A review by ambermarshall
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

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

4.75

Poor nameless protagonist, I really identify with her. Painfully shy, deeply insecure, eager to please, huge inferiority complex, incredibly vivid imagination especially for worst-case scenarios. I feel like I would have been the same at that age in that situation.

It starts off slowly but so richly described that it drew me right in, and then in the second half it gripped me tightly and pulled me along. So much is revealed that casts earlier parts in a new light, and I found myself flipping back and forth and rereading earlier passages. The mystery and suspense were excellent, and romance took a back seat (it was all rather chaste as far as romance goes). It ends rather abruptly but I read a little more of the beginning again (which takes place after the events of the book) and it can act as a sort of epilogue as well as prologue, and you get a different reading from it after reading the entire novel.

I confess I had taken the "haunted by Rebecca" literally until I actually read the book and realized there was nothing supernatural going on and it was a metaphorical haunting, which honestly works so well and much better than a literal haunting would have. It just speaks to how huge a personality Rebecca was and how she managed to get so many people in her thrall with her sociopathic wiles to the point that she has so much power over everything even after her death, especially through Mrs. Danvers as her mortal agent.

I do wonder if the beginning might serve better at the end, since it takes away a little bit of the suspense to know that MC and Maxim are away and safe after everything, though I did wonder if maybe they were on the lam.


Overall, I'm hugely impressed. A masterpiece indeed.
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