Jamaica Inn in Around the Year in 52 Books

May 02, 2021 Book Concierge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, england, 19th-century, mystery, movie, historical-fiction, classic, concierge, strong-women, library

Digital audiobook narrated by Toni Britton

From the book jacket: The coachman tried to warn young Mary Yellan away from the ruined, forbidding place on the rainswept Cornish coast. But Mary chose instead to honor her mother’s dying request that she join her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn. From her first glimpse on that raw November eve, she could sense the inn’s dark power.

My reactions
What a wonderfully atmospheric, dark, sinister tale! I shivered with the damp, cold fog, str ...more

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Oct 10, 2009 Awallens rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Jamaica Inn is a true classic. After the death of her mother, Mary Yellan travels to Jamaica Inn on the wild British moors to live with her Aunt Patience.
The coachman warns her of the strange happenings there, but Mary is committed to remain at Jamaica Inn. Suddenly, her life is in the hands of strangers:
her uncle, Joss Merlyn, whose crude ways repel her; Aunt Patience, who seems mentally unstable and perpetually frightened; and the enigmatic Francis Davey.
But most importantly, Mary meets Jem Me ...more

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Jul 31, 2013 ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, killeen-library-paper, suspense, 2013

What a dreary, bleak, dark book! (from 2 to 3 stars as I sat and thought about it). I liked the main character, Mary, a lot but that's about it as far as characters go. She had a lot of spunk and strength. The book had suspenseful moments so it did fit in with my October reading plan to read a gothic suspense but the mood was just depressing so I found it hard to pick up and read at times. The main reason I read to the end was because I had to know what was going on and who was actually behind t ...more

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May 04, 2020 Alison Rose rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 3-star-books, women-authors, mystery-thrillers, read-in-2020

This book was published two years before Rebecca, and I'm kind of amazed that she went from this one to that one in such a short time--because the latter is far superior, and du Maurier must have learned some pretty quick damn lessons from the former.

Mind you, Jamaica Inn isn't a bad book by any means. And perhaps any book of "romantic suspense" will pale in comparison to Rebecca, even other books from the same author. The atmosphere here is, as expected, absolutely exquisite. Du Maurier was so This book was published two years before Rebecca, and I'm kind of amazed that she went from this one to that one in such a short time--because the latter is far superior, and du Maurier must have learned some pretty quick damn lessons from the former.

Mind you, Jamaica Inn isn't a bad book by any means. And perhaps any book of "romantic suspense" will pale in comparison to Rebecca, even other books from the same author. The atmosphere here is, as expected, absolutely exquisite. Du Maurier was so skilled at really putting you right there alongside the characters, with simple things like her description of the sound of the wind in the grass, the discoloration of a coach seat from a dripping roof, and the scrape of a door on a stone floor. The woman could set a scene, let me tell you. And Jamaica Inn itself is foreboding and looms right out of the page at the reader. It's definitely not anything like its namesake island, I can say that for sure without ever having been there.

And I liked the main character Mary quite a bit, especially the fact that she's 23 and does not, as often happens in older books, come across as either a silly teenager or an old spinster, which she pretty much was at 23 in her time. Mary is steady and smart, but also gets freaked the eff out just like real people would at certain goings-on in this story. She's neither too weak or too strong, and I appreciated that a lot.

However, Joss, her hateful uncle and the ringleader of all the scary shit that goes on in this story, was very poorly done. He's so over-the-top, almost cartoonish really, and it surprised me to see such a lack of subtlety in his character. Right from the first moment Mary meets him, he's just ridiculously nasty and mean, and practically stating so out loud, all the time. He's full of threats and huskily-whispered cruelties, he's wildly violent at the drop of a hat, and seems to have nothing even approaching a soul. It was just all too much, too heavy-handed.

The central mystery was okay. You think it's just one thing but it turns out to be a little deeper and darker, and it was definitely wild. But again, it ended up feeling too pointed and unsubtle. And then we get a reveal that didn't totally surprise me, but it did let me down because I was hoping it wouldn't come about. And then the very end was just...meh.

So there's some good stuff here for sure, but of the three du Maurier books I've read, it definitely takes the bronze. ...more

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Nov 05, 2019 Ron rated it really liked it

Mary Yellan is a Nineteenth Century Cornish farm girl, orphaned at age 23 and left alone on a bankrupt farm with no choice but to go to her Aunt's home, which turns out to be a creepy, forsaken edifice formerly used as an Inn and dominated by her alcoholic, violent Uncle. Mary remains out of loyalty to her browbeaten Aunt, despite qualms over the mysterious criminal activity in the decaying outpost, and justifiable concerns over her personal safety.

The ghostly atmosphere of the Cornish moors dom ...more

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Feb 24, 2018 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: challenge-2018

"The wagons looked ghostly in the dim light, like hearses, and the men themselves were phantom figures, having no place in the world of day by day, but moving silently about the yard as some weird pattern in a nightmare fantasy. There was something horrible about them...coming as they did in stealth by night. This night the impression they left upon Mary was even more lasting and profound; for now she understood the significance of their trade (p62)."

Gripping, gothic, and gruesome. The moors and ...more

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