ROSEMARY'S BABY (Ira Levin) - March 29/11

Wow! What a captivating, thoroughly readable, and surprisingly suspenseful book. Ira Levin does a superb job of establishing the various characters and the situation, and even though I basically knew where everything was going, Levin still managed to have me on the edge of my seat at a few pivotal points. The book almost feels like the template for stories of this ilk, as it contains all of the elements that one might've predicted - including the friend who tries to warn her and the friendly doctor who turns out not to be so friendly. And although I had a little difficulty swallowing the fact that Rosemary's husband would've put her wife through all that just for some fame, Rosemary's Baby is as entertaining a book as I can easily recall. (The ending seems a little ludicrous, though, as Rosemary goes from shock to acceptance in just a few pages.) **** out of ****