Rating: 
Summary: staring at a blank wall is more fulfilling.
Review: I got the book from the library and was glad I didn't waste my money (only my time) on the book. The ending was silly, and ruined Rosemary's Baby for me.
Do not read this book, you will regret it.
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Summary: Levin damns his own classic
Review: I'd always put Ira Levin up there with Shirley Jackson as one of the few 'classic' horror writers -- literate, subtle, frightening without resorting to bloodfests. Well Levin didn't resort to bloodfests with "Son of Rosemary", nor storytelling either. True, it's intimidating to try to *really* write a story about something as monumental and global as 'the anti-Christ'. Levin didn't even try. No Popes or Presidents (except for one scant reference to a phone call), nor any kind of explanation as to how Andy (Satan & Rosemary's only child) managed to get where he's at. Not much about his agenda now that he's there, either, except for one, obvious-from-the-start single-shot effort to wipe out mankind. And why, exactly, would Satan want to do that? Doesn't he *like* tormenting us? Of course, most of us don't believe there really *is* a Satan. Levin doesn't either -- or even bother to try for the sake of a book about 'ol Splitfoot's son. The entire plot -- a plot obstensibly about the end-of-the-world and the anti-Christ -- is filled out by *what* details, then, exactly? Sexual tension and repeated 'almost do-its' between Andy and his mother. Yup. I kept wondering, "can't Levin find *anything* else about this potentially fascinating scenario to write about?" Apparently not. The problem: Levin doesn't find this scenario fascinating. Whatever young man in him did, so many years ago, is long dead. Levin's not even being ironic here -- he's simply uninterested. And, limping along, we finally get to the 'big show down between good vs. evil'. But Levin's so unable to write it, he doesn't even have God show up -- game goes to the opponent by default. This cop-out inconsistency, and all the others in the book, both theological and rational, are 'resolved' magically by the ending -- the great 'twist' that not only puts the capping touch on this pile of dross but also, by Levin's own hand, crucifies any meaning or suspense there was in his one true classic. I got news for ya, Ira. It didn't work for Dallas -- it doesn't fly here. I'd call it a 'deus ex machina' but, unfortunately, God had nothing to do with it. Why didn't someone stop Mr. Levin from committing this sacriledge? If a sequel was wanted, why not hire someone to write it who had even a spark of an imaginative something to say on the subject?
Rating:
Summary: The Devil Made Him Do It
Review: I usually like Ira Levin, but this book was a monumental waste of time and a disappointment. The characters do nothing believable, and the ending is STUPID to say the least. I was really looking forward to reading this, but now I wish Mr. Levin hadn't bothered. Message to Ira Levin: PLEASE NO MORE SEQUELS!!
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible - Save your money and do not buy this book.
Review: This book was an absolute chore to read. I had very high expectations, and they simply did not come close to being satisfied. The ending [which I will not ruin] is, in my opinion, a cop out. This book does not have any of the magic or suspense of its predecessor. UGH! I wish I could get my money back from the bookstore
Rating: 
Summary: Anti-christ Superstar: Son of Rosemary
Review: "Son of Rosemary" is Ira Levin's sequel to "Rosemary's Baby"; a novel which put Satan and Black Magic in a modern context mingled with razor sharp paranoia. The sequel follows up 33 years after "Rosemary's Baby" in New York City in the latter months of 1999. We find out what happened to Rosemary after we left her trying to reconcile her role as the mother of the Antichrist. She wakes up from a coma finding that her son has become a Messianic Leader that the world loves. As she renters his life we find answers to many of the questions we were left asking after Rosemary's Baby ended.
During the course of the story, we view ourselves through the eyes of Rosemary. She brings a sense of wonder and horror in our age of technology and violence.
Ira Levin takes our fascination with the modern day religion, The Cult of the Celebrity, and focuses on our obsessions with fame, intolerance and the need to be lead by charismatic leaders. He blends them with a lot of sharp plot twists that only he is famous for writing.
I don't want to give anything away but the book does end with a hellish twist.
This book clearly proves that Ira Levin is still the gifted writer of suspense that he has always been. It has been too long since his last book, "Sliver." He has been missed.
Grab this book and be warned: you wont want to stop until you reached the end
Rating: 
Summary: I "heart" Rosemary
Review: Ira Levin is back, and this is always cause for rejoicing. Let's get the fact that it's not the masterpiece that Rosemary's Baby is out of the way right now. Nor does it try to be. The book takes place in 1999 and more than that I'm simply not going to say. Because the plot is fanciful, the book works in a totally different way than Rosemary's Baby, in which the fanciful is grounded in total reality, and which makes that book so utterly chilling. Levin has wonderful fun with words, his dialogue (as always) is crisp, there is a maddening anagram which should drive most people crazy should they attempt to solve it, and there is a VERY obscure clue early on as to how the story will work itself out. That Levin is a sly devil. Nothing monumental, but diverting and fun, and a very fast entertaining read. I "heart" Ira Levin, too (read the book, you'll understand)
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Summary: I've figured it out!!!
Review: After reading Ira Levin's "Son of Rosemary," I pulled out my Scrabble tiles and started working. You would not believe the number of words I came up with from the term "ROAST MULES". Unfortunately,they were always little four and five letter words, never the ten letter "honest and pleasing" solution promised. Then earlier today my best friend Ruby and I figured it out. The answer is "SOMERSAULT". "Rosemary's Baby" was the first book I had ever read by Ira Levin, and I loved it. I have read it multiple times and each time discover something new. What I loved was that it seemed so possible. Why couldn't the devil be called to Earth by a group of elderly Satan worshippers to mate with a woman who was to be the mother of his child? It seemed sensible enough. However, I didn't find "Son of Rosemary" to be as logical. Rosemary was in a coma for 27 years and woke to find her adored Andy was now the most loved man in the world. Okay. I accepted that. Then it got weird. I'm sure that Levin was tired of being pressured into writing a sequel and wanted to end it all. But still! I would have been much happier if it had ended with my favorite line, "I LIE! Don't you know that by now?". I'll admit that this book was not as good as the original. I'll even admit that it wasn't as good as any of Levin's other books. However, I don't think that it was as bad as some people are making it out to be. I read it once and I'm glad I did, but once was enough.
Rating:
Summary: Here is my view on the ending
Review: *SPOILER ALERT* Okay, so this book is a dog. But I think there is more to the ending than a "Dallas" cop-out. At the end of the book, when Rosemary chooses Satan over dying from the gas, she is basically selling her soul and damning herself to hell. She wakes up, thinking it's all a dream. But then, she gets the mysterious call from Hutch and realizes she IS in her own personal hell. Her hell is reliving the whole terrible situation over and over again. (Hence the "somersaults" anagram--she will have to relive the horrors of being trapped by the coven, being impregnated by Satan, etc. over again.) This is suggested by Guy's statement that there is a free apartment open in an old victorian house like the one in the first book. Rosemary is speechless at the end of the book because this time, she KNOWS the horror that is about to befall her, and knows she's going to have to relive it. Anyway, it's still the dumbest book ever published.
P.S. Has anyone noticed how those "Love ya Dubya" pins Republicans are wearing in support of the Bush campaign bear a creepy, uncanny resemblance to the "I Love Andy" pins in this book?!
Rating: 
Summary: Understand the ending and you find it's the only good bit
Review: I've read all of the other reviews and I can count the decent ones on one hand. At first, I thought everyone was being harsh but having thought about it, I agree the book isn't very good but NOT because of the ending. I'm uncomfortable with the incestuous tendencies and Andy's attitude to his girlfriend - "she no longer appeals to me" - are we expected to believe that the saviour of the World would treat women like that and he certainly wouldn't want to get it on with his mother! I didn't like the fact that we never found out what happened to Guy Woodhouse despite several references to him and for Rosemary to be so healthy after such a long coma - puuuuleeeaaaase! The book gave me the impression that Ira had sent it to his publisher, it was too long, so they cut it back to the bone... However, I have a differing opinion from many other reviewers of this book in that I thought the ending was great but it still left me with questions. SPOILER ALERT. Obviously, Rosemary didn't just wake up from a dream but did she a) Go back to 1965 to re-live her youth (as promised by Satan) or go back to 1965 to re-live her hell (as threatened by Satan), that is, the trauma around Andy's conception and birth. I favour a) because she loved baby Andy so it wasn't that much of a hell. Surely though, whichever is the case, armed with all the additional information about who fathered her baby, surely she would just leave Guy and live long and happily in good old Omaha! Unless of course she returned to 1965 with her memory of future events erased? I'd actually like to talk to Ira Levin exactly what he meant. As for the word SOMERSAULT, I didn't get the point of that at all and how had Judy had known of its (dubious) significance. Other reviewers mention that IR wanted Mia Farrow to make the film of this book - I would ask, how on earth could she film the final scene? One final point, I thought the importance of lighting the candles at once (even by those pesky seniors!)was so obviously pointing to some sort of World destruction that the reader was being misled and it was a genuine gesture of World peace - wrong!
Rating:
Summary: Chilling ending - work to understand it.
Review: The thing about this book is, if you don't take time to understand the ending, you're going to feel cheated. But, it takes effort to understand the ending: it's complex, very Donnie Darko. The clues are all there, so work them out, and you'll come to one of the most chilling conclusions in horror history.
Despite the cliches of satan's son taking over big corporations, and organising mass summoning of the anti-christ for the millennium (which automatically rules the title out of being a 4 star rating), this is a great little read. It is a little read, a one-sitting wonder - but that's just as much down to Levin's wordmastery which makes you keep turning those pages as it is to the length of the book.
I am disappointed to see so many negative reviews, and I'd urge the reviewers to give those final pages a very careful re-read and think about what's really going on.
I can't guarantee that you're going to like it, I can't guarantee that you're going to get it, but I would urge any fan of Rosemary's Baby to give her Son a try.
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