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: Cruel & Unusual

Author: Patricia Cornwell

Pages: 407

Genre: Fiction/Thriller

Personal Rating: 3/5

Awards: Gold Dagger Award

From the back cover:

When convicted killer Ronnie Joe Waddell is executed in Virginia's electric chair, he becomes what should be a routine postmortem case for Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. But after Waddell's execution, the murders continue, as everyone connected to him begins to die-including a member of Scarpetta's staff. Then, when crucial records begin to disappear from her files, Scarpetta comes under fire for incompetence. Caught in a web of political intrigue, betrayed by those she trusted, Scarpetta must fight to free herself from murderous insinuations—and threats to her own life, To save her career, Scarpetta soon finds herself retracing Waddell's bloody footprints, following a trail that might lead to long—hidden secrets deep within the state government. Either the truth will set her free—or unleash upon her a punishment both cruel and unusual.

This book was OK! It was just your good old fashion satisfying read. Nothing spectacular. It was interesting enough to keep me going but no so great that I'm going to be running around recommending it to everyone I know. I wasn't able to figure out what was going on (so that was good) and everything was neatly wrapped up in the last few pages.

If you like thrillers/mystery/foresnic reads you'll enjoy this book. It isn't one of the best I've read but it sure isn't a dud!

Suspense & Thriller Reading Challenge

Its a sickness...I'll admit it...I can't stop joining challenge! I may need an intervention.

I found this one from Joy on Thoughts of Joy and its being hosted by J. Kaye's Book Blog: Suspense and Thriller Reading Challenge.

Dates: January 2008 - December 2009

You need to read 6 different subsets of thrillers in 08 and 6 more different subset in 09. There is a list of subsets with great descriptions over at the site. I love thrillers.

BOOK LIST WITH SUB-GENRES

Action--often feature a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist. Treasure hunt, search for a lost archeological site, the world's lost meteorite, a mystery lost to time--action-adventure brings back our childhood fantasies of being the adventurer. Examples are Sahara by Clive Cussler, Thunderhead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston

Conspiracy
* The Third Twin--Ken Follett

Crime--offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. This subgenre often focuses on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasize action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses are central ingredients. I think the Dexter series would work well here.

Eco--is where the protagonist must avert or rectify an environmental or biological calamity - often in addition to dealing with the usual types of enemies or obstacles present in other thriller genres. This environmental component often forms a central message or theme of the story. Examples include Nicholas Evans's The Loop, C. George Muller's Echoes in the Blue, and Wilbur Smith's Elephant Song, all of which highlight real-life environmental issues. Futuristic Eco-thrillers are of the Science Fiction genre that proposes ideas that will or may occur and include such works as Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy and Ian Irvine's Human Rites Trilogy.

Historical
* The Alienist--Caleb Carr

Horror
* Rosemary's Baby--Ira Levin
* Society of S--Susan Hubbard
* Relic--Douglas Preston

* Dracula--Bram Stoker (audio book)

Legal
* Fifth Angel--Tim Green
* Cold Hit--Linda Fairstein
* Unbidden Truth--Kate Wilhelm

Medical
* The Syndrome--John Case

Political--where the hero/heroine must ensure the stability of the government that employs him. Good examples are Protect and Defend by Vince Flynn, Presidential Games by Alvin E. Hargis, and Happy Holidays: A Political Thriller by J.D. Smith.

Psychological
* The Wasp Factory--Iain Banks
* Flesh & Blood--Jonathan Kellerman

Religous

* The Reckoning--Thomas Monteleone (2.8.08)

Sci-Fi
* Deep Storm--Lincoln Child

Serial
* Chill Factor--Sandra Brown

Spy--also a subgenre of spy fiction) are where the hero is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of a rival government or (in recent years) terrorists. Examples include From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming, The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum, and television series such as Mission: Impossible and 24 (the latter demonstrating a break from the norm by Robert Ludlum, as it is as much a psychological thriller as a spy thriller.)

Supernatural
* Pig Island--Mo Hayder

Techno--are work that usually focuses upon military action, in which technology (usually military technology) is described in detail and made essential to the reader's/viewer's understanding of the plot. Tom Clancy defined and popularized the genre with his The Hunt for Red October, and is considered to be the "Father of the Technothriller."

True Crime--The most famous book in this nonfiction genre is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1966). The author spent months in the Midwest painstakingly retracing the steps of two young rural killers -- and then wrote about it chillingly. Another excellent and more recent true-crime book is Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule (2004), the true story of the notorious Green River serial killer who terrorized the Seattle area for decades.

Forensic
*Faithless--Karin Slaughter
*Trace--Patricia Cornwell
* Cruel & Unusual--Patrical Cornwell (3.16.08)

Locked Room--mystery in which the crime is apparently committed under impossible circumstances (but eventually elicits a rational explanation).

Hard Boiled--is tougher and grittier than soft- or medium-boiled stories. They often incorporate violence, no-holds-barred descriptions of crime scenes, and sexual encounters. They usually feature a lone-wolf private detective who is cynical yet quixotic. Think Sara Paretsky, Ian Rankin, Raymond Chandler, Michael Connelly, James Elroy, Clyde Ford (The Long Mile).

Private Detective--Focused on the independent snoop-for-hire, these have evolved from tough-guy "hard-boiled" detectives to the more professional operators of today.

Book Review: The Reckoning (Blood of the Lamb)

Author: Thomas Monteleone

Pages: 419

Genre: Fiction/Thriller

Personal Rating: 3.5/5

From the back cover:

Reeling from the sudden death of the Pope during an international celebration, the Archbishophs of the Roman Catholic Church unanimously elect Peter Carenza, a charismatic young priest from the United States, to be the next Pontiff. Carenza has revitalized the Church in America, attracting new worshippers in droves to his scandal-free, countrywide congregation.

Carenza remakes the Church in his new image, allowing priests to marry, giving power to women, and preaching of the power of God in man - which Carenza himself seems to wield. He can heal the sick, summon lightning from a clear sky, even raise the dead.

Is Peter Carenza the long prayed-for Second Coming?
Or do his powers come from a darker Master?

As you read through the book you come to learn the Peter Carenza has been cloned from blood taken from the Shroud of Turin. He was implanted into a virgin nun who plays an important role as the story unfolds. High ranking officials in the Vatican have been trying to play God and now they are unsure whether Peter is falling to the side of good or evil.

Peter’s mother (the virgin nun), his “fiancé”, and a few dissident officials, flee the Vatican in an attempt to literally save the world. Apparently there are seven “righteous” people, and as long as one of those people lives, the world can never end. However, to show God that the human race wants to continue they, the 7 righteous, must open a set of seals that are in 7 locations all over the world. Peter has set out to destroy them.

This book is not a literary masterpiece but it was a page turner and interesting to watch the interaction of the inherently good and the inherently evil. I also enjoyed see how the Bible and different cultures were incorporated. Although the ending was predictable (to a certain degree) there were definitely surprises on the way to it!