Reviews with content warning for Murder - Jamaica Inn

There is a lot of unpleasantness in this story. Most of the characters are terrible people, the atmosphere is bleak, and there's a sense of isolation for the main character as she deals with a lot of difficulties alone. I did like her, she's smart and she fights back as hard as she can when faced with any kind of attack, mental or physical. If it weren't for her strength of spirit, the book would have been rough to get through. I didn't care for the romance, though. Overall, not as appealing as Rebecca but it does build a strong sense of atmosphere and the prose is well done.

Bit of unfortunate implication for the albino person to be evil, even with the main character trying to remind herself not to be creeped out by his appearance before he's revealed as the villain

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bookwards's review

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Mary arrives at her uncle's Inn, The Jamaica Inn , a lonely place in the middle of the moors, after her mother dies. She finds her aunt is now a faded and broken creature and her uncle is a drunken brute. The inn has a disturbing secret and no travellers stop there. Mary is not easily cowed and vows to discover what darkness moves there at night and what madnesses her uncle is involved in. Never knowing who to trust, she attempts to protect her aunt and bring her uncle to justice. This book is a page-turner from the start with a capable heroine who walks out on the moors at night and hangs out with horse thieves and wins the respect of albino vicars. Loads of adventure and menace, peat burning, candles wavering and dubious travellers met at night.

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yolanda_h's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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electrogrey's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not as good as 'Rebecca' but definitely gets better as the story progresses. Last 5/10 chapters I was unable to put the book down, lots of plot twists as well

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mary_juleyre's review against another edition

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adventurous sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Daphne Du Maurier knows how to write settings that leap off the page and stories that fill the reader with dread. I also learned so much, about the moors and landscape (like what tors are), along with some of the goings-on of the time that I knew nothing about prior to reading this book

(like what wreckers are)

. While I didn’t love this one as much as Rebecca, due to some problematic characterizations, it was still a page turner and very fitting within the du Maurier style that I have come to expect. Plus, it was neat to read a historical fiction book written by an author from a different era than both the time it’s set and our present time (written in the late 1930s, but book set in the 19th century).

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mairaculi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark

3.0

I didn't love it. It's a very atmospheric novel and I liked the setting on the moors. It was also engaging and never boring.

But it felt a bit staged. I got this 'story by recipe' feeling from this book: Take all your ingredients (strong female lead, rough nature setting, dark November night, a mysterious old house, bad guys, handsome stranger,...) mix them together and your sure to end up with a great story. But it didn't work out for me, it was too obvious.

What didn't help was that I didn't get Mary's character. Her 'I don't need a man' attitude didn't go well with her 'I can't because I'm a woman' mindset and what especially irked me was the 'he kissed me once therefore I now belong to him' logic - not romantic to me. The love story was not convincing. Her love interest didn't feel at all like the 'mysterious stranger' I was promised. The mystery itself also didn't feel very mysterious to me and while I didn't see it coming I was not surprised but rather disappointed with the twist at the end, especially with how stereotypical the character in question had been portrayed.

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