Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

20 reviews

atamano's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Infidelity, Sexism, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Gun violence, Infertility, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

singalana's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Infertility, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

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.

redheadorganist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, and Suicide

Minor: Animal cruelty and Medical content

z_thatsit's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer and Toxic relationship

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

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

kengiedamali's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

She's a page turner but she's also made me a Mrs. Danvers apologist and I refuse to change that. The narrator is whiny and she reminds me of Taylor Swift.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Murder

Minor: Racism

The brownface was a choice!

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

elysh_kaye's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

the og y/n

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcoholism and Animal cruelty

akira_outofthegravity'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

5.0

Our young protagonist- who goes nameless- is swept off her feet by the handsome and rich Maxim de Winter and quickly becomes his wife. However the house they share is still haunted by the ghost of Maxim’s late wife and the titular Rebecca. The new Mrs de Winter is constantly in Rebecca’s shadow, not to mention that Rebecca’s old maid Mrs Danvers (who was infatuated with Rebecca) is constantly trying to undermine her. 

This is a gothic horror story with plenty to analyse. It’s almost a psychological horror. The plot is fantastic, the characters are messy and real, and the ending is spectacular. I guessed the “twist” but honestly even if you see it coming this book is enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty