Reviews with content warning for Death - Don't Look Now and Other Stories

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Don't Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

10 reviews

lizetteratura's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

1. The breakthrough
2. A borderline case
3. Don't look now
4. Not after midnight
5. The way of the cross

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rainynook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I listened to the audiobook of this collection of stories by Dame Daphne du Maurier. I had long ago seen the film of "Don't Look Now" and I adore the book, "Rebecca" so I was eager to read more work by this writer. This review contains slight spoilers, but I've tried to be careful not to reveal too much.

The book is a series of 5 short stories.

The first story, "Don't Look Now" (4.5 stars) is really good, my favorite of the whole collection. I love Venice and stories about Venice, so this one, with DdM's characteristic slow build of tension, until you are right there with the protagonist, struggling & trapped & more than a little worried, not unlike a spider's prey in a web. When she's good at this trick, she's very, very good. Loved the reader for this one, Michael Sinclair.

"Not After Midnight" was initially compelling, but it got pretty weird, and I didn't buy the ending.

"A Border-Line Case". Normally, I'm delighted with the audiobook work of Katherine Kellgren, but for this (and for the subsequent story, "The Way of the Cross") her voice did not work as it had too much of the comedic edge which she puts to good use in other works. The story had some good elements, and the ending was good, but I saw it coming.

"The Way of the Cross" was not my cup of tea. I couldn't wait for it to end.

The final story in the compilation, "The Breakthrough" was good, but nothing special. However, of the 5 stories, this one, and "Don't Look Now" were the only ones I thought worth listening to, although "Don't Look Now" is far and away the best of the lot.

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leic01's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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chrisljm's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I don’t typically enjoy short stories, so I went into this collection mostly just expecting/wanting some gothic horror elements for the Halloween season.

While I didn’t love the first three stories (“Don’t Look Now”, “Not After Midnight”, and “A Border-Like Case”), they were at the least intriguing. However, I find myself giving this two-stars due to how little I enjoyed the last two stories. I could not care less when reading “The Way of the Cross”, which just felt like nonsense and seemed out of place compared to the first three. “The Breakthrough” was better than “The Way of the Cross” but still lackluster and disappointing.

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toffishay's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed this short story collection. Like many people, I maybe know this author best from her novels, specifically Rebecca, and I didn't know that she wrote short stories at all! I was glad for the introduction which provided some background on the author, her writing, and some of the stories themselves, although it almost approaches spoiler territory with some. My absolute favorite story was "The Birds" (I had no idea that it was the basis for the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name!), but I also really liked "Don't Look Now", "The Blue Lenses", and "Monte Verita". Even the stories that I didn't love were still enjoyable because of how well written they were. A lot of the stories are really good at building tension, but they also explore themes of sex, relationships between men and women, nature versus man, failure of governments and institutions, and the horrors that women subject themselves too, are subjected to, and live or die under. If you are a fan of Shirley Jackson, I think that Daphne Du Maurier is worth checking out.

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