Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Wife Upstairs

I went back and forth with my feeling on this book and ultimately I think I liked it. I did read Jane Eyre a long time ago and I remember enjoying so I do come in with that background (I could see how some people who have not read Jane Eyre might not enjoy this. They are parallels with this having a modern twist). I always thought Bertha was done dirty in the original so I was excited for this read. That being said this book was not what I expected but it wasn’t bad.

I have to admit I did find Jane to be quite annoying from the beginning. She was complaining a lot and it was rough (I did remember that in the original). She got better as the book went on and you start to root for her some. She’s smart, brave, and tenacious and just had a string of horrible things happen to her which kind of explain how she is currently. I like the parallels between Bea and Jane.

I was a bit bummed at first that Bea was actually the villain I wanted justice for Bertha but I’m not mad with the way it ended. I like that Jane and Bertha got better in this novel than the original and it did feel like the right ending.

This definitely wasn’t a bad read just not what I was expecting. For the most part I enjoyed it and I loved the way Hawkins modernized the world and characters of Jane Eyre. It fit.

Content Warnings

chloeve's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

chelle22's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Content Warnings

lifeofchrstnlvly's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-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

1.0

...wanting more is what f*cks you in the end.

This novel prides itself as a loose Jane Eyre retelling. I was too adamant to care about Jane, Edward/Eddie, Bertha/Bea, and Blanche. The storytelling was off-putting because it was so absurd ("Reader, I f*cked him." 🤮). The plot twists were very easy to guess. The reveal was very underwhelming.

No. Definitely not recommending it.

Content Warnings

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

First read - DNF: I am not going to like Jane. She is so snarky and sarcastic and caustic and that will not be fun.
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I revisited this one because I was reading other things by the author, and I thought that I should give it another shot. I tend to be much too precious about Jane Eyre retellings haha I thought this was pretty fun in the end. It didn't try to stick too closely to the book, which I appreciated. Not at all bad, in the end.

Content Warnings