Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Rebeka

"I suppose sooner or later in the life of everyone comes a moment of trial. We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end."

WARNING: unpopular opinion ahead!!

I've been meaning to read Rebecca for years now, and after I saw one of my favorite books of 2023 The Hacienda being compared to this classic I decided to not wait any longer and finally pick it up. I had high hopes for this story, as I do love a good gothic thriller... But in the end I guess it wasn't ment to be. I know that the fact that I've been struggling with a reading slump might have been part of the problem, but I can't look past the fact that it took me eleven! days to finish reading a book that would usually only take me a day or two. I was warned of the slow start, and I definitely agree with that warning. I'm not sure if I would have continued reading if it hadn't known about the slow start, because the beginning is rather dull and tedious. Things do improve when the couple arrives at Manderley, and there are some clever twists and developments along the way. Sadly, I found the second Mrs. de Winter to be such a frustrating character to deal with though; having to spend so much time inside her head only made it more difficult to fight that slump and pick up my copy of Rebecca. The fact that she is basically a human doormat and lets everybody walk all over her became SO annoying, and she never fully redeemed herself for me. I did appreciate the descriptions of Manderley and the general gothic feel of the plot, but it wasn't enough to properly enjoy this story. I still might try a reread at some point to see just how big of a role the reading slump played when it comes to my reaction to this classic...

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erynlasbelin's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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atamano's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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

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lcplynn's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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hillarym's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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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singalana's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

Rebecca is an atmospheric story about a young woman who marries a newly widowed man and soon realises that the dead wife's presence is everywhere.

The main character is working as a companion to an insufferable older woman, when he meets Maxim de Winter, a recently widowed, wealthy man. They soon get married and return to his estate, Manderley, where she soon discovers that the former Mrs de Winter might be dead but not forgotten.

The first half of the novel slowly builds atmospheric tension: the great Manderley by the seaside is a gloomy place. The tension rises to a breaking point, where events start to unravel, and the fog starts to lift. The first half of the book felt slow, and the second half felt perilous. And after I had finished, I had to return to read the first few chapters again.

It is an atmospheric book with morally grey characters and an ending that is abrupt (for the lack of a better word). I think you need to be in a certain mood to read this book, and the types of things I previously listed.

Spoilers ahead!

There are a few things I found interesting. First of all, we don't know the main character's name at all. Rebecca was the previous Mrs de Winter, so in a way her Shadow is so strong that it suffocates the main character's entire identity. Then there's Rebecca's character and how the way she's represented in the book changes as the story progresses. There are a few hints of this earlier in the story. And lastly, there's Maxim de Winter. How should we feel about him and his actions?

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mishasbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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maeverose's review against another edition

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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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