Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

22 reviews

litliz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cursing, Grief, Suicide, Medical content, Murder, Cancer, Alcohol, Classism, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Minor: Infertility and Pregnancy

seanml's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A supremely excellent narrative. Daphne de Maurier allows you to feel the complete dread that the protagonist does about every possible thing. Wonderful characters (As terrible as they may be), palpable fear, and real anger at a certain character. 10/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Bullying, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Murder, Gun violence, and Alcoholism

Minor: Animal cruelty and Cancer

elizabeth_1111's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Infidelity, Cancer, Murder, Incest, Death, and Classism

Minor: Gaslighting

savvylit's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Rebecca is considered a Gothic classic for good reason; it's focused on fear and malevolence and takes place on a sweeping estate. The most striking thing about this novel is the way it is structured around absence; Rebecca is never alive during the book's events and yet she is everything. After all, the title itself is Rebecca and our newlywed narrator remains unnamed for the entire novel. Furthermore, Mrs. Danvers is a perfect villain. Her loyalty to Rebecca, even in death, causes her to be spite personified.

Overall, Rebecca was a very enjoyable read and I am glad I (finally) read it. I can see the influence that du Maurier has had on modern Gothic literature, and I fully understand the love for this novel.

For those of you who've read it, I have one question: do you also kind of hate Maxim? I see him as a snobby misogynist who never really improved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gaslighting, Murder, and Gun violence

jamiejanae_6's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Classism, Misogyny, Murder, Bullying, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

ravenpuff's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Classism, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Bullying

Minor: Racism, Suicide, Cancer, Gun violence, and Infidelity

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

3.0

 Finished reading: September 29th 2023

"I suppose sooner or later in the life of everyone comes a moment of trial. We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end."

WARNING: unpopular opinion ahead!!

I've been meaning to read Rebecca for years now, and after I saw one of my favorite books of 2023 The Hacienda being compared to this classic I decided to not wait any longer and finally pick it up. I had high hopes for this story, as I do love a good gothic thriller... But in the end I guess it wasn't ment to be. I know that the fact that I've been struggling with a reading slump might have been part of the problem, but I can't look past the fact that it took me eleven! days to finish reading a book that would usually only take me a day or two. I was warned of the slow start, and I definitely agree with that warning. I'm not sure if I would have continued reading if it hadn't known about the slow start, because the beginning is rather dull and tedious. Things do improve when the couple arrives at Manderley, and there are some clever twists and developments along the way. Sadly, I found the second Mrs. de Winter to be such a frustrating character to deal with though; having to spend so much time inside her head only made it more difficult to fight that slump and pick up my copy of Rebecca. The fact that she is basically a human doormat and lets everybody walk all over her became SO annoying, and she never fully redeemed herself for me. I did appreciate the descriptions of Manderley and the general gothic feel of the plot, but it wasn't enough to properly enjoy this story. I still might try a reread at some point to see just how big of a role the reading slump played when it comes to my reaction to this classic... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Animal death, Violence, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness

bone_empress's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Bullying, Classism, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Incest

Ableism: there's an adult character that may have a developmental disability. People talk down to him and use disparaging words to describe him, and he is portrayed as being unintelligent. It's also heavily implied that he may have also been emotionally abused in the past and threatened with being institutionalized. The character is not present for most of the book. Bullying and emotional abuse: one character is intentionally hurtful to the narrator, playing upon the narrator's fears and insecurities. The narrator's husband stonewalls her sometimes and the narrator is impacted negatively. Cultural appropriation: Characters dress up in appropriated attire at an event. One is in brown face. Incest: a secondary character had a consensual relationship with a non-immediate family member in the past. Not described in detail. Suicide: a character is theorized to have successfully ended their life and the method is generally described but does not give violent details. Suicidal thoughts (very mild spoiler, no names):

a character tries to convince another character to jump out a window from which they would not survive the fall. No attempt is made.

clairew97's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Classism, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Incest, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Bullying, Infidelity, Infertility, Cancer, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Misogyny, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

magellen's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

Whenever I read this book I'm just like dang did the ADHD/autistic girlies in 1938 feel seen.

Oh poor sweet HELLA adhd Mrs. DeWinter - it is so deeply amusing to read this book, with her being "embarrassed for them because they didn't have the sense to" and her intense rejection sensitivity disorder and all her wild conjectures and anxiety.
This is such a fantastic book in the gothic catalogue and a classic of twisty overlapping story. Its ableist and racist in places in line with shitty white moneyed people of the era. 
Young wife, husband twice her age, giant estate and a malicious housekeeper. Lots of secrets. Lots of miscommunication haha

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Grief, Bullying, and Infidelity

Minor: Suicide, Racism, Murder, Mental illness, and Alcoholism