THIS. BOOK. New favorite. How did Daphne du Maurier do this magic? How is a book written in 1938 so relatable in 2018? Rebecca is so good, people. It has singlehandedly renewed my interest in classics and reminded me how wonderful they can be (although this one is extra special).

Rebecca begins when a younger girl (early 20s, I believe) meets the widower Maxim de Winter while on vacation in Monte Carlo. They get married and eventually return to his famous estate of Manderley, where he previously lived with his first wife, Rebecca. Rebecca’s presence can be felt everywhere, and haunts the new Mrs. de Winter as she feels disconnected from her husband. It doesn’t help that Mrs. Danvers, who runs the estate, seems to judge Mrs. de Winter’s every move.

Daphne du Maurier is an incredible writer. The suspense and sense of foreboding she builds is masterful - a true gothic classic. Her writing is so descriptive but not boring. The atmosphere she creates brings you to Manderley, and fills you with anticipation. I didn’t want to put this book down! The young Mrs. de Winter is so relatable - I had so many “me_irl” moments! When someone mentions Rebecca’s beauty and Mrs. de Winter starts to fixate on her and compare herself… haven’t we all done that at some point? Also the ending - twists and turns, better than any modern day thriller. The original Gone Girl. I was on the edge of my seat. 

I HIGHLY highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I can’t imagine someone not enjoying it. It was so beautifully written, it’s a true masterpiece. I’m eager to devour some of du Maurier’s other books now. What are you waiting for?! Go read this!

I picked up Uprooted by Naomi Novik when my reading was feeling a little tired. I’m sure many of us read lots of books because we feel like we should, we want to meet goals, someone else wants to read it, it’s an award winner, someone gave it to us… so many reasons, but I find myself often not just picking up a book because it sounds nice and fun and I FEEL like reading it. Does that make sense? While I often do really want to read award winners and the hot book of the moment… sometimes it can be a little forced. It may not be exactly what I was craving. I picked up Uprooted after quite a few books like that and it turned out to be exactly what I wanted to read.

Let me start with a disclaimer that this book has many tropes I often dislike. Chosen one, normal girl who learns she has magical powers that she never knew were there, made up fantasy names that are hard to remember, clumsy-but-in-a-charming-way main character, and more. However, those tropes did not bother me in this book, not in the slightest. This book was inviting, warm, and felt wistful somehow. I don’t know why, I’ve never read anything by Novik before, but maybe because I haven’t read fantasy in awhile, it felt a bit like home.

Uprooted is about a girl named Agnieszka who lives in a valley in a kingdom. The valley is near the Wood, a haunted-ish forest that is basically a character itself (which I love). The Wood creeps ever closer to the villages in the valley, corrupting anyone who has the misfortune of encountering its dark magic. The dragon, not an actual dragon but a powerful old wizard who still looks young somehow (another trope maybe but again, worked for me), scoops up a girl from the valley every 10 years and keeps her in his tower. Everyone knows that this time it’s going to be Agnieszka’s best friend Kaisa, but SURPRISE, it’s Agnieszka! Omg. Who could have guessed?! Okay, me, and probably you, and probably your cat after you read her the back cover, but again, it works for this book!

And so Agnieszka leaves the village behind for the dragon’s tower, and adventures ensue. I’m not going to say much more about the plot but I loved the story the whole time - lots of plot driven action, which I tend to like.

I found the banter between Agnieszka and the dragon to be funny and heartwarming. Even though Agnieszka is trope-tastic, she’s a likable character I found myself rooting for. I would describe this entire book as charming. The Wood is creepy, the fairy-tale elements are nostalgic, and the adventure is fun. Oh, and I thought the writing was pretty good too. If you like fantasy and you haven’t read this one yet, I’d absolutely recommend it. 5/5 from me.

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter is a strange little book. It follows a dad and his two sons as they mourn the sudden and unexpected death of his wife. In the book, grief takes the form of a big crow named Crow. Thinking back on it, I’m not sure if he was a giant crow or a regular sized crow. For some reason in my mind I thought of him as a human sized crow, but yeah maybe that isn’t accurate. 

The writing in this book is poetic, which is fitting because the father is a Ted Hughes scholar. Many of the chapters share touching and insightful moments of a family dealing with the pain of losing a loved one. However, the chapters from Crow’s perspective were often erratic and nonsensical. I’m not sure if I just didn’t get it or if there was nothing to get.

This book is a quick read and I think many people would enjoy it. I did enjoy it, despite the Crow chapters being weird. It wasn’t the idea of a talking babysitter grief Crow that was too weird… it was the writing in the Crow chapters that I didn’t really enjoy.

I’ll end this review with one of my favorite quotes from the book (not from a crow chapter) to give you a little taste of the beautiful parts. “I missed her so much that I wanted to build a hundred-foot memorial to her with my bare hands. I wanted to see her sitting in a vast stone chair in Hyde Park, enjoying her view. Everybody passing could comprehend how much I miss her. How physical my missing is. I miss her so much it is a vast golden prince, a concert hall, a thousand trees, a lake, nine thousand buses, a million cars, twenty million birds and more. The whole city is my missing her.”