| “ | Stay away from the woman in the hat. She's the Queen Bitch of Castle Hell. | „ |
| ~ A warning about Rose. |
Rose the Hat (real name: Rose O'Hara) is the main antagonist of Stephen King's 2013 novel Doctor Sleep. The semi-immortal leader of a tribe of quasi-demonic murderers known as the "True Knot", she and her followers seek out children with telepathic abilities and torture them to death, feeding off of their psychic essence, which they call "steam". By feeding off of this, they are able to functionally live forever.
History
Little is known about Rose's past, except that she was born in County Antrim, Ireland, as Rose O'Hara. At one point she emigrated to the United States. At the time she became a member of the True Knot, she was living on the western frontier, and was known as Irish Rose. Her exact age is unknown, but she has been a member of the True Knot since at least the mid-19th century.
She acts as the leader of the group, as she has the most powerful telepathic abilities, which enable her to locate children with psychic abilities, known as the Shining, in order to feed off of their steam. In particular, she becomes attracted to a twelve year old girl, Abra Stone, who has extremely powerful abilities. She orders the True to kidnap her, unaware that Abra is being protected by an adult Danny Torrance, who is still recovering from the traumatic events of King's previous novel, The Shining.
After two kidnapping attempts, which Abra and Dan successfully foil, Abra convinces Rose to meet her at the location of the former Overlook Hotel for a final battle. Dan arrives at the location, while Abra assists him via psychic projection. After a long struggle which results in the deaths off all of the members of the True Knot, Dan pushes Rose off of an observation platform. She falls to the ground, dying of a broken neck.
Personality
Rose is extremely cold, calculating, and uncaring. She has nothing but contempt for humans, whom she and the rest of the True Knot refer to as "rubes". She is a cold-hearted killer, demonstrating no remorse when she tortures several young children to death. She is also highly intelligent, able to conceive and execute complex plans with ease. Her powerful telepathic abilities make it easy for her to track her prey's next move, and thus to capture them more easily. Rose is extremely obsessive, becoming irrationally fixated on finding and killing Abra Stone when she realises how powerful Abra is; this obsession turns from fascination to rage once Abra continues to defy her.
She is described by multiple characters as being the most beautiful woman that they have ever seen. However, when she is in need of steam, she opens her mouth unnaturally wide, revealing a single, discolored tooth resembling a walrus's tusk.
She constantly wears a battered silk top hat, which is the source of her nickname. The origins of the hat are never explained. She has a very strong connection to it, to the point of flying into a violent rage if it is ever knocked off of her head.