Review: Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin ★★★★★

4.5 Stars

I admit that I'm a little torn on what to rate this book, so I split the difference, although I'm really tempted to go all StarSearch™ up in this piece and do 4.75 stars. (Wait, did they have a 5 star rating system? No, I think it was only 4. Crap. Well, anyway, you get the point. That is, unless you're younger than me and don't even know what StarSearch is. In that case, you're a jerk, and go away.)

Anyway, I'm torn because, having seen the movie before, I think that Roman Polanski nailed the ending... He stopped at just the right point, and left us with that lingering empathetic horror, the mystery, the "What the fuck?!" feeling. We get just a hint, and the rest is Rosemary's reaction, and that subtlety's often better than the giving up the whole shebang.

The book takes the ending just a smidge further, and with a smidge more detail to the what, and that smidge further opens a line of possibility that is horrifying in itself. The things that a mother will accept, the things that a PERSON can accept, it's scary to think of in extremes like this. Imagine raising this baby with the eye of the world watching. Jeez. The terrible twos would be... apocalyptic. So... yeah, I'm torn. I don't know which ending I prefer. They are both great in their own ways.

I listened to this one as an audibobook, and I LOVED it. It was read by Mia Farrow and honestly, I think that her reading may have upstaged her movie performance. Not that she wasn't great in the movie, because I think she was, if a teeeeeensy bit melodramatic, but the audio relied solely on her voice, and so it was a bit more subtle and intense at the same time. I'm not sure how to really explain it, but just trust me, it was awesome.

Mia portrayed Rosemary's naivete perfectly. Perfectly. I feel like, perhaps if I'd have read this, I'd have found some of it a bit ridiculous. The things that Rosemary goes along with, I'm thinking, "No! Don't drink the putrid drink again! Are you STUPID?!" but then Mia does such an insanely great job at showing us this small town, kinda sheltered girl on her own in the big city, with her barely-married-a-year husband, in way over her head, super excited that she's FINALLY pregnant, and just wanting to do the right thing, even though she's not sure just what that is. She's manipulated on all sides, she's tricked and fooled over and over, and even though she's smart, she just doesn't know to be suspicious until it's too late. Mia Farrow shows all of that perfectly. The wavery quality in her voice, the whispers, the hesitation, the doubt and fear... all of it comes through, and really adds a lot to this story, I think.

Then there's Ira Levin's writing in general. Really great stuff. It's so... layered. But it doesn't FEEL layered. It feels straightforward and almost simplistic, but it's like seeing tree after tree after tree, and then finally stepping back far enough to realize that it's a forest after all. It doesn't change what it is, but the big picture is a sum of the parts. I loved the little things, the tiny details that Rosemary saw as a whole lot of trees, never realizing that she was too close to see the forest.

Also, I was really kind of impressed by Guy Woodhouse in this, although it feels very strange to say so. He managed such a ridiculously fine line of manipulation, it's hard not to be impressed that he carried it off for so long, even while being feministically pissed at his audacity and selfishness.

I was also struck by the emotional and mental abuse tactics that Guy used to keep Rosemary in line. Always keeping her home, with no money and no means of getting any, cut off from friends and family. She was always watched or followed. He didn't even let her do her own shopping - the neighbors would do it in the guise of being neighborly and helpful in deference to her sickly condition. Even without the paranormal bent of this book, it would be terrifying just for those reasons. I kept hoping that she'd leave, go to a friend's house, anything, but she didn't. I knew the storyline already, but I still wanted her to just GO. Guy wasn't physically abusive, but he was emotionally neglectful and distant and cruel (not to mention all the rest), and she just wanted so badly to have a happy family that she couldn't see it.

This is a fantastic book. I'm so glad that I splurged on it. Highly recommended.

Horror October 2011: #8

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Review: The Bell Witch: An American Haunting by Brent Monahan ★★

2.5 stars

From the blurb: "The Bell Witch took up residence with John Bell's family in 1818. It was a cruel and noisy spirit, given to rapping and gnawing sounds before it found its voices.

With these voices and its supernatural acts, the Bell Witch tormented the Bell family. This extraordinary book recounts the only documented case in U.S. history when a spirit actually caused a man's death.

[...]this book recounts the tale with novelistic vigor and verve. It is truly chilling."

Chilling? Not so much. I just kinda expect malevolent spirits to, you know... be malevolent. Just a quirk I have. So much of this book was about how this spirit would just sit down and have conversations with people regarding what it is and where it came from and what it wanted. There was surprisingly little poltergeist chaos wreaking after the initial start. I dunno, maybe the teller thought we'd get bored with that chaos and terror, and instead wanted to tell us all the mundane stuff about it, like... how it went out of its way to prevent injury or death to some or outright save others. Or when it touched that one guy's hand that time, in order to be "liked".

I had seen the movie, and so I knew how it went. I wasn't sure whether the resolution at the end of the movie would be a Hollywood re-write or not, and so I waited it out with the book to see. And I found out my answer about an hour before the audiobook ended. I could have stopped there, but I'm glad that I kept with it until the end. It didn't improve things very much for me, but I think that there was information in the book that wasn't in the movie, about the spirit's origin and manifestation, and I found that aspect very interesting. Hence the half star addition. ;)

The audio reader was very iffy for me. In the Editor's Note at the beginning of the book, he sounded very stiff and formal, but then when he started to read the story, he fell into this kind of Southern drawl that made me sigh with contentment. Unfortunately, he didn't keep it up. Boo!

I'm not a big fan of audiobook readers who "do" the voices. I usually just want the reader to read and let the characters speak for themselves. There were parts that were very well done, Old Kate's "main" voice, & John Bell's voice were both done well. But then, during straight narration, the reader would lapse into odd accents, or stumble over his words, or pause at inconvenient times (like the middle of a word). I heard something like a Scottish accent, hints of a Spanish one, a little bit of Minnesotan, etc. Every time one of these would slip in, I'd be like...

Yeah. So, this book? Not terrible, but not very good either. That is all.

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Oy... Look at the dust in here!

Yeah, so... It's been a reallllly long time since I've posted anything to my blog, and... that makes me a lazy jerk.

I'm gonna try to do better, because... well I shouldn't be lazy or a jerk, let alone both at the same time. It's just shameful.

So, I'ma open the windows, dust things off, and maybe get off the couch...

Maybe.

Review: The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition

The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition by Richard Dawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I know that you're all swooning now and sitting in awe of how incredibly well read I am, but let's just all settle down a minute so that I can tell you what I thought of this. Because really, that's why we're here. ;) Overall, I thought that this was really interesting. I like Dawkins already after listening to The God Delusion (although I liked that one much more than this one). I think The Selfish Gene is intriguing and plausible and actually makes a lot of sense. It was really interesting to learn about the different possibilities for design and evolution, and to see the cause and effect of different variations of a gene. I liked the risk and reward concept as well... It all makes a lot of sense to think of things in this kind of philosophical way -- Everything we are and will be is a carefully honed creation of time and trial and error and cause and effect. It kinda makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Where this one fell a little flat was in the reading and the very last quarter of the book. The reading was pretty good. I'd give it a B- overall. Lalla Ward and Richard Dawkins alternate reading this one, and mostly do a good job with the tone and pacing and all that. But there are times when it was just plain distracting, too. Lalla Ward speaks very proper British, e-nun-cee-a-ting her words and speaking very crisply and clearly, almost to the detriment of what she's actually saying, when all I can focus on is her pronunciation. Even when it's not WAY strange pronunciations like "hah-reem" instead of "hare-em" for "harem", her pronunciation just gets in the way, and at times just sounds a little school teacherish. Richard read all his own end notes immediately after the section in which they pertained, and sometimes he sounded almost bored and sad. And other times he sounded very pompous and critical of others. At one point in an end note, he went on a little tirade about computer programmers creating computer viruses, which has nothing at all to do with the point of this book. Which brings me to the last quarter of the book, in which he goes off on a statistical and odds game ramble for AGES. Explaining different types of betting and games of chance, and possible outcomes and options depending on whether one plays this way or that way... Sort of relevant to genes, but not really new, in that he'd already illustrated the odds and possible outcomes of genes ending up one way or another, and the cooperation of genes with another to improve odds or to effect a desired outcome, etc. Kinda glazed my eyes over a bit in this section because it was just a rehash of information already provided, and in a much less relevant and interesting (to me) way. Overall, I enjoyed this one. I feel like I learned something, and that's why I read it. Could have been a bit better in the execution department, but I can't complain too much. You may resume swooning now. :D

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Review: Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan ★★★★

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There's something about stories like this that just make me cry from sheer pride and happiness. I love when people are who they are, and when they're willing to fight to be happy and not live in someone else's world, but make their own if that's what it takes. It's the opposite of the gut-wrenching, soul-crushing, hollow-me-out-and-leave-me-weeping stories that I love. These fill me up with such pride I just want to SQUEE! all over the place, but end up always getting something in my eye instead... So, I loved this one. This is a celebration and examination of so many things... What it is to be gay, what it is to be a teenager, what it is to be in an unhealthy relationship, what it is to love, what it is to be something other than what is expected of us, what it is to be brave and stand up for what's right, what it is to be a friend... Gosh there is so much in this little book, I don't know how Levithan fit it all in. Maybe he writes really small. I loved this community. Everyone, well, MOSTLY everyone, is so unbelievably accepting and quirky and fun. It's like Perfect Small Town Community, Exhibit A. There's the park with a lake with paddleboats with names and personalities; there's the I Scream Parlor, which serves up horrifying ice-cream concoctions while playing horror movies; there's the music shop run by a couple with polar opposite taste, and the shop reflects that by being split down the middle; there's the movie rental place run by the guy who won't rent to anyone he doesn't know, won't help people find anything, and categorizes based on his own personal thoughts about the movies... and VHS format only. The football team quarterback and the Homecoming Queen is the same person, a drag queen called Infinite Darlene, and our main character's kindergarten teacher outed him for being gay on a progress report and nobody thought this was strange at all. I loved the community, but at the same time, I couldn't help but be a little distracted by the unrealistic perfection of it all. If the world were really like that, it would be amazing. Unfortunately, it's not, so the paragon of acceptance shown here comes off feeling a little cartoonish, a little too-good-to-be-true. This, and one unresolved issue, are the reasons why I can't give this 5 stars. The next town over, where Tony lives, is much more realistic, and this is where most of the stuff got in my eyes and made them water a lot. Tony's parents are of the religious variety, and aren't exactly accepting of their son's preference for boys. Seeing Tony struggle with the two aspects of his life, his parents and his heart, was hard for me. Paul's friendship with Tony was invaluable here. He provided the support that Tony needed to cope with these two warring forces in his life. There were some amazing lines in this little gem of a book. So many quotables that just stand out and shine. I'm surprised that this book doesn't glitter like Edward Cullen on a sunny day. (Actually, this is a library book, and there's something spilled on the back of it, and it seems like it's the image of a Sasquatch. He seems friendly though, from his stance.) Anyway, right. I could kind of quote this whole book, but then it would be plagiarism and that's not cool. But here's one of my favorite sections in the book:

"The first time I met you," he says, not directly to me, not directly to the floor -- somewhere in between, "I honestly couldn't believe that someone like you could exist, or even a town like yours could entirely exist. I thought I understood things. I thought I would get up every morning with a secret and go to sleep every night with the same secret. I thought my life would start only when I was out of here. I felt that I had learned something about myself too soon, and that there was nothing I could do to undo the truth. And I wanted to undo it, Paul. I wanted to so bad. Then I met you in the city and on the train, and suddenly it was like this door had been opened. I saw I couldn't live like I'd been living, because now there was another way to do it. And part of me loved that. And part of me still hates it. Part of me -- this dark, scared part of me -- wishes I never knew how it could be. I don't have the courage that you do."

It's kind of heartbreaking, right? Beautiful though. I really loved this book for everything that it is. On the surface, it's just this happy little boy meets boy book, a little whimsical, and fun, but underneath, it's so much more. I highly recommend it.

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