Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

37 reviews

cattheteawitchfairy's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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 DISCLAIMER -  I read this text as a set text for university meaning I did not pick this up for myself. It does not fit my usual reading selection so my review may be rather biased. 

This is the first ever classical novel that I have read that I truly adored. With a purely descriptive writing style, a relatively loveable heroine and a complex moral story, I really enjoyed Jane Eyre.

Bronte's writing is delightful and although long winded at times, beautiful, with lots of extended metaphors and references to the supernatural and fantastical. One other downside to the writing is that of the different languages that are sometimes used; this does add to the book however you may need a translator to understand completly what is being said in dialogue. This in itself is an easy solution to a small problem.

The story is interesting as we follow a girl throughout her childhood as she becomes an adult woman. This is one of the first novels to do this in its time, with less of a focus on marriage and courtship. Instead the focus is on Jane and her life and adventures.

I would highly recommend as a relatively accessible and interesting, classic!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Classism

naomi_k's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent

rebeccaxpaige's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Gaslighting, Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, Classism

cornustella's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Infidelity

nerdkitten's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Death, Blood, Death of parent

mrkdk's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Suicide, Vomit, Gaslighting, Abandonment

ejb44's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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While I’m sure you’ve all heard of this book, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brönte follows the life of, you guessed it, Jane Eyre. From her life as practically a stranger in her Auntie’s house to after she’s left an orphan through to the next 10 or so years of her life. This bildungsroman centres itself on our heroine Jane who is trying to make sure that she walks her own life path and centres herself, her morals and God on whichever path she takes. Through the ups and downs of the story, the reader is always kept in close proximity to Jane’s thoughts and feelings, meaning the readers become extremely well acquainted with Jane by the end of the novel. 

Even though by the 21st century, morality and religious themes are part and parcel of modern literature, Brönte revolutionised this in the 19th century. Jane is the embodiment of female Christian teaching in England at the time, constantly aligning her intense feelings to her Christian values and ensuring they exist on conjunction with each other. This exploration of faith in Jane is probably my favourite aspect of the whole novel, most likely because of how Jane is written overall. She is the most well written character in the whole book and it is clear that Brönte might even share some relatability to Eyre because of this really deep and spiritual portrayal of the protagonist. Though my later criticism will be that none of the characters are written to the same standard as Jane, the beauty of the whole book is how inevitably, you will fall in love with Jane. 

Onto the criticisms of the book, I thought it dragged on too much. The book could have gone from 532 pages to around 400 easily. Descriptions during this time period was the focus, and even though Brönte introduced new styles of writing, the overall descriptive window and garden scenes did feel slightly repetitive and unnecessary. After two examples and 6 pages of intense descriptive writing, it really doesn’t need to carry on – but that’s classical literature for you. 

Additionally, the book is a romance novel, yet I hated how the romance was written and how flaky it was. The two main love interests in the book are both with men who are badly written, and the love between the characters is barely explored until one day Jane says, “I love him, I’m going to marry him”, which feels like quite the jump considering the readers are experiencing every thought of Jane. The second love interest seems extremely rushed and out of the blue, as if Brönte had thought the ending through but because she realised she was already on page 500 and hadn’t got to where she wanted the story to end, she rushed the whole conclusion just so she could have the ending exactly like she wanted. 

Overall, while I see its cultural significance, and I have endless praise for Charlotte Brönte (and her sisters who were also authors) for writing this book at a time when women in the West were second class citizens, the book just didn’t hit the exact spot I wanted it to. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment