Rating: 
Summary: A genuine piece of garbage!
Review: I am not writing this review to placate Mrs. Hill apparent thirst for success - which I assume was her basic premise when she decided to presumptuously write a sequel to a classic like "Rebecca"! I am doing so to prevent other fans to be trickied into spending their money on this shameless piece of garbage! The characters are shallow, the plot is insipid, and the ending is simply outrageous. When I finally put the book down I was dumbfounded and enraged. Do not waste your money buying this book and by no means waste precious time reading it. Thumbs down for Mrs. Hill and my advice to you is to stick to the original. And by the way - it does not deserve even one star!
Rating:
Summary: Not for ardent admirers of the original
Review: I don't think ill of Ms. Hill's writing style and I must confess I admire her bravery in tackling this sequel. I am one of those readers, however, who fell in love with the world of the original novel and feel that I should warn like minded souls that they may be shocked at the paths these well-known characters are made to travel in MRS. DE WINTER. I was so saddened by the last chapter, in fact, that I could not bear to pick up REBECCA and re-read my favorite passages for some time. I believe that this is the bottom line: If you are looking for something to pass the time and like Ms. Hill's other novels, this may be for you. But if you are a true fan of Maxim or the second Mrs. De Winter, this book may sour your memories.
Rating:
Summary: BAD BAD BAD
Review: This is such a boring book. Hill needs a lot more creativity. She's basically writing about nothing in this book. Everything is so redundant and the heroine becomes VERY irritable and annoying in this book. She panics over stupid little situations and loses every bit of her likeableness from the prequel Rebecca in this book. Those who read Rebecca, remember how we all felt some sort of pity for the girl? Or at least we didn't dislike her. But in this book, you just want to jump right into the book and slap her for her stupidity. And the ending, I don't know what else to say besides that its just plain STUPID. I can't believe I used so many "stupids" in a review, I've never done that before. Don't even think about buying this book. Use the money to buy any other book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite as bad as all that
Review: This book was, as the previous reviewers mentioned, not DuMaurier quality. Yet the book was well written. Its characters were clearly the same people with the same personalities, and the book kept one turning pages almost as effectively as the original. It began slowly, working slowly faster and faster, with quiet interludes in between. There are also many plot twists that make the book and effective page-turner. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) it effectively closes the story, preventing future sequels. A fine book for all that, but not nearly as good as the first. Not for die-hard DuMaurier fans.
Rating:
Summary: Disgraceful!
Review: This book is a waste of the paper it's printed on! The characters and their motivations didn't ring true, and I must disagree with previous reviewers who said that, as a stand-alone, this book would have been all right. I wouldn't have liked it as an independent novel either, because there was almost no plot, and disappointment after disappointment. The long-awaited scenes with Rebecca's cousin and Mrs. Danvers fell flat, and the few disturbances that happened in this story were not enough to warrant all the heroine's worry and panic over them! The writing might have been ok if there had been a story, but this was a long, rambling bore that certainly didn't measure up in any way to the original novel. The author hasn't achieved the same pacing and ambiguous style of writing as Du Maurier, which was what made Rebecca such a great book. I found Hill's descriptions too long and overdone--did we need so much description of flowers, trees, etc.? Hill draws Mrs. DeWinter as a vapid, weak woman, which is not how she was left by the end of Rebecca, and Mrs. D.'s attempts to shelter Maxim seem ridiculous. His weakness too seems out of character. I didn't find it believable that the De Winters would hide away for 12 years, then suddenly come back to England. Hill can't seem to decide on what the character of the DeWinters' relationship should be, and being that 12 years have passed, they don't seem to have built much trust or respect for each other, and this isn't believable either. Hill left loose ends also, (what WAS in Jack's envelope?) but not ones that leave you pondering and wanting to know more--nothing that will haunt the reader afterward. The ending too was a disappointment, and after struggling through the rest of the book, I hoped at least for an exciting end! This reads like bad fanfiction, and i'm certain there might be fanfic out there which would do justice to these characters far better than Hill does. She doesn't even give us a glimpse of Manderley! However, this has not ruined the original for me--I still love it. I am also very much looking forward to reading Sally Beauman's Rebecca's Tale, which recently came out, which, from all I've read, does not try to be a sequel, which is good, as I've not yet come across a good sequel!
Rating:
Summary: Hill is no Du Maurier
Review: The BBC World Service is serialising this book in its "Off The Bookshelf" programme. The second episode was tonight, and I was so appalled by Susan Hill's style (or lack thereof), that I thought I'd take a look in here and see what other people thought of the book. I'm not even going to bother to listen to the rest of it. "Rebecca" has been a favourite of mine for many years, and all the questions "what-ifs?" and mystery woven in the original are tantalisingly left un-answered, providing much food for thought. Susan Hill has not added one worthwhile idea, or sentence or word to Daphne Du Maurier's masterpiece. So the question is, why the hell did she write it? Money, I suppose...
Rating: 
Summary: Why?
Review: I should have learned my lesson after reading the sequel to The Secret Garden, yet I found myself again buying a sequel to a classic. I had just finsihed Rebecca in my 19th centuary novel class when this book came out. So there I was buying it. At least I could take this one into my Catholic high school with worring about what a teacher would think if they picked it up. We rejoin our characters a many years after Rebbeca ends, to see Mrs. De Winter suddenly questioning her husbands actions. This questioning was out of charcter for Mrs. De Winter for as my novel teacher and I agreed it is highly doubtful that after all thoses years she would suddenly be untrustful and worried about her husband. Maxim's actions throught the book are also uncharteristic of the man we saw in Rebecca all through out the book. Halfway through this book I was so disgusted with the way that the book was turning out I spent an hour searching my boxes of books for that Secret Garden sequel wondering if the authors were one in the same. Thankfully they were not but for those who have read both books they should know the coinceidence between the books that had me wondering about that. Overall it was an okay book. If it was seperated from Rebecca completly the book would stand well on its own with different characters. Did I learn my lesson, I don't know there is a another book out know that I will probably read, can it get any worse?
Rating:
Summary: This book should be burned just like Manderley
Review: I was really excited when I found this book. I love Daphne Du Maurier's book Rebecca. I really loved that book. I was hoping that Hill's book might have a great pick up to the end of Rebecca. Well this book was horrible. Hill just rambles on and on about nothing. She brings up issues and never resolves them. I'm surprised that this book even got published. Obviously the publisher had never read Rebecca. If he had he would have known how awful this book actually is. Don't waste your time reading this book. I'm hoping that I can some how forget that I ever read this book. This book deserves about half a star or less but they weren't options. This is defintely a book that you should pass by.
Rating:
Summary: The worste book I have ever read.
Review: After reading this book I can only assume that Daphne DuMaurier is turning in her grave. Seeing as "Rebecca" is my favorite book and I have read it countless times, I was more than excited to find out about Susan Hill's " Mrs. De Winter". My excitement was short lived. This book rambles on chapter after chapter trying to live up to the original and failing miserably. My suggestion is to pass this book by and if you do by chance find a copy do the world a favor by throwing it away.
Rating:
Summary: A very good example of why fanfic should never be published.
Review: This novel should have remained in the author's mind until she got on medication. For anyone who had read Rebecca, this book will not only insult you but ignore the the original. From the strong woman we know the heroine to have become, this book returns her to a state of jellyspined idiocy. The plot is insipid and the characters a cheap knock off of the original. Mrs Danvers returns to coincidentally live just down the road from our intrepid heroine. There she has a job as a housekeeper but has set up her bedroom with Rebecca's things. We then get a bad sendup of the original bedroom scene where she futher attempts to frighten our heroine. Maxim is turned into a boorish jerk who needs a slap.Painful - this book causes deep hurting. Avoid it and save money.
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