Last night when I finished reading this book, I probably would have given it 3 stars. It was a definite page turner for me; I read it in less than two days. I read it in bed, on the couch, on the carpet while I was babysitting, on a blanket on the grass, on a towel by a volleyball court, and on a picnic blanket next to the pool. On my back, sitting up, on my stomach, standing in line, everywhere I was reading this book. It was totally engrossing for me, very easy to read. The end was pretty underwhelming last night. I finished the book and thought, "Huh." I put it down and came out to the living room to watch the film "Rosemary's Baby." I hadn't seen it in so long, I barely remembered much of the plot.

I'm going to talk about the end of the book soon, so please stop reading if you're like me and believe suspense is at least half the enjoyment of life. Last night when it was finished I told my fiance that the book was okay, that I enjoyed it, and that I didn't think it would scare him. I also told him it might not be worth reading. But, today I've been thinking of it some more, and it has become much more eery to me. Near the beginning of the book, Rosemary is warned by her friend Hutch about the many creepy things that have happened at the Bramford. He tells her of a particular incident in which a dead baby was found wrapped in newspaper in the laundry room. This is such a sick, disturbing image, and it never left my mind throughout the book. When Rosemary frequents the laundry room, that story stuck with her, and me. But I think it served as a sort of foreshadowing, something possibly meant to be inferred by the reader when the book is over. And what I mean is this:
Rosemary, in the end, discovers that she has given birth to the son of Satan. She decides to love him and to raise him the best that she can. I think this reaction is what made the end so underwhelming for me; she gave in so quickly. Today I began to think more about what that would be like for her, to raise a child who is half evil. And this is where the foreshadowing comes in for me. I believe we are meant to assume that Rosemary DOES give it her all, tries to raise and love this baby as if he were normal, but within the first year of his life she will fail. I think eventually he, too, will be a dead baby wrapped in newspaper in the basement.