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A review by coraline88
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
5.0
Rosemary's baby is about a couple, Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, who move into the Bramford, which their friend Hutch strongly warns them against. Shortly after, strange things begin to happen, which their strange neighbours may know something about...
Even though I was already familiar with the story due to its status as a classic horror story (both as a book and as a movie), reading the book really surprised me in many ways. For one, the writing style was quite a quick read yet also effective: Ira Levin has the capacity of telling a layered story with key themes such as fear of a pregnancy going wrong as well as the excitement of being a new mother, contrasting feelings which Rosemary embodies throughout the novel. This fear is further heightened later on in the story when
However, even if at the end she gave birth to the spawn of Satan, she still managed to gain back some of her autonomy, even if it was only by naming her child Andrew John like she had initially wanted instead of succumbing to the Satanic cult's wishes of naming him Adrian Stephen. This makes the story end on a bittersweet note, which highlights the complex nature of this deceptively simple tale, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Even though I was already familiar with the story due to its status as a classic horror story (both as a book and as a movie), reading the book really surprised me in many ways. For one, the writing style was quite a quick read yet also effective: Ira Levin has the capacity of telling a layered story with key themes such as fear of a pregnancy going wrong as well as the excitement of being a new mother, contrasting feelings which Rosemary embodies throughout the novel. This fear is further heightened later on in the story when
Spoiler
she comes to realize that all of her neighbours, as well as her husband Guy and Dr. Saperstein were all in on the demon pregnancy that was ensured by making her drink a smoothie with Tannis root every day instead of the real medicine that she needed, depriving her of basic medical care. This coupled with Dr. Saperstein's insistence that she ought not to read any books also contributes to her slowly losing all of her autonomy throughout the course of the novel, both mentally and physically.However, even if at the end she gave birth to the spawn of Satan, she still managed to gain back some of her autonomy, even if it was only by naming her child Andrew John like she had initially wanted instead of succumbing to the Satanic cult's wishes of naming him Adrian Stephen. This makes the story end on a bittersweet note, which highlights the complex nature of this deceptively simple tale, which I thoroughly enjoyed.