Rebecca. My first encounter with Daphne du Maurier and I can confidently say, it probably won't be my last. From start to finish, du Maurier's prose was not only engaging, but so immersive - I feel as though I have smelt the rose garden, taken lunch under the chestnut tree, wandered with Jasper down the path and through the woods to the sea and explored the abandoned cottage.

I know there are a few film adaptations of Rebecca, but I have not seen any. All I knew of the plot going into this was that a girl marries a man, but that man had a previous wife who died. This was great because the whole way through, just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, it all changed.

I went from loathing Max and feeling sympathy for Rebecca and our protagonist, to then feeling even more sympathy for Rebecca because she was murdered, and being worried for our protagonist having married a murderer, but then I realised it was Rebecca who was the cruel one. Max was driven to madness and killed her, but in the end, we find out that Rebecca, while not exactly planning it to happen, also did not care due to her recent diagnosis of cancer.

Though the prose was led by the protagonist, it did not feel overly dramatic and long. And I could see this was a conscious choice by the author - to keep the protagonist somewhat normal and just real in the way she encountered all these situations, "We were ordinary people. These things did not happen." Each chapter was interesting and the plot moved on at a good pace which helped the overall experience.

Lastly, I must bring attention to the fact that no fictional house or location has ever touched me as much as Manderley has. It was beautiful and alive but also dark and secretive. Over the past few weeks that I have been reading Rebecca, I really have come to love the place. Oh Manderley, Manderley, Manderley. I think I will also dream of Manderley.