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A review by rubeusbeaky
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
4.0
I have read this book multiple times, and this particular audiobook was extremely good; the narrator captured each character's tone perfectly.
What I love about this book is how every moment is open to interpretation. The narrator is unreliable, the secondary characters all secretive, and you can never be sure if someone is being sinister or genuine. You could read this book over and over, and come to a hundred different conclusions as to what really happened, like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
It's not without its problems, though XD. Halfway through the book Maxim Explains It All, and from there on the book takes a sudden sharp turn away from Gothic literature into more murder-mystery, like a Sherlock Holmes novel. Various characters previously shown to be very cunning, suddenly become obtuse, and seem incapable of (or refuse to) draw the simplest of conclusions despite the evidence in front of their faces.
I also don't know why, but I ALWAYS misremember there being MORE to this book. I always remember an entire end third of the book, where the blank slate narrator /becomes/ Mrs. de Winter, and it horrifies Maxim, and history repeats itself. Instead, the book simply...ends, with a mysterious arson.
But despite its flaws, this is a peerless gothic novel. The commentary on high society: the maddening effects of feeling constantly under scrutiny, and the easy way in which someone's character can be entirely misjudged. The way a house can be haunted by the memory of a person. The way our meek narrator blames herself, hides herself, makes herself secondary to everyone around her, and therefore - whether inadvertently or intentionally - becomes a blank canvas onto whom anyone can project their feelings, and /she/ feels as if she is nobody always play-acting at being somebody. There is a lot of meat in this short, succinct story, and I LOVE a story that makes you think and feel.
What I love about this book is how every moment is open to interpretation. The narrator is unreliable, the secondary characters all secretive, and you can never be sure if someone is being sinister or genuine. You could read this book over and over, and come to a hundred different conclusions as to what really happened, like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.
It's not without its problems, though XD. Halfway through the book Maxim Explains It All, and from there on the book takes a sudden sharp turn away from Gothic literature into more murder-mystery, like a Sherlock Holmes novel. Various characters previously shown to be very cunning, suddenly become obtuse, and seem incapable of (or refuse to) draw the simplest of conclusions despite the evidence in front of their faces.
I also don't know why, but I ALWAYS misremember there being MORE to this book. I always remember an entire end third of the book, where the blank slate narrator /becomes/ Mrs. de Winter, and it horrifies Maxim, and history repeats itself. Instead, the book simply...ends, with a mysterious arson.
But despite its flaws, this is a peerless gothic novel. The commentary on high society: the maddening effects of feeling constantly under scrutiny, and the easy way in which someone's character can be entirely misjudged. The way a house can be haunted by the memory of a person. The way our meek narrator blames herself, hides herself, makes herself secondary to everyone around her, and therefore - whether inadvertently or intentionally - becomes a blank canvas onto whom anyone can project their feelings, and /she/ feels as if she is nobody always play-acting at being somebody. There is a lot of meat in this short, succinct story, and I LOVE a story that makes you think and feel.