Comments: 6
Lillelara 5 years ago
I only made it about 10% into the story. I´m fuzzy about the detail why I didn´t like it, I just knew I couldn´t take anymore of it.
BrokenTune 5 years ago
Yeah, the tone of narration was really weird in this one, and that's even before looking at the story itself. I liked the beginning, tho.
BrokenTune 5 years ago
Actually, I think I had the same issues with this one as I had with Jamaica Inn...only Du Maurier somehow managed to carry the story better.
Lillelara 5 years ago
Sorry for the late answer. I was a bit under the weather yesterday.

I just looked up my post about this book and my main issue apparently was the child narrator. Which doesn´t come as a suprise, because I tend to dislike child narrators. Hence my dislike of coming of age stories. The only book, in which such a narrator actually has worked for me, was "We have always lived in the Castle".
BrokenTune 5 years ago
Oh, no, I hope you feel better. :(

Weirdly, the child's POV didn't irk me much in this one...at first. Tho, it got pretty grating and cringe-worthy at one point.
I was more irked by the portrayal of the father as a sex-obsessed madman who's aim was to groom his daughter as his secretary, housekeeper, and all-round maid, while constantly remarking on her being ugly or stupid. It was so OTT.
Oh, and the whole thing is told using through the father's journal entries....and weirdly the daughter - who had found the journals - put up with it. It was just too much of the Gothic trope for a story set in 1906.
Lillelara 5 years ago
Yes, today I feel better :). Thanks.

I really disliked the father, too. I already had enough of him when he treated the mother as a baby factory.