2.75 stars

I hated Maxim, I’m sorry to say, and that just made me petty and hateful because I think that if I didn’t mind him I would have enjoyed this book so much more. I would have been like the mc who was on edge and anxious at every turn once the big reveal was made, concerned about Maxim and their future together. I just found him to be unromantic, dull, and his excuse for why he was so broody and moody just didn’t do it for me considering the fact that if he wanted to divorce Rebecca it would be so much more easier for him to do so as a man, the consequences he would face would be so meager compared to the way Rebecca’s name would be tarnished, and I feel it would. Because no matter how well a woman is liked she is usually the first to be attacked and smeared. Yes Rebecca was cruel and unfaithful but his motive for murder was that she was encroaching on Manderley, so him charging to the cottage with a gun intent on killing her for ruining the aesthetics made me dislike him even more than if he had just killed her out of jealousy. I didn’t understand what there was to feel sorry for. I just felt sorry that the mc had deluded herself that she loved him so much that she would ride or die for him. Honestly the lengths her and Frank went for him, Maxim was their ultimate first love. And I also feel like he was an unreliable narrator when he talked about Rebecca. Apparently the author sort of mirrored some parts of the book with her own life, so I believe Rebecca was just tired of social norms and the duties women had in playing domestic, maybe she had different views on love, maybe was queer and yes probably was selfish and that just shocked Maxim into oblivion.
I didn’t care for Ms Danvers either, I hate to say it but she was a sapphic girlie I could not defend, in fact I wanted her dead, she was like the personification of depression for me, as that scene where she was coaxing the mc into jumping off the terrace was truly haunting.
I will say the beginning half of the book where we see the mc being so anxious and scared of everything was so realistic and relatable, the tiny fears of displeasing people are the biggest horrors for a person eager to be liked. Then the second half dragged, I was waiting for the reveal of him killing his wife which I suspected from the jump, but then the plot tried to save him and gave him a happy ish ending,. And from the 70% mark onwards I was snoozing. I did hold the tiniest bit of hope when Rebecca’s cousin came into play with his ‘evidence’ but I didn’t expect much. The best part was the ending which I found came out of nowhere but is making me think that maybe they never made it out of the house? Maybe they all died in the fire the night before. And also the fact that even though the mc is reunited with Maxim, they don’t seem like they’ll ever be truly happy. Especially when she thinks and we’ll have kids… surely we’ll have kids. It’s that sense of doubt you have in the back of your mind when you know you happy ending is actually still going to be forever plagued by the murder your husband committed and the eternal dread of wondering when justice will finally catch up to you. By the end of the book their marriage seemed frail and pathetic, they didn’t come out stronger to me. Maxim remained focused on his one true love, Manderly and the mc remained in the shadows fretting. And Rebecca kind of did win.