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A review by thexwalrus
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
5.0
the story in this is fantastic - but what i really wanna praise is the writing itself.
somehow, du maurier manages to wrap me up in the idle daydreaming of the protagonist. i get lost in it, and how dreamy it all is, and even in spite of that, i'm noticing things that are just a bit... off. i'm picking up on things and making mental notes of them for later, but i'm also losing track of time while picturing the idyllic future the protagonist wants to have at manderley.
manderley itself is an imposing - and at times frightening - character. i love when location becomes character, and in this book, it's done expertly. through our unnamed protagonist's eyes, we learn so much about the house and the grounds, and it becomes someplace i could see in my mind. to do all that without prose feeling clunky is a skill that i envy.
and the genius of having an unnamed protagonist, and then rebecca? rebecca, who haunts each page, each moment, who drowns out mrs. de winter even after her death? brilliant. showstopping. i will never forget this book.
this is gonna be one of those novels i never shut up about and i'm not even sorry about it.
somehow, du maurier manages to wrap me up in the idle daydreaming of the protagonist. i get lost in it, and how dreamy it all is, and even in spite of that, i'm noticing things that are just a bit... off. i'm picking up on things and making mental notes of them for later, but i'm also losing track of time while picturing the idyllic future the protagonist wants to have at manderley.
manderley itself is an imposing - and at times frightening - character. i love when location becomes character, and in this book, it's done expertly. through our unnamed protagonist's eyes, we learn so much about the house and the grounds, and it becomes someplace i could see in my mind. to do all that without prose feeling clunky is a skill that i envy.
and the genius of having an unnamed protagonist, and then rebecca? rebecca, who haunts each page, each moment, who drowns out mrs. de winter even after her death? brilliant. showstopping. i will never forget this book.
this is gonna be one of those novels i never shut up about and i'm not even sorry about it.