Happy Spooky Valentines! a review of Rebecca

In case you had't noticed, I have been really into thrillers recently. But in honor of Valentines Day I had to review something romantic, right? But why not stay in the same vein? So without further adieu, here is my review of the classic romantic suspense novel, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

Rebecca had been on my radar for awhile, and I had been wanting to read for as long. Then the time finally came, and I was not disappointed!

Rebecca is a romantic thriller, and I did not know anything about the story going into it. I knew it was a classic, and I knew that the titular character was the previous wife of the main character's husband, now deceased. Creating a thriller out of that basic (and seemingly mundane) scenario caught my attention. Besides, Daphne du Maurier had multiple books adapted for film by Alfred Hitchcock, including Rebecca, so you know the thriller element is excellent.

A couple things to note before I continue:

This book was written in the late 30's, which means that you will not find any sex in this story, despite the baseline for the plot being a marriage. While there are allusions to sexuality, it is not foundational to the plot. The relationships are the foundation, sex only being a piece of it.

Again, different to modern thrillers, this story is a slow burn of growing uneasiness. You will not find many jump scares at all.

And with that last point, I will jump right in!

I would categorize this book, not only as a romantic thriller, but also a psychological one. Interestingly, the main character, who also narrates the story, remains nameless the entire time. The reader is forced, in a new way, to put themselves in the main character's shoes. You feel all her fears, you wrestle with her anxieties, you grow more and more unnerved, while trying to dismiss her fears as a hyperactive imagination, or, as she does herself, as immaturity or naivete.

The basic premise of the story is about a young woman in unfortunate circumstances falling in love with a millionaire widower and their subsequent life as newlyweds. His deceased wife, named Rebecca, haunts every step of their new marriage, and even haunts the halls of Manderly-- the family home. As a young, new wife, our protagonist has no idea how to express her fears to her new husband. He is older, and the rumors of the well-loved Rebecca are inescapable. Perhaps she is overthinking, she must just be jealous, and that is silly. But Rebecca seems to haunt her new husband too. Can they figure out a way to talk about it before it's too late?

And who is Rebecca? The answer to that question may be the only thing that can restore any semblance of normalcy to their lives at Manderly.

The twist may not make you gasp, but as I said earlier-- this is a slow burn. Once the spark turns into a flame, a roaring fire is not far behind, and this story becomes much, much more than merely a miscommunication trope between husband and wife.

If you are interested in breaking into the thriller genre, this is actually an excellent place to start! Because it was written in a different era, you will not have to worry about gratuitous violence or sex. Neither are there terrifying jump-scares. Part of the brilliance of this thriller is the mundane-ness of the day to day of the protagonist. So much happens within her own mind...

But I won't say more, except: read Rebecca!

And I hope you had a wonderfully spooky Valentines Day!