Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: I started this book with eager anticipation remembering the sleepless nights I experienced after reading "Rosemary's Baby". Well I slept like a baby after this one. The fact that it is not a horror book, though, is not the failing of this book. Ira Levin who so beautifully brought to life the characters of his first book, fails to make us care at all about any of these 2 dimentional characters, the worst of whom is Rosemary. I can only assume that Mr. Levin threw this together for the huge advance he undoubtedly received. I wonder if the money was worth the damage to his reputation as a writer.
Rating:
Summary: Initially promising, ultimately unsatisfying.
Review: Having read (and loved) Ira Levin's horror classic when I was still in high school, I was thrilled to see that there was a sequel. The book started out OK (if a bit far-fetched), but in the end was very disappointing. In the essence of time, I will keep this review short and pointed. If you have read the original, you will be disappointed by the plot devices at play here. Also, those who haven't will probably find the book a bit silly. Anyway, I would only recommend this to someone who has some spare weekend moments and can't find anything on the telly -- it is essentially trash, so if you must read it, don't waste too much time on it!
Rating:
Summary: IDIOTIC
Review: I could not wait to read Ira Levin's sequel to his own Rosemary's Baby, which begs for a sequel, unlike so many other books that are best left alone. He should have left THIS one alone -- this book is so slap-dash and silly that it reads as if it were literally thrown together. The story, what there is of one, does nothing with the grand premise left by the first book, and actually ruins the entire first novel as well. It is like a cruel, amateurish joke on the reader -- I wonder why Levin chose to dedicate this book to Mia Farrow, who best not sign up for the film version anytime soon. It is like a mean-spirited, badly executed practical joke.
Rating:
Summary: Ira Levin Sells Himself Out
Review: If you loved Rosemary's Baby, one of the seminal horror novels of the 60's, stay away from this book at all costs. The ending is one of the great let-downs in publishing history. What would cause Levin to savage his own work by cheaping the original with this pale sequel? The gods of publishing are the only ones who know. It is very rare when I finish a book and want to throw it across the room, but that's exactly what I did with this cheap-jack exploitation of a great horror novel. Do yourself a favor -- read the original again and let it go at that.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Explaining it Again
Review: A review below states: <<The original Rosemary's Baby is not a very good book. It has a decent story, but Levin is an awful writer, period. The book looks good in hindsight because it became a very good and gripping film. Son of Rosemary's baby reaffirms my belief that Ira Levin is a HACK through and through. This book is an utterly shameless and sad attempt to cash in on the one good idea he had over 30 years ago. It belongs on a garage sale table, NOT your bookshelf.>> Sure, why wouldn't YOU be a better judge of the book than The New York Times and Truman Capote, who raved about it? Do you really think Levin's "one good idea" as you call it, is what sustained him through five New York Times bestsellers, several hit plays including the longest running thriller in Broadway history, and a highly-regarded Broadway musical? Your comments seem indefensible. As far as "Son of Rosemary" not living up to some readers' expectations, the blame for that rests largely on the publisher, who tried to market the book as a straight horror novel, which it clearly is not. The intelligent reader who begins "Son of Rosemary" will quickly realize that the book is intended more as social commentary than as a commercial "fright fest." The second ending to the book (the story has a first ending, immediately preceeding the second ending) is the final commentary, and has a very definite point to make about the nature of religious belief, belief in the fallacy that the world's entire population can "all just get along" if it so decides, etc. If you don't understand this ending, then there's a lot throughout the book that has gone over your head. I agree that it would be very hard to make a faithful movie out of the book -- hollywood would make the same mistake that the publisher made, and try to fit it into a standard horror mold. If Hollywood was smart about it, they would get someone like David Cronenberg, an insightful reader and director, to script and direct a film of the book. By the way, one of Cronenberg's best films, "Dead Ringers," was misunderstood by most who saw it, and interpreted as a film only about identical twin gynecologists, when it deals primarily with the subjects of addiction, degeneration, dependency, etc.
Rating:
Summary: INTERESTING READ
Review: I read Son of Rosemary right after reading Rosemary's Baby, and though the pace of the book was slower than the previous, and not of the same calibur, I enoyed the book just the same. But I did think the ending was somewhat of a letdown.
Rating:
Summary: The tenth circle of Hell...
Review: ...should be reserved for authors who pull stunts like this. I have never been more glad that I bought a book from the remainder table and not the best-seller shelf. This book is, quite simply, an unbelievable cheat. Ira Levin has shamelessly attempted to cash in on the success of "Rosemary's Baby" with this wretched excuse for a thriller that any publisher should have had the wherewithal to toss on the trash-heap. Put aside for the moment the shallow plotting and insipid dialogue. Apparently unable to come up with any way to instill actual terror in the reader, Levin has instead sought to incite disgust through repeated suggestions of mother-son incest. As a final insult, he gives us an ending that negates not only the premise of the sequel but the very events of its predecessor. Shame on you, Mr. Levin, shame! Because, in the end--yes, I'm about to spoil the ending, so turn back now if you can't take it--not only has Rosemary dreamed all the events of the sequel, SHE HAS ALSO DREAMED ALL OF "ROSEMARY'S BABY"! Could it be that Levin simply could not think of an ending to save his eternal soul? Or, as the Church Lady might have said, "Could it be...Satan?" Leave this one wherever you found it and buy something else. Buy ANYTHING else.
Rating: 
Summary: Not THAT Bad..But Let's Hope They Don't Turn It Into A Movie
Review: First of all, I must admit that have never actually read the novel "Rosemary's Baby". The film adaptation is one of my favorite movies of all time and I have seen it countless times and could recite every line of dialogue, and thus have always been intrigued to read the book and compare the two works. Ultimately, I ended up reading the sequel instead. When the book was initially released in the Fall of 1997, I read that Ira Levin wanted Mia Farrow to sign on for another go-round in a film sequel(incidentally, he dedicated the book to her). Having read the book, I can assure you that this will never happen. The novel concerns Rosemary Woodhouse awakening from a coma several decades after the events which transpired in Rosemary's Baby. Her husband, Guy, and the witches that populated the Bramford have seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth, and she quickly learns that her son, Andy, has become a Jesus-like spiritual leader throughout the world. I won't give anything away beyond that, but I WILL say that the year is 1999, and Andy, the Antichrist, is the same age(33) that Jesus was when he was crucified, and..well, you get the picture. The parallels the book makes with elements of the Bible(a technique reminiscent of The Omen) works quite nicely throughout the book and builds some great set ups that keep the reader turning pages. Ultimately, though, the set ups amount to very little, and after a while you start to wonder what it is about the novel that is even supposed to be scary. In spite of the many criticisms one could make about the book, it's actually not bad. It's semi-entartaining and intriguing throughout, and while the dialogue is pretty flat and the character of Rosemary much less interesting than she was in "Baby", the novel still manages to be gripping at times. On paper, "Son of Rosemary" is a fun, forgettable sequel to one of the great terror tales of the century. On film, however, it would sink infinitely lower than the "Rosemary"-influenced films "Devil's Advocate" and "The Astronaut's Wife" and likely trash viewers' memories of the super scary original. If you are a fan of "Rosemary's Baby", the novel or the film, then "Son of Rosemary" can't hurt. Otherwise, just rent the 1968 classic film. Believe me, you won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Diabolically dreadful
Review: At this point, most of the other "one star" reviewers have "said it all", and I fully agree. I must add that it was especially disappointing because the potential for an intriguing premise (... haven't all of us fans of Rosemary's Baby longed to speculate about what happened when the little devil became too big for his bassinet?) cried out to be fulfilled:)
Rating:
Summary: What was I thinking?
Review: Why did I think that Ira Levin maybe wrote a decent book this time? What was I thinking? The original Rosemary's Baby is not a very good book. It has a decent story, but Levin is an awful writer, period. The book looks good in hindsight because it became a very good and gripping film. Son of Rosemary's baby reaffirms my belief that Ira Levin is a HACK through and through. This book is an utterly shameless and sad attempt to cash in on the one good idea he had over 30 years ago. It belongs on a garage sale table, NOT your bookshelf.
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