Quick Book Review: Rosemary’s Baby

Quick Book Review: Rosemary’s Baby

Quick Review:

Rosemary’s Baby is an iconic novel-turned-movie that is referenced in our pop culture still today. Referenced in places like Gilmore Girls of course!

I was familiar with the book’s concept – woman has demon child – but not much else. It was a fairly short read at just over 300 pages and seemed like a perfect book for October. Spoiler … I was right. Speaking of spoilers, yes I will spoil things from this book. This is your final chance to turn back. You’ve been warned.

Characters

• Rosemary Woodhouse – Our heroine who goes through a hell (pun) of a lot in this book. She starts off as a meek woman dependent on her husband and by the end she’s a knife wielding mother ready to do anything to keep her baby safe. But surprise! She’s the mother of the Antichrist.
• Guy Woodhouse – Real piece of sh*t husband who literally lets his wife be raped and impregnated by the devil that he summoned along with a cult of elderly satanists. Why would he do this you might ask. To feed his megalomania and become a wealthy and world renowned actor. Seems like the best career move, right?
• Roman and Minnie Castevets – They lead the elderly devil worshipping group that Guy is now a part of. Basically, they set this whole plan in motion by killing a neighbor at the Bramford and ensuring that a young couple move in. Their whole goal for almost 100 years has been to bring about the Antichrist.
• Hutch – Sweet, sweet, Hutch. He’s the only bright light in this novel and actually in Rosemary’s corner. He’s there for her and warning her from the beginning not to move into the Bramford because of it’s dark history.
• Dr. Sapirstein – The inspiration for our loveable obstetrician in Parks & Recs? Maybe? There’s nothing loveable about this doctor though. He is part of the cult, too. Rosemary is withering away during her pregnancy while under Dr. Sapirstein’s care. Her friends are concerned and set her up with another doctor for a second opinion. Of course that goes nowhere since this cult seems like it runs the whole town.

Plot

This book was a pretty easy read due to a simple plot. It revolves around Rosemary Woodhouse wanting to have a baby, but her husband basically telling her he wants to focus on his acting career first. Fine, whatever, Rosemary busies herself with redecorating their rented unit at the Bramford. I didn’t think you could put up wallpaper and paint if you were renters, but life was different in the 60s, I guess. Eventually Rosemary becomes pregnant and Guy is mysteriously on board with this.

That’s not the only strangeness happening at the Bramford. Guy is now all of a sudden getting all these primo acting gigs. Some other actor had beaten Guy for a lead role in a play and mysteriously became blind…overnight…and guess who the lead actor is now. Guy. There’s other ominous situations that occur at the Bramford. Terry, who Rosemary befriended and is living with the Castevets, just jumps out of a window for no reason that Rosemary could find. Rosemary hears weird chanting from the Castevets’s unit. Mrs. Castevet is always bringing Rosemary gross, smelly things (tannis root) to eat or wear. The list of strange occurrences goes on.

You might have noticed the Castevets were at the center of most of these things. That’s because they are a “sweet” elderly couple with “sweet” elderly friends who are all actually in a devil worshipping cult. Basically this cult orchestrated the whole thing to bring about the Antichrist. They sucked Guy into this cult with the promise of a fruitful acting career. There are other tenants who are cult members and Rosemary’s doctor, Dr. Sapirstein, is also a member. Poor Rosemary had no chance.

Rosemary does evolve as a character, which was refreshing. After she’s pregnant and is concerned for her health she reaches out to her only real friend – Hutch. He’s a bit older than Rosemary and is more like a father figure to her. He lets Rosemary stay at his cabin in upstate New York to think things through and get some space from Guy, the Castevets, and the Bramford. At this point Rosemary is considering leaving Guy, which she abso-f*cking-lutely should. While she is out of town the Castevets curse Hutch, who eventually dies.

Rosemary has no one else. With Hutch’s death I feel like something inside her snaps. At that point she knows the Castevets and their friends are bad news. Guy does not have her best interests in mind, either. She’s in survival mode now and is looking to get her and her baby to a safe place. After some drugging, Rosemary complies to stay at the Bramford and eventually goes into labor. You know what those freaking cultists do? They take the baby to raise by themselves and tells Rosemary that her child died during labor. How awful and traumatic for a mother! In a drugged haze Rosemary remembers hearing her baby cry after delivery. She hears crying a few days later, too. Well, she’s had enough of being lied to. She grabs a weapon and unseals a trap door because every hotel with a sordid past needs secret passageways. She sneaks into the Castevets home to find the whole cult preoccupied with a celebration. Off in a corner Rosemary sees the baby bassinet and creeps over to it. That’s when she sees her baby for the first time and notices his inhuman yellow eyes.

That’s basically it. She knows deep down her baby is the Antichrist, but it’s her baby. The story ends with her rocking the baby so we aren’t sure what her final move will be. Kill it? Raise it?

My Thoughts: Creepy enough for an October Read

This was a creepy book good enough for an October read. I loved how it’s told from Rosemary’s perspective so you know weird sh*t is going on, but you don’t find out the truth until she does. I’m normally not one for an open-ended final scene, but in this case it worked! I almost wish there wasn’t a second book so you could decide for yourself what happens. The second book has real low reviews so I’m not going to read it. Therefore, I can continue believing the Castevets say the wrong thing to Rosemary while she’s rocking the baby and it breaks her. She becomes a loose cannon that kills the Antichrist (because it’s the Antichrist) as a big middle finger to the Castevets who used and abused her. I like to think she set the Bramford on fire, too. This way she takes out the whole cult all as a way to avenge Hutch. In my version the innocent people make it out of the Bramford, don’t worry. Maybe there was an ice cream social outside where most of the tenants were while Rosemary played arsonist. But I dream.

I prefer stories where the main character is gaslit and starts to question their own sanity. For some reason this is a trope I’m really into and this book delivers on that. She’s just so innocent and trusting in the beginning. She’s willing to believe what Guy and the Castevets tell her because all she wants is a healthy baby. Her pregnancy is awful. The baby is tearing her up inside and leeching all the nutrients out of her. Even after all that pain, she’s still telling herself to toughen up since that’s what Guy says. She FINALLY comes to her senses and realizes something isn’t right and people are lying to her. So not only do we have a great gaslighting story, but Rosemary’s character has a great evolution.

She starts off innocent and kind of a people pleaser, but by the end she’s fighting for herself and her baby. I really rooted for her, which is why I hope she doesn’t raise the Antichrist. Or at least raises a well-adjusted Antichrist with a heart of gold. Otherwise, all that wonderful character growth would have been tossed right out the window, much like Terry. A moment of silence for Terry and all the young women the Castevets have killed over the years. (Pause for a moment of silence.) They were such monsters. The author, Ira Levin, did a great job writing antagonists that really get under your skin.

The only reason I didn’t give this 5 stars was because there could have been more disturbing twisted scenes. There were some, but the book could have been a little bit longer to make space for more supernatural mayhem. I also just wanted more Hutch scenes. Overall, yes, I recommend this book for those who want a spooky book that has the creepy atmosphere without a lot of gore.

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Till next time bookworms,

– Laura