Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Rosemary's Baby

Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

16 reviews

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Review of Rosemary’s Baby

By: Ira Levin

Rosemary and Guy are a young happy couple eager to move into the famous Bramford apartment. When they move in, they meet this elderly couple, Roman and Mini Castavets, who are very willing to insert themselves in Rosemary and Guy’s lives. Rosemary finally gets pregnant the Castavets help Rosemary with it, but she begins to suspect they have wicked intensions for her baby.

Rosemary’s Baby focuses not only on the occult and devil worship, but also on the fears of expecting mothers. Am I harming my child before its born? How do make I sure my baby is born good? It is one of those horror stories where our protagonists’ sanity is put to the test and can any of the other characters can be trusted. Rosemary is constantly gaslighted and is condescended to by her husband, Guy, and she is so submissive to him in most of the story. The Castavets are written in a way that makes them seem like they mean well, but they’re trying too hard to be involved with Rosemary’s pregnancy, especially when she barely knows them. The horror is written in a subtle way where the reader doesn’t know for sure of what’s going on. I found myself getting frustrated with Rosemary, because I wanted her to stand up for herself and not trust the Castavets. Unless you don’t believe in the devil, this possibility is absolutely terrifying, but also even if you don’t believe the idea of these, who do believe is quite frightening as well. This is an older novel published in the 60s and has casual racist mentalities.

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jrs_55's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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jaedia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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rumade's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Probably one of the first explorations of pregnancy as a horrifying experience and the alienation and pain that can come with it. Rosemary is a likeable character and easy to root for- a normal Midwestern girl almost estranged from her huge Catholic family back in Omaha as she lives with her WASP husband in New York and longs for a baby. I wish I could have read this without knowing the premise; so I could feel the tension build up more and more. Even if you roughly know the story, it's worth a read.

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hannahleila's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The pace of this one threw me. It started off well then got quite slow in the middle. The last 50 pages or so it picked up again and felt a bit rushed.
Also for a book that’s had so many editions released this was full of typos and punctuation where it shouldn’t be. I’m not talking the odd comma, but full stops in the middle of sentences.

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aquariusvintage's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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? No

2.0

Personally, I found the writing outdated. A lot of harmful tropes and slurs added. Appreciate the creepiness of the story line. A horror that is horrifying because it so closely mirrors reality. The book is considered a classic so there wasn't any jump scares or major twists in the storyline. Seemed pretty predictable. Didn't realize there would be a cliffhanger because the book is the beginning of a series.

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gabberjaws's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Firstly, I wanna say that I hate that I enjoyed the movie adaptation of this book (fuck you, Polanski).

Secondly, there's a reason why this book and its movie are talked about as much as they are. They're good.

The general ... oddness of the events that take place in this book, as well as Levin's matter-of-fact writing make this a very tense novel. Watching this horror that Rosemary was forced to go through unfold was deeply disturbing and even sickening at times.

I'd seen the movie before I read the book, so I'm not entire sure if this was just because I was coming into things with the knowledge of how things played out, but not once did it feel like I, the reader, was supposed to believe that Rosemary was imagining things. I don't know what it was, but something about Levin's writing made it crystal clear when the villains were lying or manipulating Rosemary. You could sense their panic when something was going wrong with their plans. I appreciated that - especially in a story about a woman being gaslit and manipulated from almost the very first page, it's nice that the narration was able to say, "yeah, no, this is fucked up. These people are evil."

I also appreciated how the book highlighted Guy's shitiness. The movie sorta focused more on the Castavets, but the book is constantly showing us how fucking awful Guy is, and I for one am glad because that man is an absolute shitstain of a human being and does not deserve to have his actions downplayed.

All in all, this book was great at evoking strong feelings of discomfort, disgust, unease, and visceral hatred. Just what you want in a horror novel.

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carissa230's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This book did not age well. There are slurs used throughout by pretty much every character in the book. I am pretty sure that Rosemary was supposed to be the "good" character, but she didn't come across that way. She honestly came across ignorant. All that said it was a somewhat compelling read. I did want to know when she'd figure out that she was the only one that didn't know what was happening.

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draconia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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xwritingstoriesx's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A great mix of supernatural horror and psychological horror. I felt so sorry for Rosemary, unknowingly marrying someone so selfish and heartless to put his wife through such a betrayal. Though every other character was awful for their actions against Rosemary, Guy's betrayal was something else entirely, even to go so far as to persuade her of her own disillusionment and hysteria.

The ending was intriguing, to watch as Rosemary fell in love with the son of satan, in spite of her prior aversion to him. I kind of wished she had jumped out of the window to end it all, to displease the coven and to thwart their plans.

Overall, this book was incredible and I plan to read more of Ira Levin's work.

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