I need to make this clear, this is NOT a romance. It is not in any way a romance. This is GOTHIC FICTION. If you need clarification on what that is, please search it up. It's meant to be haunting and inspire fear and horror. All of which I think this book does brilliantly.

Yes, ALL the characters are horrible, but they were meant to be. 

One of my favourite themes of gothic fiction is obsession mainly because of this book. In every respect, the writing, the setting, the plot, it is superlative.

If you've given it a low rating because you thought it was romance, I implore you to rethink that. This book is peerless IMO, with only Rebecca coming close to matching it. That is also a gothic fiction, BTW.