Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

23 reviews

maeverose's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.75

TL;DR: I have mixed feelings. I like the overall story, the atmosphere, I really enjoyed the first third/half, then it got way too slow, repetitive and boring. This review will be very negative despite my overall feelings. I didn’t hate the book at all I just have more to say about the negatives.

This is the most atmospheric book I’ve ever read, but imo it’s to a fault. I like slow atmospheric books, and I really liked the writing in the beginning, but the long drawn out descriptions started to take away from the scene we were in and it got frustrating. It was obvious at times when it was being used to add suspense, drawing out the scene making you wait for a reveal or conversation to happen. Some people might like that, I found it irritating. Narrator’s daydreams were funny and relatable at first, but again, got to be too excessive and were inserted at times that felt unnecessary or inappropriate. I found myself internally screaming at her to go talk to someone rather than sulk and daydream. The book overall is very slow, not much of the plot happens until the last 20%.

This book is so repetitive. Narrator has a lot of similar conversations and social interactions throughout the book. She has similar daydreams (too many daydreams), repeating thoughts, etc. Another annoying thing is something will happen or be said, and then the characters will talk about or explain the thing that we just saw happen. Sometimes multiple different characters will explain the same thing, so we end up reading about that same event or statement two or more times before we move on.. not to mention all the unnecessary
‘ “Yes,” I said. ’s

I hate Maxim. Of course this book isn’t a romance novel, and it was written over 80 years ago so the misogyny is not at all unexpected, but being as they remain a couple by the end it’s irritating to me. He’s so patronizing and misogynistic towards Narrator from the beginning and it only gets worse later on. Frank had much better chemistry with Narrator, I didn’t feel like Maxim actually liked her at all, we hardly even saw them together. And the fact that he was so much older than her but also liked that she was young and innocent grossed me out.

This book is very ableist, specifically towards people with intellectual disabilities.

On a less critical note (though still negative because it’s depressing), I was surprised how much I related to Narrator with her social difficulties. I think the intention was that she was young and wasn’t used to all the social obligations of being a more well known person, but to me it read very similar to social anxiety or maybe even autism/adhd. She also had pretty intense insecurities and didn’t think very highly of herself (rejection sensitivity?), which honestly made me a bit sad while reading because I related to so much of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Murder, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Fatphobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

Ageism. Minor spoilers related to the pedophilia and suicidal thoughts:

Mrs Danvers is queer coded in her feelings towards Rebecca but it’s stated that Mrs Danvers cared for her since Rebecca was a child. They also mention men being attracted to Rebecca when she was a child. Mrs Danvers suicide baits narrator and Narrator almost follows through. You’re in Narrator’s head in that moment.

cady_sass's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

*mentally prepares self to be cancelled*

Did we all read the same book? It takes reading literally 70% of the book before anything interesting happens at all, and once it gets going it’s fully underwhelming. It’s soooooo long and for what purpose? Wikipedia managed to summarize the entirety of the major plot points in 7 paragraphs and, frankly, that’s more than enough. Just because something was written nearly 100 years ago with arguably beautiful prose does not make it inherently good or a classic. The writing is excellent and for that you get 2 stars, but let’s not glorify a novel that lacked proper editing and meandering plot for 300+ pages. Also, what is the purpose of never naming the main character? Let the woman have a name! Okay, rant over. Sorry not sorry 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

clairew97's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

neptunereign's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail

rory_john14's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Incest, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

mme_carton's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Incest, Infidelity, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Infertility, and Death of parent

miagw962's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

"You see," she said, snapping the top, and walking down the stairs, "you are so very different from Rebecca."

Loved this a lot! I just loved the atmosphere of the whole thing, particularly the first half - Rebecca being the antagonist of the story that she doesn't even appear in, it's just genius! All the descriptions from our main lady (who doesn't get named, leaning into that sense of unimportance amidst the mere memory of Rebecca, she goes nameless because Rebecca is too powerful, I love that so much) are very cinematic - I can certainly see how this story would lend itself to film and I am beyond excited to experience the eeriness and psychological trauma in a visual sense. The reason this isn't a 5 star is because the 'twist' itself ie. the actual thrilling bit of the thriller did not really blow me away - it's not something super creative but I still like how previous expectations were subverted. I'm just really really excited to watch the Hitchcock version of this because I have a feeling it's going to be insane. But yeah, this whole thing was enjoyable and actually very engaging, couldn't put it down at some parts. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

bethsicle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

abbigilla_25's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

lydiabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse