Reviews

This book is tense, agonising and most of all thought-provoking -- in a great way.

Jamaica Inn tells a story of vengeance, mourning and fearlessness in the face of great advertisy. I can fully understand why this book has so many mixed ratings. It is not a carefree book, the topics it covers are real, sometimes too real, and can evoke strong emotions both for and against the protagnosist and antagonist. It poses an unspoken question to yourself that you continuously ask yourself while reading: how would you react in this situation?

Despite this great praise I personally found the story itself to be a little too predictable for my liking. The reason it is still rated at 4 stars is because characters are so well-written and the setting was beautiful realised. I did find it to be a touch overdescriptive at times but not enough to take me out of the moment while reading.

I would strongly recommend this book to others, it may not be one that all will like or perhaps agree with -- as the author is not hesistant to share her own opinion -- but it is well worth the read nonetheless.

wyvernfriend's review against another edition

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4.0

Mary Yellan leaves her home after her mother dies to live with her aunt Patience who lives with her husband at Jamaica Inn. Her aunt has gone from being a strong character to being a downtrodden victim of her domineering husband Joss Merlyn who is a smuggler. Mary has to cope with all this and live.
It's interesting and Mary is a great character, I found myself somewhat spoiled by the introduction and it would probably be better read after the book. I found the ending to be a bit rushed and the romance wasn't well developed for me. I'm pretty sure I read this before but I don't recall much of it.

cwalsh's review against another edition

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3.0

I expected to love Jamaica Inn just as much as I had loved My Cousin Rachel and Rebecca. However, I felt that there was something missing from this particular novel. The plot could've benefited from some fine tuning and there were definitely characters that needed more depth and overall development. It was eerie and atmospheric, but being that it was the shortest du Maurier book I've read that also took me the longest to read, it's quite evident that I was never absolutely taken with it.