Book Review: Rosemary's Baby

Author: Ira Levin

Pages: 302

Genre: Fiction/Horrow

Personal Rating: 4

**MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**

From the back cover:

Rosemary Woodhouse is a housewife – young, healthy, blissfully happy. Her husband Guy is an actor – charismatic and ambitious. The spacious, sun-filled apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side is their dream home – a dream that turns into an unspeakable nightmare...

The elderly couple. The amulet. The Laundry room. The suicide. The dream. The doctor. The herbs. The anagram. The baby.

Rosmary’s baby.
Pray for it.

I guess I was so hyped up for this to be a terrifying book that I was slightly disappointed when it ended up being a “really good” suspenseful book. It’s pretty hard to write a truly terrifying book. I’ve only read a few in my days.

To keep it short Rosemary’s husbands agrees to have Rosemary impregnated by the devil during a Satanic ritual. He does this so that he can become successful in his career, but passes it off as if he’s doing it for them (at the end). As the reader you know what has happened, in a way, so the suspense comes from having to wait the nine months to see what actually “comes out” and then what ends up happening.

I enjoyed the read. I was hoping it would scare the “you know what” out of me. It didn’t. It is however a classic horror read and I know Levin is credited with giving “horror a new face”. One theme that is covered quite nicely is paranoia. Poor Rosemary “knows” what is going on, but since everyone is part of the satanic cult they are able to convince her she is just feeling “blue” or having “normal pregnancy pains” or that she is just being plain old silly! She even starts to believe she may be going crazy.

Rosemary’s Baby was a quick suspenseful read. You’ll enjoy it if you like horror or “classic” books.

“Suspense is beautifully intertwined with every incidents; the delicate line between belief and disbelief in faultlessly drawn.”—The New York Times

I picked this book as one of my reads for the Young Adult Challenge. Joy (who is hosting the challenge) and I had an interested chat today about whether it was really a young adult novel. I assumed since I found it from THE ULTIMATE TEEN READING LIST at teenreads.com that it was. Here is how they picked the books for the list.

One of our goals each month is to inspire you to read --- and to keep reading. We have found that required reading lists for school --- especially summer reading lists --- are not exactly inspiring. Thus we have created what we think is the Ultimate Teen Reading List --- more than 250 titles that we think are perfect choices for reading and discussing. Our dream is that schools will use this list to help them make their own for summer reading or, even better, suggest that students just read what they want from this list.

How did we create our list? We compiled entries from Teenreads.com readers who weighed in with their selections and we also asked our staffers for suggestions. Titles range from young adult books to books that we read on adult lists that we think would be enjoyed by teens.

So I would have to say that, no I don't think this is a young adult novel, but I do thing that many teens would enjoy reading this book.

Book Review: Red Prophet (Tales of Alvin Maker II)

Author: Orson Scott Card

Pages: 320

Genre: Fiction/Sci Fi. & Fantasy/Epic/Series

Personal Rating: 2.5/5

From the back cover:

It's the 19th century, and Napoleon is in command of an army in Detroit. Andrew Jackson is a lawyer from Tenezzy, and William Henry Harrison is the self-appointed governor of Wobbish just east of the Mizzipy River. And somewhere up north, in a small town called Vigor Church, is a young boy named Alvin who is the seventh son of a seventh son, with the power to shape the world around him. These are the tales of Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker, which takes place in an alternate American history where folk magic really works. And this is the story of the Red Prophet, where Alvin finds himself caught in a war between the Red men and the Whites on the American frontier.

Book II from Tales of Alvin Maker was not my cup of tea. If it wasn't the second book in a series for the Series Challenge and if I had not enjoyed Book I, I probably would have stopped reading. It's not that it was a terrible story, or horribly written (quite the opposite actually). It just wasn't my thing.

The focus of Book II is Alvin's relationship with the Red Prophet and Ta-Kumsaw (the Prophet's brother) and the impending war between the Whites and the Reds. I'm sure it is important for the foundation of the series but as a stand alone novel I found it boring. There was a lot of foreshadowing involved so I'm pretty sure you couldn't just skip this book and move on with the novel.

There were sections I found very interesting and hope to find more sections like those in the upcoming books. Alvin using his knack for healing, references to the Torch, who pulled the caul from Calvin's face when he was born. The prophet's visions of Alvin's future with the crystal towers were all topics i found interesting and wished were covered in more detailed.

I wouldn't abandon the series based on this book alone. It seems that many people really enjoyed book II. I'm however ready to move onto Book III.

Book Review: Flowers for Algernon

Author: Daniel Keyes

Pages: 311

Genre: Fiction/Sci Fi. & Fantasy

Personal Rating: 4/5

Awards: Nebula & Hugo

From the back cover:

Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence-a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?

What a unique and interesting book! This story follows Charlie, a mentally retarded 30 something who has an operation performed (on his brain) to increase his intelligence. Most of the story is related through Charlie's progress reports as he sees events unfolding.

As Charlie's intelligence increases, so does his memory. He begins to remember his childhood and how he came to be "abandoned" by his family and to understand why he has sexual issues. He also starts to questions the friends he used to have since they used to laugh at him and make him do silly things (since he didn't know better). This part of the story is sad. The realization of how we/some treat mentally retarded individuals.

This book opens up so many ethical and moral questions related to experimentation, the betterment of society and the worth of an individual. Who determines that worth?

If you haven't read this one I would definitely add it to your list!

Book Review: The Silver Rose

Author: Susan Carroll

Pages: 515

Genre: Fiction/Historical Romance

Personal Rating: 3.5/5

From the back cover:

From Brittany’s fog-shrouded forests to the elegant dark heart of Paris’s royal court, one woman must challenge a country’s destiny–and her own dangerous fate.

France, 1585. She is the youngest and most powerful of the “Sisters of Faire Isle,” women known far and wide for their extraordinary mystical abilities. Skilled in healing and able to forecast the future of those around her, Miri Cheney has returned to her ancestral home to take refuge from a land devastated by civil war–and to grieve for her family, driven to exile. But she cannot hide from the formidable new power threatening to seize control of France from the dread “Dark Queen,” Catherine de Medici–a diabolical woman known only as the Silver Rose. Miri has no choice but to turn to the one man she distrusts as much as she desires: Simon Aristide, the charismatic witch-finder who is now himself the hunted, and who has reluctantly made an unholy pact with Catherine. Miri must defy throne and family to save all that she loves most–and command a future greater than she could ever imagine.

Vibrant with stunning historical detail, alive with characters as richly passionate as they are compelling, The Silver Rose is a sweeping, exquisitely wrought tale from a mesmerizing storyteller.

This novel was different from what I would normally choose to read for myself. I was expecting something along the lines of “The Other Boleyn Girl” but it was different from that. Not bad different, just different. I also found the back cover description to be not quite accurate to what actually happens in the book. Doesn’t change that I really liked the story but it alludes to a story that doesn’t really happen “that way”. It states that Miri will “command a future greater than she could ever imagine.” Huh??? Where? What commanding future did I miss? A little melodramatic on the back cover in my opinion.

It turns out that I started with the 3rd book in the series. So I may have enjoyed this book even more had I read the two prior to this one. Those books would be “The Dark Queen” and “The Courtesan”. Both of which I have, I just didn’t realize they were a series until it was too late. Bummer.

This novel had a little bit of everything; magic, romance, history, action, animals, family, different cities, betrayal, witches, queens. It was a simple, quick, interesting read. Something nice and light to read between those heavier more serious reads. A good recommendation for the type of book it is. Don’t try to make it something more. I’m looking forward to going backward and reading the two books that came before this one.

The Eponymous Challenge

COMPLETED: 3.17.08

The challenge will run from 1 March to 31 May, 2008.

During that time your mission should you choose to accept it is to read 4 books whose titles are the name of one or more of the characters (e.g. Evelina, Oscar and Lucinda); or a description of one or more of the characters (e.g. The Merchant of Venice, Sylvia’s Lovers).

Non-fiction books and overlaps with other challenges are welcome, as are books named after four-legged characters.

1. The Silver Rose (Susan Carroll) completed 3.5.08
2. Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes) completed 3.8.08
3. Rosemary's Baby (Ira Levin) completed 3.17.08
4. Red Prophet (Orson Scott Card) completed 3.11.08

Eponymous Challenge