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A review by wardenred
Escaping Mr. Rochester by L.L. McKinney
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I’ve learned time and again that one’s survival hinges on placating the monster when you cannot slay it.
An interesting reimagining of Jane Eyre that sticks close enough to the original to be recognizable, yet also veers far enough away to tell a new story. Obviously, the biggest difference is that it involves a romance between Jane and Bertha Mason who are both Black here, and Edward Rochester is very explicitly the villain (and a particularly vile one at that). The story takes place in an alternate history setting where there's a Queen Amelia on the British throne and it looks like women, people of color, and queer people might fare differently compared to the real world at the same time. Unfortunately, the author offers next to no details about all that, so it remains unclear how out of the ordinary some of Jane's and Bertha's circumstances, plans for the future, etc are. I would've liked to know a bit more about the world outside of Thornfield—not just the two heroines' personal memories focused on their loved ones and personal emotional experiences, but something more... objective? Concrete? I'm not sure what the right word here is, but I'd just like to get a better sense of the large-scale setting.
The small-scale setting, on the other hand, is where the author has done a great job. This version of Thornfield is appropriately gothic, gloomy, desolate, and very much in need of burning down. That oppressive atmosphere never goes away and colors all the experiences and interactions the characters have. It provides an appropriate backdrop for the themes of domestic abuse, domestic violence, and gaslighting the book is so ripe with. Speaking of that: I'm generally satisfied with how these themes were handled, although I didn't anticipate just how heavy some of the instances would hit—it was a slower read for me than I expected because I had to take mental health breaks. This is one of those situations where I just want to loudly remind the trad publishers that NA is a thing, because this is definitely a NA book in terms of how the subject matter is handled (and honestly, also in terms of the characters' age and just about everything else), not YA, even though that's of course how it's billed.
The characters feel pretty far divorced from their namesakes from the original novel, but they're all pretty interesting and fill their parts well. Normally, I prefer villains who are more complex and have some compelling reasons for what makes them this way, but in this case, well, sometimes evil is just evil, and here, it works. As for the protagonists, Jane frustrated me sometimes with just how rash she was—she kept reminding herself about the importance of caution and thinking her actions through, but she seldom practiced what she preached for more than ten minutes at a time. I kind of liked how it upped the stakes, making every complication she faced the consequence of her on actions and making me worry all the time if she would even pull through, but my, was she a nerve-wrecking protagonist to follow.
Also: damn my favorite side character for turning out to be a baddy right when I started trusted them. I should have known!
An interesting reimagining of Jane Eyre that sticks close enough to the original to be recognizable, yet also veers far enough away to tell a new story. Obviously, the biggest difference is that it involves a romance between Jane and Bertha Mason who are both Black here, and Edward Rochester is very explicitly the villain (and a particularly vile one at that). The story takes place in an alternate history setting where there's a Queen Amelia on the British throne and it looks like women, people of color, and queer people might fare differently compared to the real world at the same time. Unfortunately, the author offers next to no details about all that, so it remains unclear how out of the ordinary some of Jane's and Bertha's circumstances, plans for the future, etc are. I would've liked to know a bit more about the world outside of Thornfield—not just the two heroines' personal memories focused on their loved ones and personal emotional experiences, but something more... objective? Concrete? I'm not sure what the right word here is, but I'd just like to get a better sense of the large-scale setting.
The small-scale setting, on the other hand, is where the author has done a great job. This version of Thornfield is appropriately gothic, gloomy, desolate, and very much in need of burning down. That oppressive atmosphere never goes away and colors all the experiences and interactions the characters have. It provides an appropriate backdrop for the themes of domestic abuse, domestic violence, and gaslighting the book is so ripe with. Speaking of that: I'm generally satisfied with how these themes were handled, although I didn't anticipate just how heavy some of the instances would hit—it was a slower read for me than I expected because I had to take mental health breaks. This is one of those situations where I just want to loudly remind the trad publishers that NA is a thing, because this is definitely a NA book in terms of how the subject matter is handled (and honestly, also in terms of the characters' age and just about everything else), not YA, even though that's of course how it's billed.
The characters feel pretty far divorced from their namesakes from the original novel, but they're all pretty interesting and fill their parts well. Normally, I prefer villains who are more complex and have some compelling reasons for what makes them this way, but in this case, well, sometimes evil is just evil, and here, it works. As for the protagonists, Jane frustrated me sometimes with just how rash she was—she kept reminding herself about the importance of caution and thinking her actions through, but she seldom practiced what she preached for more than ten minutes at a time. I kind of liked how it upped the stakes, making every complication she faced the consequence of her on actions and making me worry all the time if she would even pull through, but my, was she a nerve-wrecking protagonist to follow.
Also: damn my favorite side character for turning out to be a baddy right when I started trusted them. I should have known!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Death of parent and Murder