A review by amybibliophile
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

50 states 50 horror books - New York

This book has been recommended to me a lot and the fact I keep seeing it mentioned everywhere was a sign I needed to read it, I'd never read any Ira Levin before and its a very short book so I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

Although easy to read I found it a mediocre book at best, I constantly had the feeling of 'so when's the good bit going to start' throughout. The main character Rosemary brought up frustrating emotions in me for not seeing what was pretty much right in front of her the whole time, she was way too trusting and never used her intuition.

The themes within Rosemarys Baby I could see happening in real life, creeping up on a person by the means of nosy, narcissistic neighbours. The book was written back in the 1960's where attitudes to women's health mentally and physically were a lot different to what they are now, this book I feel is creepier to read now that it would be back then as you can see how restrictive her life is made by those around her, so much striked me as odd and Rosemary just took it as face value all of the time. 
I understood what the climax would be pretty early on, even still I felt it had a satisfying ending and didn't leave me disappointed.