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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
After her mother's death, Mary arrives at Jamaica Inn on the coast of Cornwall to live with her Aunt Patience and the uncle she has never met. He is a man feared through all the country as rumors of smuggling and murder surround Jamaica Inn. Mary is horrified as she discovers the truth about the inn, but it's too dangerous to go against her vicious uncle, until Mary receives help from an unexpected ally.
The writing is expressive and really paints a picture of the setting amidst the dark moors. The story is certainly striking, even though I found the plot fairly predictable.
Mary's character has a good balance, since she's plucky but also vulnerable. The other characters are vivid and interesting too, even the awful villains. Each person has such colorful dialogue, descriptions, and body language that they jump off the page into life! I was truly afraid of the villains, truly sorry for the pathetic Aunt Patience, and absolutely disgusted with the nasty smugglers. I could almost smell them, they were so close to life.
Excellent writing and a good tale of mystery and suspense!
The writing is expressive and really paints a picture of the setting amidst the dark moors. The story is certainly striking, even though I found the plot fairly predictable.
Mary's character has a good balance, since she's plucky but also vulnerable. The other characters are vivid and interesting too, even the awful villains. Each person has such colorful dialogue, descriptions, and body language that they jump off the page into life! I was truly afraid of the villains, truly sorry for the pathetic Aunt Patience, and absolutely disgusted with the nasty smugglers. I could almost smell them, they were so close to life.
Excellent writing and a good tale of mystery and suspense!
Wat een boek! Wat een verhaal! Wat een spanning!
Het boek neemt je mee naar de uitgestrekte vlaktes in Engeland. Waar de harde wereld je treft. Je wilt het in 1x uitlezen, zo grijpt het verhaal je!
Het boek neemt je mee naar de uitgestrekte vlaktes in Engeland. Waar de harde wereld je treft. Je wilt het in 1x uitlezen, zo grijpt het verhaal je!
dark
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:
Yes
I've read so many mediocre suspense novels over the last few years that I've almost forgotten what a really good one was like, so it was good to finally read one again. From the first sentence, this book envelopes you inside a atmospheric world of gloom and danger. You can almost feel the cold of the rainy moors and the malice of some richly drawn unsavory characters. Daphne du Maurier is the master of the gothic thriller.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wonderfully tense and atmospheric story.
This is unrelated to the contents but whoever owned my copy before must have been really aggressively eating biscuits over it because there were so many crumbs sandwiched between the pages :0
I’m almost impressed by the sheer amount of them every time I turned the page there was a little shower of crumbs. I bet I could assemble a full biscuit from them there were that many lol
This is unrelated to the contents but whoever owned my copy before must have been really aggressively eating biscuits over it because there were so many crumbs sandwiched between the pages :0
I’m almost impressed by the sheer amount of them every time I turned the page there was a little shower of crumbs. I bet I could assemble a full biscuit from them there were that many lol
Windy moors, treacherous marshes, a dark inn where no locals ever go... The atmosphere is menacing and the story is full of descriptions of "powerful fingers that held such deadly grace", ropes hanging from ceilings and marshes where men have drowned. This is a gothic story witch echoes of "Dracula" and "Wuthering Heights".
The heroine, Mary Yellan, is strong and adventurous. She is not afraid of taking action - she talks back, shows spirits and escapes from rooms. She is independent and more farmboy than fine lady, and she likes it that way. And I like her. When she discovers what goes on at Jamaica Inn at night, she thinks:
"Had she been a man, she would have gone downstairs and challenged Joss Merlyn to his face, and his friends with him. Yes, and fought them too, and drawn blood, if she were lucky. And then away on a horse from the stable (...)
Here she was on her bed, a girl of three-and-twenty, in a petticoat and a shawl, with no weapons but her own brain to oppose a fellow twice her age and eight times her strength, who, if he realised she had watched the scene tonight from her window, would encircle her neck with his hand, and, pressing lightly with finger and thumb, put an end to her questioning.
Then Mary swore; a thing she had only done once before in her life, when chased by a bull at Manaccan, and then it had been for the same purpose as now - to give herself courage and a certain bold pretence."
The theme of men vs. women comes up several times. Jem Merlyn, a local horse-stealer that Mary likes, is taken with her spirit, boldness and cleverness - nevertheless, he says things like "Be a man for the moment, and send your hurt pride and your curiosity to hell", "Women are frail things, Mary, for all their courage", "Women think differently to men; they travel separate paths. That's why I have no liking for them; they make for trouble and confusion", while Mary herself has this thought: "Once more she knew the humility of being born a woman, when the breaking down of strength and spirit was taken as natural and unquestioned." Aunt Patience is definitely broken down, a shadow of the woman she once was, and for all Mary's boldness and courage, she is aware that had she married Joss Merlyn, she could have suffered the same fate as Patience.
I liked so much of the story: the characters, the setting, the plot, the atmosphere, but the ending didn't quite work for me. It was too tame. I felt the whole novel was building up to a big showdown, a huge fight, and I had foreseen that Jem would kill his brother and someone would drown in the marshes - but I got something very different and too low-key. The book is so close to four stars, but the quiet ending disappointed me after the superb build-up and suspense.
The heroine, Mary Yellan, is strong and adventurous. She is not afraid of taking action - she talks back, shows spirits and escapes from rooms. She is independent and more farmboy than fine lady, and she likes it that way. And I like her. When she discovers what goes on at Jamaica Inn at night, she thinks:
"Had she been a man, she would have gone downstairs and challenged Joss Merlyn to his face, and his friends with him. Yes, and fought them too, and drawn blood, if she were lucky. And then away on a horse from the stable (...)
Here she was on her bed, a girl of three-and-twenty, in a petticoat and a shawl, with no weapons but her own brain to oppose a fellow twice her age and eight times her strength, who, if he realised she had watched the scene tonight from her window, would encircle her neck with his hand, and, pressing lightly with finger and thumb, put an end to her questioning.
Then Mary swore; a thing she had only done once before in her life, when chased by a bull at Manaccan, and then it had been for the same purpose as now - to give herself courage and a certain bold pretence."
The theme of men vs. women comes up several times. Jem Merlyn, a local horse-stealer that Mary likes, is taken with her spirit, boldness and cleverness - nevertheless, he says things like "Be a man for the moment, and send your hurt pride and your curiosity to hell", "Women are frail things, Mary, for all their courage", "Women think differently to men; they travel separate paths. That's why I have no liking for them; they make for trouble and confusion", while Mary herself has this thought: "Once more she knew the humility of being born a woman, when the breaking down of strength and spirit was taken as natural and unquestioned." Aunt Patience is definitely broken down, a shadow of the woman she once was, and for all Mary's boldness and courage, she is aware that had she married Joss Merlyn, she could have suffered the same fate as Patience.
I liked so much of the story: the characters, the setting, the plot, the atmosphere, but the ending didn't quite work for me. It was too tame. I felt the whole novel was building up to a big showdown, a huge fight, and I had foreseen that Jem would kill his brother and someone would drown in the marshes - but I got something very different and too low-key. The book is so close to four stars, but the quiet ending disappointed me after the superb build-up and suspense.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Highly impressed. The atmosphere is heavy and worrying,the story is very interesting and the characters well constructed! A classic!