken for years. She made it up with housecat bravado.


It's Elizabeth Bear. She can't write a bad story. Why are you wasting time reading this review when you could be reading the story on tor:

http://www.tor.com/2008/09/11/rose-ma...

A few comments for myself (because all other readers would have clicked over to the story by now. Right??):

Her descriptions of dog ownership are completely perfect, and I never could have written something so minimal and exactly right as this.
When Em got back to the house in Carlsbad, the dogs were waiting on the cool marble of the entryway. She scratched chins and fondled ears, and they pushed one another out of the way to lean against her thighs. She picked her way through them, moved to the living room


I read this is April 2016, and was surprised to see it was written in 2008. Because Graham reminded me of Lemmy, and Bowie was explicitly mentioned, and I assumed this story was inspired by their recent deaths.
Profile Image for karenbee.
1,075 reviews13 followers
February 22, 2015
This is a short story, and I am too lazy to officially review it. I have my eye on a few more short stories at Tor.com, and I suspect I will feel the same about those. I'll try to find a line or two in each of them to remind me what the story was about, in case I want to revisit one later.

Here's The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder: "Do you make art or do you make life?"


(three-and-a-half stars)
Profile Image for Kinsey_m.
346 reviews5 followers
September 6, 2016
I didn't buy the premise, probably because it appeared to late into the story, but also because there was a hint that the fantastical element only applies to a definite subset of people which rubbed me the wrong way. This may be a spoiler, so SPOILER ALERT, after the reveal it became quite clear thet Bear may have been inspired by a famous sentence to write this story. I'm not going to say which sentence, if you have read it, you know which one I mean.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.