Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Jamaica Inn

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

16 reviews

sarah_zaffiro's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

My least favorite du Maurier so far. She is usually an artist with her words, but the beginning of this felt contrived somehow. I also kind of guessed the ending. I wanted her to surprise me, but I was a little disappointed. I will probably read Rebecca again to make myself feel better lol

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e_r_q's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

"You are very young, Mary Yellan, [...] you are nothing but a chicken with the broken shell still around you. You'll come through your little crisis. [...] Come now, dry your eyes; you are not the first to bite your nails over a lost lover."

It might not be as flawless as Rebecca, but Jamaica Inn once again proves just how talented of a writer Daphne du Maurier is; her crafting of character, dialogue and atmosphere is magnificent, even despite the less polished writing style and narrative.

Like the narrator of Rebecca, Mary Yellan has become another one of my favourite protagonists. She's daring, smart, relatable and carefully flawed. I love her.

I think the narrative stumbles a little: a lot of aspects feel underdeveloped, and I think the twist villain is a bit weak.

But Jamaica Inn cements du Maurier as one of my all time favourite authors.

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starzzz's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Beautifully written. I’m a sucker for a happy ending.

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basil_touche's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I enjoyed the atmosphere and mystery in the first half of the book, but the later half really dragged on and meandered in parts. The fact that this book is well known for

smuggling and wreckers

but in reality features very little of it was very disappointing.

The main twist was incredibly predictable & how the narrative described the villain seemed a tad ableist to me. With that, the final act didn't live up to the build up the book was trying to create and went out with a wimper. I found it very difficult to make it through the last 100 pages or so, and I lost count over how many times the moors were described. It seemed as though the description took over the narrative for large chunks of it and when the scenery is mostly empty moors it gets repetitive. fast.

The romance was so lackluster as well, there wasn't enough time spent on it and some of their interactions came off as creepy, so that how it ended

(that Mary gives up her hopes of returning home to travel with Jem Merlyn, who very clearly doesn't see her as his equal)

annoyed me. Also there's a lot of sexism, I know it's from the 1930s but even for what I've read of Du Maurier's other works there is quite a lot here. Please read Frenchman's Creek by Du Maurier instead if you want to read a good romance by her.

This just wasn't what I was looking for, perhaps I'll have better luck with Rebecca if I want some good gothic literature from her and Moonfleet by John Meade Falkner for a story about

smuggling.

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