A story of love, betrayal, and revenge through generations.

This book was a bit of a letdown. And it shouldn’t have been because I’ve read it before, years ago, and didn’t really like it. But after having loved Jane Eyre (yes, I know they’re written by different Bronte sisters), I decided to give it another go.

I guess I didn’t really have any sympathy for the characters. Both of the Catherines (the first and second) made their choices (not very good ones) and they had to live with the consequences. Their actions hurt other people and themselves. Heathcliff decided to make everybody else as miserable as he was, and that was entertaining, I guess. The whole story was ridiculous, which isn’t a bad thing. I just wanted more. I wanted the yearn. I wanted the ‘delusionally in love but can’t be together.’ I wanted the crazy. It was all there, just not as much as I wanted.

I especially struggled through the middle chunk of the book. That part was pretty slow and hard to get through. But I enjoyed the beginning, and I really enjoyed the end. The last 2 or 3 chapters, maybe—when Heathcliff goes crazy and Catherine (the second) makes better life choices.

Also, the whole concept of this being a story inside of a story inside of a story got confusing at some points. Maybe I’m just not smart enough for it. But also, maybe I just wanted to hear things from other people’s perspectives? I do kind of like the idea of the whole thing being some ridiculous gossip to a stranger though. I don’t know. I don’t see myself reading it again in a few years, but you never know.

*I also have to include a sidenote of how annoyed I was by Joseph’s “thick Yorkshire dialect.” (Did I just google that? Yes. Yes, I did.) I couldn’t understand what he was saying 90% of the time.