Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past ther beeches, white and naked, to the isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast. With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten...her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant -- the sinister Mrs. Danvers -- still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca...for the secrets of Manderley.

Oh. My. Word. This book is so CONFUSING!!! And frustrating! I was assigned this book to read in English, and I have to admit, I did not enjoy reading it at all. But the super strange thing is that once I finished it, and waited a couple weeks, I missed it. It really is a good book actually. This is definitely a classic because all classics to me are good books but are really hard to understand until you really think about them.

One of the really annoying parts of this book is that the author never gave the main character a name. She is always called "The Second Mrs. de Winter", and it's just really... odd. My insane English teacher stated that the author did that so that the main character would be overshadowed by Rebecca (Mr. de Winter's deceased first wife).  And I promise you that if you read this book, you'll just see it as a lucky girl who is obsessed with the dead. And guess what?! That's pretty much accurate, but it's more of a deep loathing obsession than a fan-girl obsession.

I don't have a lot of patience for mysteries, but since I was forced to read this one, I had to finish it. May I add that this book world is pretty creepy. When you really think about it, a beautiful mansion in London seems very charming, but add that to all the sketchy stuff going on at Manderley and a creepy maid, it just appears in your mind as freaky. And you can't shake that feeling that something sinister is going on at that that place. And the mystery is pretty great too, but a smidge weak in my eyes.

Now, this is definitely a more adult book, not because of sex or "adult situations", but I believe adults would understand it and have more patience with it than teens. Also, there is an air to adult books that you just sort of feel when you read them, and this book is drenched in it. I really don't know why my class read it. In the end. It wasn't bad, but definitely not for younger people or people like me.

ALSO- Check out what this author looked like, I think she's pretty cool. 1920's maybe? Yep, that's a classic!

Plot: 2.5/5 stars   Cover: .5/5 stars     -Katie