mangala @mooncalf@mastodon.social

Hello, I’m still here, have just been flat out at work & sick. Anyway! Have finally finished Rebecca, and dudes. DUDES. I liked it! What a trip. Will post more when fully coherent (I stayed up until 4AM to finish reading it.)

Also: will tweet about Rebecca soon, have just got back from work & need to catch up.

Does anyone remember the Everworld series by K.A Applegate? I only managed to read a couple as a kid, but every time I see the word “senna,” I think of one of its characters. (Pronounced “Senda” by her Spanish mother before she left.)

Anyway, what a trip, hey? Look at these covers!
https://mastodon.social/media/A7FFiNQBc3jjn88ZpZg

Right, I’m approaching the party stuff in the book. Everyone’s excited, the narrator’s trying on her costume of one of Max’s long-dead relatives - this isn’t going to end well, isn’t it?

So interesting that Du Maurier uses a quite happy, brimming atmosphere to heighten foreboding, rather than alleviate it. I’m guessing the narrator probably should have let Beatrice check her costume, hey?

I will return!

But please no spoilers! I’m interested to see how everything starts to pan out. Also would like my suspicions of Rebecca being Bad somehow clarified.

This book, in one word: feverish. I know I’m saying that because I’m fluey at the moment, but Du Maurier creates a nightmarishly effective pace & atmosphere.

So: Favell is Rebecca’s cousin, and Danvers like smelling her old clothes. Narrator pls, just like, move in with canny Beatrice. Forget Max, he’s cold fish squared.

Also, I already know how it ends (thanks to my years-old fascination with TV Tropes) but it’d be very interesting to see how it comes about.

I guess it’s effective, though? It’s now 1AM & still haven’t put the book down, even though I must sleep.

max: [is silent for 5 seconds]

narrator: it’s because he’s thinking about her!!! and how she slept in a boat or whatever! i bet he wishes he could sleep in a boat too!!!

me: ...

They should retitle this book: “Living With an Anxiety Disorder as a Newlywed in the 30s” because oh my god, the catastrophisizing does not STOP. I DO want to shake her.

I’m at Manderley now and some shit’s gone DOWN. Mrs. Danvers is a creepy skull-face. What’s with the limp handshakes, dude? Blink a bit, hey?

I like that the narrator dreams ahead at a thousand miles per hour - that’s what I do, regardless of whether it’s due to hope or anxiety (or both). I don’t have the excuse of being 21 anymore, however.

Also doesn’t help that I keep imagining him as some sort of spidery cross between Anthony Perkins & Ralph Fiennes, with a bit of Doug Jones thrown in. Granted, I like all of them, but it’s a disconcerting picture.

And he doesn’t have to be so RUDE. (I’m still at the stage of the novel where he’s driving her around in Monte Carlo.)

I’m just gonna put all my ‘Rebecca’ thoughts in this thread as I read through the book. First of all,

MAX IS MEAN. I don’t like him! I get the allure or whatever, and granted, I’m early in the novel, but I can’t imagine why she’d ever want to marry him.

I do think of myself at that age, though, and maybe brusque words smothered by perfunctory displays of kindness from a seemingly sympathetic man would have been enough for me too. Not now, though.

Very sleepy, like some sort of sleepy idiot.

ALSO, re: Howard’s End - to think I was hoping for a lesbian subplot between Margaret Schlegel & Mrs. Wilcox. I KNOW platonic bosom friends are wonderful too, but like, that could have been a THING [stares intently].

I will have to make do with The Heteros. (Der Heterös.)

Sorry for all the convoluted sentences btw, that’s just what my brain’s like today, basically.

After FTL, I really wanna play Planet Coaster after watching the Nichboy review of it (he didn’t actually play the game very well, but it looked cool/fun nonetheless), then maybe Transistor or Thimbleweed Park.