Reviews with content warning for Death - Cumbres borrascosas

rest easy emily brontë, you would’ve loved ethel cain
—
this is my third time reading emily brontë’s only novel – the first being when i was 12 (i was highly confused and didn’t know what i was getting into), second when i was 15 (which left me thinking lord i hate these characters) – now eight years since my last read, this time around the book completely and permanently altered my brain chemistry i fear

emily brontë is a poet first and foremost, the prose is gorgeous, the storytelling absolutely brilliant; the atmosphere, the mood are all perfect — her characters? god fucking awful, worst people you could ever encounter, and it doesn’t need to be said but her characterisation is amazing; even with these horrible people this novel is genius and moving and everything a novel should be

it’s miserable — it’s miserable and it’s hauntingly beautiful with such well explored themes of social class, nature-nurture, the cycle of trauma and violence, grief, revenge – and ultimately, love and passion

the story is dark, heavy and wild – truly it did feel at times like brontë was losing her grip on it – and surrounded by this cloud of profound descriptions of the moors and the environment, just a semblance of brightness in a gloomy and uneasy climate
but there are brief moments of comedy cleverly spliced in by brontë which genuinely had me laughing aloud

Content Warnings

ibgaines's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

3.0

A story about miserable horrible people having miserable horrible lives. Not really my cup of tea.

I went into this blind, only knowing the Kate Bush song, and I felt the book started off more interesting just because I didn't know what the characters were going to do next. At the end I sped up my reading just to finish it quicker. I knew so-and-so was going to die so I sat through the chapters wishing they'd hurry up and get on with it.

I didn't enjoy the narrative structure, being narrated by a second person, many years after the events had happened made it feel as if the book lacks plot. Lockwood does nothing but catch a cold and listen to a story. Good for him but not so much for me.

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yourbookishbff's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

Wuthering Heights is a stunning, claustrophobic nightmare of a gothic novel that I appreciate more in my 30s than I did in my teens. I went into this with little memory of the plot - the entirety of my recollection of my senior-year English essay on the subject was “everyone’s awful.” But two of my childhood besties were game for an impromptu buddy (re)read, and there is nothing quite like revisiting a book you didn’t understand on your first read and realizing it’s actually more horrifying than you previously understood (as a parent, the generational cycle of abuse and the childhood trauma wrought by severe isolation, confinement and emotional manipulation color the story for me, now).

Also on this read, I was more interested in the structure and style. The use of two unreliable narrators is so brilliantly done, where Mr. Lockwood’s diary-style narrative depends entirely on an abbreviated version of Nelly Dean’s narrative, which depends entirely on her retelling of events that happened to other people nearly three decades ago. The layers of bias between us and the events of the story create a feeling of always viewing the action through a fun-house mirror, with the melodrama rendered farcical and the broodiness of the characters and the moors deepening into supernatural terror.

Ultimately, who but an isolated and introverted young woman confined to the English moors, writing under an alias, defying the strictures of her zealous Christian family members could have written a story even her own sister would later caution is maybe too dark? (Charlotte’s posthumous introduction to the novel is overly apologetic and explanatory to a degree that I really dislike, but her note that her sister’s writing was “moorish, and wild, and knotty as a root of heath” is perfectly said).

Content Warnings

maayanaravot's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is a total adventure to read. It has very dark themes of abuse and is filled with hate and revenge. Even so, the book is written so well and i found it enjoyabke to read. After i fished it, i didnt know what to make of it, what was the point? I wasnt sure how much i liked it. But over time ive grown to like the book more and see how it explores trauma and clinging to the past. Idk if id reccomend it to anyone tho, cuz its very tense.

The only character i really liked is edgar, he deserved better.

Content Warnings

cosmopsis's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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ejthephoenix's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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riverofhorton's review against another edition

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This book is incredibly violent, with every kind of toxic relationship and abuse you can think of, with the kind of casual racism and misogyny that I have at this point come to expect from 19th Century fiction. That said, I may well return to this book at a later date, since there were a few scenes that I found to be quite thrilling, and I do find myself invested in the characters and their development. Right now just isn't the right time for me to be reading a book with this amount of violence.

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gia0203's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am so infatuated with this gloomy, bleak, yet still slightly hopeful novel! catherine earnshaw will be on my mind for the rest of my life. heathcliff’s rambling about cathy’s body rotting beside his own is forever imprinted in my brain. I’m enamored by the romantic declarations that were far too late and the brutal revenge that did nothing to ease heathcliff’s pain. and oh! the tragedy every time heathcliff saw cathy in her daughter! I even enjoyed the miserable complaints of linton, who may now be my most hated character of all time.

so I have found a new obsession. time to watch every adaption I can get my hands on.

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