Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Jane Eyre

Slow start, but got more interesting when Jane gets to Thornfield. It slowed down again towards the end for a few chapters but the middle wasn’t terrible. I did like Jane as a character and how quick witted she was (but Charlotte what were you doing giving this girl nothing but trash men and trauma).

I’m glad to have finished because 1) it’s finally over and 2) I can say I’ve read Jane Eyre! I maybe should’ve DNFd but I was stubborn and kept hoping it would get better with how many people love it. I had an especially hard time towards the end when the story takes a large turn and Jane’s story became really slow/tedious.

This is one of the worst classics I’ve ever read 🙃 there was no reason for it to be that long or categorized as a romance when Miss Austen existed at the same time?! If you’re going to start with a Brontë I suggest Wuthering Heights as it’s shorter and has better pacing (also a toxic romance but at least an interesting one).

Only reason it gets 3 stars is because of Jane as a character and there were some beautifully written lines!

Now please enjoy the majority of my random thoughts that played on a loop throughout:

-How is this a romance?! He’s horrible 😅

-Jane nooooooo

-The only person making any sense is Mrs Fairfax

Charlotte Brontë is not for me because I also tried reading Villette earlier this year and DNFd due to boredom 😳 Now the only Brontë sister I still must read is Anne, with Tenant of Wildfell Hall!

Content Warnings

treehouselibrary's review

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

marageorge's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-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

3.0

I decided to read this book because I bought a poster with 100 books to read in your lifetime. This is the fourteenth book I've read on this poster. As with most books on this poster, I struggled with it. I don’t know if it’s the whole “classic” feel to them, but it was a mission to finish and usually when I feel like a book is a mission to finish it can be worth it, but this wasn’t.

This book follows a girl named Jane Eyre, throughout her life, she is a seemingly plain and simple girl as she battles through her life’s struggles. Jane has many obstacles in her life – starting with her cruel and abusive Aunt Reed, the grim conditions of Lowood School and her love for her employer Mr Rochester and finding out he is married.

My issue with this book is that it gave me whiplash. I understand that we basically watch Jane Eyre grow up from this small child that was being abused because she was an orphan, and a woman made a promise, she couldn’t keep to sending her off to boarding school and then getting employed. That was fine, Mr Rochester and Sir John are who gave me whiplash. If this book was written in this day and age, I would have killed for it to be a feminist book where she doesn’t need a man to be happy – but obviously back in those days it was either be married and look after the house or be a spinster and be poor. Also, I hated both “love” interests if you can call them that. I wanted to punch Mr Rochester in the face so many times. The way he lied, the way he treated his wife and yet Jane was like “oo yeah, I want some of that.” it just hurt my head. And then Sir John threatening her employment after she gave him money because she wouldn’t marry him – they are cousins, again I know it’s not as weird back then, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.

The only reason why this book didn’t get rated any lower is because of Jane and I wanted to hug her and smack her at the same time for not having that parental figure that she needed and that her other cousins weren’t complete idiots.

I am not having the best of luck with this poster, but I've got 86 books to go!

Content Warnings

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