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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I adored this book. It took Jane Eyre as a roux of sorts and cooked up a feast. The two Janes had similar backgrounds - but Jane Steele's hands are bloody. I loved the entire book.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A loving and wholly original tribute/meta-fictive re-imagining of Jane Eyre, Jane Steele is a page-turning, ever-so-slightly larger-than-life, ridiculously fun and charming post-feminist hero story. Faye takes on Jane Eyre's basic structure and themes of identity, class, patriarchy and reconciling personal happiness with virtue and gives us a heroine who, while trying to channel Jane Eyre as her spirit animal, finds she's capable of and compelled to deal with her oppressors in more decisive and final (and murderous) ways. Jane Steele cleverly places the 21st century reader into Steele's 19th century mindset, rationalizing and self-recriminating for her acts of resistance to the institutions of female oppression: the family (and family name), schools, sex and commerce (and the commerce of sex), marriage, the law and the Crown. As always, Faye bring her unparalleled ability to give her heroes a unique, pitch-perfect voice: three-dimensional, human, specific, and with a trenchant wit that makes you laugh out loud and fall in love. In Jane Steele, Lyndsay Faye's writing is manifested and personified in Jane: irresistibly charming, reliably surprising, and equally prone to steal or break your heart (or stab you in it).
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Truly the best book I've read so far this year. Faye's novel is deliciously satirical, lushly romantic, and a gripping Gothic yarn. When I picked it up, I was initially worried it might be too dark for my taste or disrupt my vision of Jane Eyre. Instead, I found myself immediately hooked on its portrait of a woman baffled and angered by the cards her life has dealt her. Faye's Jane takes Charlotte Bronte's proto-feminism and explodes it into justified feminist rage and presents with a brave, nuanced, vulnerable, inspiring heroine. Cannot recommend this book highly enough--it's a blend of Sarah Waters and Charlotte Bronte and it's delicious.
This was a fun book. A different take on Jane Eyre. One of my favorite aspects of this book was that the narrator (Jane Steele) loves and quotes Jane Eyre throughout the book. It wasn't exactly like Jane Eyre, adding its own twists to the story, which helped it become its own unique story.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail