Friday Fiction: Son of Rosemary (Review)

The number of the beast

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Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin

Rosemary’s Baby thirty-three years on. Look elsewhere for a plot summary of the original Rosemary’s Baby. There is one key thing I’d like to say first: this book isn’t as bad as many reviews would lead you to believe.

Still, there are problems, and I think their number is five. Five. Five:

1> Going into it expecting horror, then discovering that 99% of the book has no horror element. Adjust your expectations. There is more shopping, hairdressing and neck kissing than horror; the novel is darkly comic in tone. Not bad, but disappointing if it is not what you expect.

2> Some of the writing is great. Some is sloppy:

“Actually, I was going to call you in a few minutes,” he said, sitting down in a side chair with a mug of his own. “Before Rene,” he said, nodding toward the desk, “I was talking with Diane.”

Too many unnecessary “saids” in this book. I’ve always said that.