You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
School forced me to read
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m kind of ashamed I avoided du Maurier for so long - but even those of us who take an English major need a break from the classics post-degree. It’s only recent years I’ve been feeling like tackling some of them.
Jamaica Inn is spooky and tense; shades of what’s to come for du Maurier. I still prefer Rebecca, but Jamaica Inn is still marvellous. After Mary’s mother dies, Mary heads north to Jamaica Inn, where her aunt and her husband are the proprietors. However, it seems cursed from the start: her fellow travellers warn her off going there, and her welcome is less than ideal. Her Aunt Patience seems worn down, and Mary quickly learns to avoid her uncle Joss, a violent man of ill-repute. But the unpleasantness at Jamaica Inn goes deeper than difficult family members, and Mary soon finds herself in a twisted web which she needs to escape.
Not as polished as Rebecca - some of the dialogue is a bit strained and the moors are little too on point with pathetic fallacy, but this is still a great Gothic novel.
Jamaica Inn is spooky and tense; shades of what’s to come for du Maurier. I still prefer Rebecca, but Jamaica Inn is still marvellous. After Mary’s mother dies, Mary heads north to Jamaica Inn, where her aunt and her husband are the proprietors. However, it seems cursed from the start: her fellow travellers warn her off going there, and her welcome is less than ideal. Her Aunt Patience seems worn down, and Mary quickly learns to avoid her uncle Joss, a violent man of ill-repute. But the unpleasantness at Jamaica Inn goes deeper than difficult family members, and Mary soon finds herself in a twisted web which she needs to escape.
Not as polished as Rebecca - some of the dialogue is a bit strained and the moors are little too on point with pathetic fallacy, but this is still a great Gothic novel.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
tense
medium-paced
It took me a century to read this book.. Not sure how a book can have so much crime and "action" yet be so bloody tedious. Just didn't flow for me. What a shame, I really wanted to like this one :/
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A grand gothic adventure I never tire of - I think this is my fourth read. Daphne du Maurier excels at creating tense atmosphere, this time on the dark & brooding moors, and Jamaica Inn is full of equally dark secrets.
Jamaica Inn is the third Daphne Du Maurier novel I've read now (the other two being Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel). It tells the story of Mary Yellan, a young woman who goes to live with her villainous Uncle Joss and poor, beaten down Aunt Patience at their pub on Bodmin Moor, the Jamaica Inn. Uncle Joss is a bad man who is up to some very bad things, and is using the pub as a headquarters for his criminal activity. The 'heartthrob' of Jamaica Inn is Joss' younger brother, Jem, who Mary inevitably falls in love with despite her better judgement.
I'll start with what I liked best: first of all, I liked Mary Yellan. As a female protagonist who is mostly very strong-willed and brave, her interactions with the other characters were banterous and at times pretty badass. I also really enjoyed Du Maurier's descriptions of other characters, who were all created and painted out to be extreme.
As usual, I also enjoyed the writing - as the queen of gothic literature, Daphne Du Maurier always excels at creating a spooky, mysterious air with her descriptive language, which made me feel almost as though I was there in 19th century Cornwall storming the moors alongside Mary Yellan.
As with Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, Jamaica Inn started well but then slowed down considerably in pace, before ramping up the suspense for the last third/quarter. Jamaica Inn didn't drag as much in the middle as the aforementioned novels (Rebecca was especially bad for this and I almost stopped reading because of it) and by the time I'd noticed that it was starting to get a bit boring, the storyline was already starting to pick up. This made the overall reading experience of Jamaica Inn more enjoyable.
Now for what I didn't like: I thought the storyline was too simplistic. Du Maurier is famous for her outrageous plot twists, but there just weren't any for me in this novel. I wasn't shocked by the bad things that Joss Merlyn and his cronies were up to, even though I was expecting to be. Maybe I would have been shocked if I was reading it at the time of publication in the 1930s, but since then I think it has become almost common for abhorrent things to happen on a daily basis. I also guessed who the real bad guy was very early on, so his reveal didn't come as a surprise either. Perhaps if there had been more than 7 characters in the story this would have been different.
I also didn't really enjoy the love story that unfolded between Mary and Jem. It felt very much like an afterthought, and I thought it was rushed. I felt thoroughly dissatisfied with the lack of romance at the ending, although I'm not sure if this was perhaps Du Maurier's desired effect - there's lots of connotations to be gained from Mary's change of heart and the comparisons to Patience's early relationship with Joss, so maybe so. But I was expecting to feel either totally outraged or happy at the end, and I didn't experience either or those feelings... What I felt was 'meh'.
So all in all, an enjoyable read but the endings of Du Maurier's later novels were far superior. 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐
I'll start with what I liked best: first of all, I liked Mary Yellan. As a female protagonist who is mostly very strong-willed and brave, her interactions with the other characters were banterous and at times pretty badass. I also really enjoyed Du Maurier's descriptions of other characters, who were all created and painted out to be extreme.
As usual, I also enjoyed the writing - as the queen of gothic literature, Daphne Du Maurier always excels at creating a spooky, mysterious air with her descriptive language, which made me feel almost as though I was there in 19th century Cornwall storming the moors alongside Mary Yellan.
As with Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, Jamaica Inn started well but then slowed down considerably in pace, before ramping up the suspense for the last third/quarter. Jamaica Inn didn't drag as much in the middle as the aforementioned novels (Rebecca was especially bad for this and I almost stopped reading because of it) and by the time I'd noticed that it was starting to get a bit boring, the storyline was already starting to pick up. This made the overall reading experience of Jamaica Inn more enjoyable.
Now for what I didn't like: I thought the storyline was too simplistic. Du Maurier is famous for her outrageous plot twists, but there just weren't any for me in this novel. I wasn't shocked by the bad things that Joss Merlyn and his cronies were up to, even though I was expecting to be. Maybe I would have been shocked if I was reading it at the time of publication in the 1930s, but since then I think it has become almost common for abhorrent things to happen on a daily basis. I also guessed who the real bad guy was very early on, so his reveal didn't come as a surprise either. Perhaps if there had been more than 7 characters in the story this would have been different.
I also didn't really enjoy the love story that unfolded between Mary and Jem. It felt very much like an afterthought, and I thought it was rushed. I felt thoroughly dissatisfied with the lack of romance at the ending, although I'm not sure if this was perhaps Du Maurier's desired effect - there's lots of connotations to be gained from Mary's change of heart and the comparisons to Patience's early relationship with Joss, so maybe so. But I was expecting to feel either totally outraged or happy at the end, and I didn't experience either or those feelings... What I felt was 'meh'.
So all in all, an enjoyable read but the endings of Du Maurier's later novels were far superior. 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated