A review by ellaep
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

4.5

It's hard to explain how crazy I feel after finishing this book. Classic du Maurier, I guess. 
The blame and secrecy. The sweetness and innocence. Mysterious, a little scary, but so earnest and emotional. This book was so good y'all. I remember why I loved Rebecca so much, I really should read more du Maurier. I also just love books where the point of view character starts to lose their minds a little bit. 

Honestly, my take on this is that my girl did nothing wrong. She was a flawed person to be sure, with a childhood that inspired hatred and a need for her own life to be everything she never had. Two sheltered and naive men fell in love with her, then became abusively jealous and tried to control her. Even our cute POV character wanted it to be just the two of them alone forever, but did he ever actually know her and what she wanted? No, because he didn't actually care about her. If she was poisoning them, she was fucking right too. No one should be controlled and abused in their relationships. It's such a shame too, because I loved Phillip with his innocence and earnest feelings, but he was in the wrong.