Reviews tagging 'Death'

Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell

6 reviews

growintogardens's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

This was a solid 3 for me until the twist. I liked the queer rep, but the relationship needed fleshed out more imo. It was also fairly slow for the first half of the book. Loved the idea and the title.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Death, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Incest, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Rape, Death of parent, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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? Yes

3.25

I'm such a huge fan of Jane Eyre, and I'm not sure why this book just didn't grab me. I am very pro Rochester-is-trash, but I don't think I liked seeing him as like a disgusting predator. I guess because I really like Jane, and I don't want to think that she ended up with just a true sack of moldy potatoes.  I would like to give this author another attempt though, because I may have just come in with too many of my own feelings on the original text!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Misogyny

Minor: Blood, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

kekepania's review

Excellent writing and very mood-matched to Jane Eyre. The sexual abuse undertones became too central and as problematic as Mr Rochester is in the original Jane Eyre, the implications felt like an unfair twist. Reading Jane Eyre prior to Reader I Murdered Him will help the reader immensely!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Rape, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Death, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

tlholmes's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexual violence, Violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Classism, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Incest

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I haven't read any of Jane Eyre or any of those books. But I know enough from retellings to say that this was kind of a second book/retelling but from the daughter's perspective. And so I'm not sure how many elements were changed. But I did like what she did with the characters. That being said I did figure out one major "twist" pretty early, but I didn't predict everything about it, just the who. I enjoyed the feminism and the powerful women. Overall a good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Grief, Misogyny, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Death of parent, Violence, and Vomit

loveat1stwrite's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

 **An ARC of this book was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

For starters, I thought the title would be a quick homage to Jane Eyre, but this book ends up treating itself like a sequel to Charlotte Brontë’s book. As the promotional material didn’t mention anything about its heavy ties to Jane Eyre, I felt misled and left in the lurch right from the get-go.

The book follows Adele, before Jane arrives, while Jane is her governess, and primarily after Rochester and Jane get married. Pre-existing characters forced into a new dynamic can have potential, but here the source material felt like a crutch the author couldn’t let go of, even when doing so would have made for a more substantial reading experience. This would have been better off as an original new concept, with new characters that can be molded how the author sees fit.

While the sequel aspect was an early blindside, I was still excited for the historical fiction vigilante story I was promised. Unfortunately, that’s not really what I got. It was about 1/3 Jane Eyre retelling, 1/3 generic boarding school filler, 1/3 typical Victorian-novel-twists. In this last third is where we start to dabble with vigilante justice that unfortunately still left much to be desired. While there is sapphic romance from Adele’s POV, this too takes a backseat to the author trying to reference Jane as frequently as possible.  Overall, it was a weird structure choice to be sure, creating an experience that can be only described as unfocused.

Simply put, the aspects that were most heavily promoted and that were getting readers excited for this release were not allowed to shine.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, and Rape

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Pedophilia, and Confinement