Scan barcode
A review by emtees
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The writing in this book is gorgeous. The descriptions, the setting, the tone, the delineation of character traits and emotional arcs, all incredible. I’m saying this up front because I didn’t really like the book, but I can’t rate it down when it is so beautifully written.
The story is… honestly kind of ridiculous, until you remember that this is the gothic genre, and compared to most gothics, the story here is pretty straight-forward. What made me dislike it was that I didn’t care for any of the characters or worry about what would happen to them. I don’t mean that the characters were flawed or even bad people - they were, but that’s to be expected in gothics - but that they were just frequently very annoying. They all had occasional moments where you could feel sympathy with them for the ways they seemed trapped by the circumstances of their lives, but then they would do something cruel or malicious for no good reason and that sympathy faded fast. Usually in a story like this I would expect to have at least one character I latched on to, but that didn’t happen here.
The story is… honestly kind of ridiculous, until you remember that this is the gothic genre, and compared to most gothics, the story here is pretty straight-forward. What made me dislike it was that I didn’t care for any of the characters or worry about what would happen to them. I don’t mean that the characters were flawed or even bad people - they were, but that’s to be expected in gothics - but that they were just frequently very annoying. They all had occasional moments where you could feel sympathy with them for the ways they seemed trapped by the circumstances of their lives, but then they would do something cruel or malicious for no good reason and that sympathy faded fast. Usually in a story like this I would expect to have at least one character I latched on to, but that didn’t happen here.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, and Child abuse
Minor: Racism