2020 book 218

 Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca

We're reading this for book club this month, but I feel like I need to preface my comments with a little bit of backstory. So, I've read this once before, in seventh grade English class. I believe we were doing a unit on Gothic literature and read this after Jane Eyre; I imagine this is the book where I learned what FORESHADOWING is. Sadly I did not TAKE IN said lesson on foreshadowing, because one of those awkward memories that haunts me thirty years later is of me not reading the end of this book closely and assuming they were driving into the sunset (clearly I also hadn't read the first several chapters closely, because on this read it's pretty clear that Manderley is no more). This is to say that I went into this read harboring resentful feelings toward the book. And I can guess that 12-year-old Alicia found the endless descriptions of trees or whatever super boring, and definitely skimmed the end, because forty-something Alicia also thought it was a bit dull. The problem is that I read a lot of reviews of the new Netflix movie, because they were hilariously scathing, but then all the major plot points were fresh in my head, which really lowered any suspense the story might have had. But also, everyone in this book sucks (except Beatrice—narrator lady, accept her invitation! She will set you straight and help you!). Like, the narrator sucks for being a sad sack and never having an honest conversation with her husband, Maxim sucks for marrying a girl less than half his age and not at all preparing her for Society and also not having any honest conversations with HER (and also being a murderer), Frank sucks slightly less but he could have certainly set Maxim straight about the narrator's fears, and Mrs Danvers obviously is a stone-cold bitch, but not in a fun way. Anyway this book is a classic but I didn’t like it much, my bad. I am psyched to discuss it, though! B, I guess?