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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
After her mother's death, Mary Yellan goes to live with her timid aunt and brutish uncle who run the eponymous Jamaica Inn. But the people in the nearby town won't go anywhere near the inn and carriages refuse to stop as they pass by. Something very wrong is going on.
Set against the backdrop of the vividly described moors of Cornwall, the atmosphere is fantastic. Gloomy and cold, there's an oppressive sense of foreboding constantly present whether outside or in the sinister Jamaica Inn. Du Maurier sets up some red herrings and plot twists, but everything feels organic and plays into the building suspense. Even when something seems to be obvious, you find yourself second guessing how straightforward it all really is.
Perfect for a gloomy fall or winter day when you need a Gothic tale!
Set against the backdrop of the vividly described moors of Cornwall, the atmosphere is fantastic. Gloomy and cold, there's an oppressive sense of foreboding constantly present whether outside or in the sinister Jamaica Inn. Du Maurier sets up some red herrings and plot twists, but everything feels organic and plays into the building suspense. Even when something seems to be obvious, you find yourself second guessing how straightforward it all really is.
Perfect for a gloomy fall or winter day when you need a Gothic tale!
adventurous
tense
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
“It was a cold grey day in late November”
this book takes place from late november - early january and reading the opening line is why i saved it for that exact time. as the story progresses, it changes to december as it was in person which really added something extra to my read.
“Death had come upon the house tonight, and its brooding spirit still hovered in the air. She felt now that this was what Jamaica Inn had always waited for.”
jamaica inn is a separate character on its own. the amount those walls have seen from being a lively, populated place for travellers to rest to then becoming a hub for criminals to murder and smuggle goods. how past, present and future can affect a place. from the beginning this book is incredibly atmospheric and our heroine is very down on her luck from losing her mother and farm. she goes to live with her aunt and her husband, joss merlyn who screams bad news from the start.
“For answer came sickness, and poverty, and death. She was alone now, caught in a mesh of brutality and crime, living beneath a roof she loathed, amongst people she despised; and she was walking out across a barren, friendless moor to meet a horse-thief and a murderer of men. She would offer no prayers to God this Christmas.”
her aunt is a shell of her former self and a complete stranger from the woman she remembered visiting her mother all those years ago, how she had many suitors trying to take her hand in marriage. how different her life could have been if she had just went for one of many prior options. as mary, our heroine navigates trying to leave jamaica inn to save her aunt who is attached to the hip to her husband, mary also falls in love with jem merlyn, the brother of joss merlyn.
“It's better to have disease in a country than a family like yours. You and your brother were born twisted and evil. Do you never think of what your mother must have suffered?”
joss and jem had a terrible childhood and had to endure a continuous cycle of abuse of their dad following in his own dads footsteps, going on for presumably decades. jem, the youngest had it the worst with his own brothers hurting him. the whole merlyn family have a bad history which is a reason why everyone avoids jamaica inn despite not knowing the full truth, only suspicions. which adds to how the place feels like a complete character on its own.
spoilers!
out of all daphne du maurier books i have read, this one i liked slightly less than the others. it took me longer to get into and the characters weren’t as compelling. i liked how jamaica inn felt more of a character than even joss merlyn himself. i liked the whole topic of how for every evil you know, there’s always another worse but i called it from the start when it was mentioned how joss takes orders from someone smarter than himself. it makes it seem like it’s his brother but it’s the vicar who helps mary throughout, how she sees him as a place of solace at the beginning. i will say that the reveal is cool how she sees his caricature art of people at the church with sheep heads meanwhile he has one of a wolf! that whole moment was VERY well done and how he is who kills joss and her aunt. however, i think i would have liked the book as a whole if i was more sold on the romance and if the ending wasn’t so abrupt. i interpret it as an open ending with the question of if jem will follow in the typical merlyn male footsteps which i do like but i think i would have preferred it if there was more to root for and if mary hadn’t fallen for him so early on. also i didn’t like how she went with HIM and not the other way round.
some quotes i like from the betrayal of the vicar!
“Any friendship we may have shared was a mockery and a dishonour, and you gave me counsel with the blood of an innocent man scarce dry upon your hands. My uncle at least was honest; drunk or sober, he blurted his crime to the four winds, and dreamt of them by night - to his terror.
But you - you wear the garments of a priest of God to shield you from suspicion; you hide behind the Cross.”
“and she thought how far removed they were from any sphere of life, two beings flung together in eternity, and that this was a nightmare, with no day to follow it, so that soon she must lose herself and merge into his shadow.”
some quotes i like from the betrayal of the vicar!
“Any friendship we may have shared was a mockery and a dishonour, and you gave me counsel with the blood of an innocent man scarce dry upon your hands. My uncle at least was honest; drunk or sober, he blurted his crime to the four winds, and dreamt of them by night - to his terror.
But you - you wear the garments of a priest of God to shield you from suspicion; you hide behind the Cross.”
“and she thought how far removed they were from any sphere of life, two beings flung together in eternity, and that this was a nightmare, with no day to follow it, so that soon she must lose herself and merge into his shadow.”
I enjoyed coming back and reading this. Yeah, the plot is predictable for me but it’s build-up and its central mystery were just as intriguing. The story does pick up for me, and though I knew what came, I still wanted Mary to escape.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense