I’ve read both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights — so I understood that Anne would more than likely lean to the gothic. While it was gothic, the story was so morose that I just didn’t want to read it. Gilbert’s POV was fine, but Helen’s was almost intolerable to trudge through.

I think what I didn’t like with this book was the more I knew about Helen’s past, the less I liked her. Recluse widow? Cool, that’s different. Woman that’s torn between her passion and her beliefs — also cool, I love Jane Eyre because of that struggle. What I didn’t like was that Helen was too self-sacrificing and preachy. When Gilbert frantically travels to her house and then her aunt’s house, becomes aware of her fortune, and then decides that he isn’t worthy of her esteem after not hearing from her in a year and a half she lectures him on how he must not love her enough.

For me, this was my least favorite Bronte book by far. Unfortunately it just wasn’t for me.