Who knew my life was missing a steamy, gothic Victorian suspense novel? ( )

Via audiobook, was underwhelmed ( )

Written in 1938, this is a “classic” that I had never even heard about until recently on a Facebook reading group. I am surprised how much I enjoyed this novel, even though a little slow taking off. Rebecca was Maxim de Winter’s 1st wife, and “Mrs. De Winter’s” his 2nd wife. She never received an official name in the novel. Maxim was 42 years old and owned the famous manor, the Manderley, a beautiful postcard home on the lake in London, and Mrs. De Winter’s (2nd wife) was 21 years old and worked for pennies for an old hag, learning to be a “companion”, when they met and married. She was still so young and very dreamy about romance and love and constantly ran things through her mind on how things will, or should, turn out…but they never did. I found myself relating to her on a lot of this...that's exactly how my mind works. Making up scenarios about this or that until I'm just about paranoid and coo-coo.

But oddly enough, Maxim was very aloof and stand-offish with her from the very beginning, and once she arrived at the manor as the new misses, she found that Rebecca seemed to be running the household even from her death, which everyone was reluctant to talk about. They loved her so much and constantly compared her to Rebecca who had such an outgoing and shining personality; whereas she was shy and a bit anti-social, and a bit plain. She became paranoid because she didn’t really know how to run a manor, so she basically sneaked around the place, trying to hide out from the butlers and maids. When company would drive up and Maxim happened to be away, she would run and hide so she wouldn't have to visit with them alone. But, as time went on, some truths regarding Rebecca started to come out and there were questions around her death. It turned out Rebecca was not the sweet little darling that she was made out to be.

MOVIE: 'Rebecca' is soon to be a remake of the 1940's movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which starred Laurence Olivier as Maxim and Joan Fontaine as"Mrs. de Winter". According to Vanity Fair online, November 15, 2018, Netfix is currently working on the remake, which will star the good-looking Armie Hammer as Maxim, although I'm not so sure he would be considered old enough as there was a 21 years difference in their ages, and Lily James as "Mrs. de Winters"....can't wait!! ( )

This is about all the suspense I can handle! ( )

The first chapter was a toss-away, a dream whose purpose was simply to describe the house and grounds of Manderley. I always dislike dreams in books because they feel like lazy writing; the author is trying to wedge information into the story without actually figuring out how to work that info in naturally. So the first (brief) chapter was read in supreme irritation, and the second (brief) chapter hurried through since our story doesn't start there, either. The third chapter - that is when things get rolling. And holy cow do they roll, taking us on a journey between low-level dread and white-hot tension. A true thriller in the highest sense of the word, creating the exact right mood for the end of October.

Highly recommend.

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