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A review by junibjones
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
4.0
Are you someone who views marriage as a business arrangement? Main character Jane Shoringfield of Caitlin Starling’s “The Death of Jane Lawrence” definitely is. The story begins with the proposal of such an arrangement to Doctor Augustine Lawrence. An agreement based solely on the fact that the family Jane lives with is moving and she needs to find a husband to avoid ever going back to Camhurst where her parents died in an air raid.
What starts out as just business quickly progresses into something that Jane doesn’t want to examine too closely. After all, Augustine’s stipulations do not involve romance. My guy didn’t even want the marriage in the first place but, y’know, just keep asking till they accept, right? (Please don’t do that.) Due to an accident on the night of their marriage, Jane must stay at her husband’s home no matter how much he protests against it. To be honest he doesn’t really fight it that hard.
So Augustine’s home is clearly haunted. Jane is seeing things, unknowingly experiencing the ghost of Augustine’s first wife and while attempting to talk about it, her lovely husband gaslights her. Why? Because she shouldn’t have been involved in the first place, apparently. All she’s been, is involved, my dude.
I’m aware that this book was partly inspired by Crimson Peak and I can definitely see it. It’s also completely unsurprising that Augustine, a passionate oddball white man, would decide to test out necromancy and then fuck it up. It’s always the rich white people who decide to mess with dark magic. This is some Evil Dead stuff. I’m enjoying the journey Jane is taking throughout everything. The library scene with Augustine’s buddies was so intense; I felt like I was there witnessing Augustine do what he did.
Magic plays all the roles in the second half of the book. The reader doesn’t necessarily know what’s real and what isn’t, what could be hallucination or something of substance. Jane is alone through much of the last half, everything and everyone a potential hallucination. She is convinced that magic is real, but are ghosts real? Is the Augustine she’s attempting to save the same man she married? Or has Jane overdosed on cocaine and now no one knows what’s real?
What starts out as just business quickly progresses into something that Jane doesn’t want to examine too closely. After all, Augustine’s stipulations do not involve romance. My guy didn’t even want the marriage in the first place but, y’know, just keep asking till they accept, right? (Please don’t do that.) Due to an accident on the night of their marriage, Jane must stay at her husband’s home no matter how much he protests against it. To be honest he doesn’t really fight it that hard.
So Augustine’s home is clearly haunted. Jane is seeing things, unknowingly experiencing the ghost of Augustine’s first wife and while attempting to talk about it, her lovely husband gaslights her. Why? Because she shouldn’t have been involved in the first place, apparently. All she’s been, is involved, my dude.
I’m aware that this book was partly inspired by Crimson Peak and I can definitely see it. It’s also completely unsurprising that Augustine, a passionate oddball white man, would decide to test out necromancy and then fuck it up. It’s always the rich white people who decide to mess with dark magic. This is some Evil Dead stuff. I’m enjoying the journey Jane is taking throughout everything. The library scene with Augustine’s buddies was so intense; I felt like I was there witnessing Augustine do what he did.
Magic plays all the roles in the second half of the book. The reader doesn’t necessarily know what’s real and what isn’t, what could be hallucination or something of substance. Jane is alone through much of the last half, everything and everyone a potential hallucination. She is convinced that magic is real, but are ghosts real? Is the Augustine she’s attempting to save the same man she married? Or has Jane overdosed on cocaine and now no one knows what’s real?