Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

125 reviews

megz_99's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

pantteri's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark 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? It's complicated

3.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tipp_njam's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

The characterisation is written into the story and the author does a good job of maintaining unease throughout the story even after the climax. 
I felt a lot of things throughout the book, like unhappiness etc but I was never mad about it, everything seemed to have a purpose.
Rosemary as a character was super annoying but her passiveness was something that made the novel feel more interesting because you get to see how easily she gives up on her resolve in favour of her idealistic desires of family/life/her future. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this read (despite everything) and it was quite horrifying. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

thomasdj's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a tense gothic tale that really dug into power dynamics in relationships, the dehumanization of women, and the horrors of disempowerment. It also showed the lack of autonomy that is often pushed upon pregnant people, as if your body is no longer your own, and the world is invited in to control you. Overall, I’m very glad to have read this book, an interesting social commentary with the tense gothic horror that makes you want to keep turning the page. And Mia Farrow as the narrator was excellent and added to the vintage vibes of the book.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

thatgirlinblack's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

“Before Ira Levin, horror always happened somewhere else. Regular ordinary people were forced to pack their luggage and kennel their dogs 
and had to leave their homes and schlep seemingly forever to Transylvania, to Manderlay, to the House of Usher, or Hill House, or the Bates Motel. … Yes, everyday life was all well and fine until Ira Levin brought the requisite haunted castle into the Upper West Side of Manhattan.” (From the book’s forward by Chuck Palahniuk.) 

The foreboding grows in this tale of a couple making a new home and family in a storied New York apartment. As an introverted millennial survivor of the Covid-19 quarantines of the 2020’s and onward, I’d suggest the first real horror is having over-“friendly” neighbors unexpectedly drop in and stay however long they fancy 😛 

But things quickly get very serious when Rosemary suffers a rape. Thereafter she is with child and the weirdness just ramps up to 11, with smelly flowers tucked into a necklace, yucky green smoothies, concerningly mysterious deaths, a book on witchcraft, and most annoyingly, Rosemary’s husband NOT being on her side. She feels crazy, as one would with her neighbors, doctor, and husband telling her she is. That’s the biggest nightmare—that she can’t trust her own husband. Men continue to be the biggest threat to women smh. 

Perhaps because it’s one of the earlier witchcraft/satanism horror books that have recently permeated the genre, the march to the inevitable simply plods onward to doom. The ending is picture-perfectly horrific: a mother amidst the fallout of her life in shambles. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

camischroeder's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bokslukaren's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark

3.5

A very chilling and unsettling story full of gaslighting and manipulation, but I didn't like the ending. As a reader, you begin to question what is said to be true and what conspiracy might be in the works, alongside Rosemary.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

belacqua's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

issyfrp99's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings