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lenorayoder's Reviews (156)
mysterious
Absolutely devoured this.
Finally a gothic that commits! Until now, every modern gothic I’ve found has either been poorly written, or shied away from going full sick and twisted. I had some predictions early in the book but lamented that they probably wouldn’t happen because good, published books never go there anymore. I’m so glad I was wrong. Beverly-Whittemore goes there and further.
Loved the writing, the twists and turns, the layers, the reveals, the characters. The letters were great, but I think the future narration created a distance that this book would have been better off without. I think being more immediately in Mabel’s head and a little more time with other characters after certain reveals would have made this a 5 star book.
God I love a gothic.
Finally a gothic that commits! Until now, every modern gothic I’ve found has either been poorly written, or shied away from going full sick and twisted. I had some predictions early in the book but lamented that they probably wouldn’t happen because good, published books never go there anymore. I’m so glad I was wrong. Beverly-Whittemore goes there and further.
Loved the writing, the twists and turns, the layers, the reveals, the characters. The letters were great, but I think the future narration created a distance that this book would have been better off without. I think being more immediately in Mabel’s head and a little more time with other characters after certain reveals would have made this a 5 star book.
God I love a gothic.
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I’m pissed off. After the halfway mark there are the bits of a great novel here. Unfortunately the author was too busy looking down on all the characters, including Majella, to write it. This author was either never fat, or she lost the weight and looks back on that time with total disgust. Christ.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
I loved this! Great mystery and well-written. I was having such a good time I stayed up until 5am to finish it.
I really enjoyed Jo as a character. The point-of-view changes kept things interesting and were always handled really well. Excited to read the next book in the series! I would love to seeJo put Tony, her ex, in his place somehow. That slime-ball needs to be knocked down all the pegs .
I really enjoyed Jo as a character. The point-of-view changes kept things interesting and were always handled really well. Excited to read the next book in the series! I would love to see
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I liked it. Easy read. Got a little ridiculous with the adjectives and adverbs sometimes, but mostly competently written. Decent sex scenes, decent plot, decent mystery. More than I can say for most published erotica, unfortunately.
This is a romance set during regency-ish times but it isn’t an adaptation of or play on Pride and Prejudice at all, the title is misleading.
This is a romance set during regency-ish times but it isn’t an adaptation of or play on Pride and Prejudice at all, the title is misleading.
I liked this one. I think sticking to the Jane Eyre format might have hurt more than it helped though. This is definitely the case for the first third of the book, but even the rest of the book had a plot that I think would have been served better with a different kind of framing. The narrator mentioning Jane Eyre and being an autobiographer worked for me, especially in the second half, but the constant comparisons just made me wish I was reading Jane Eyre in the first half. Some really nice writing. I found the resolution of the chest frustrating. The pacing during the climax and denouement feel a little off. I liked seeing Jane’s relationships, and seeing her perspective change throughout the book. Agatha was done dirty. The context of the autobiography’s existence is a bit confusing once you know everything.
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This only gets that half star because I liked some of the worldbuilding and some of the adult characters. But my god. These teenagers were infuriating. So many of my pet peeves in one book. People were being stupid left and right. Worse, they were being stupid in a way that actively got people killed. I wanted to scream so much of the time. I did scream about the pocket, just because I was at the end of my fucking rope. Christ.
emotional
Diverse cast of characters:
No
When it’s good, it’s really good. I sighed, I cried. But when it misses… oof. How I yearn for some of these classics to have had good editors.
I love how much you can read between the lines with what Jane does and does not narrate. I love how much she blossoms once she’s finally in a place that feels like home. Jane and Rochester are both interesting characters, and a lot of their interactions are dynamite. I love the idea that their romance stems from a deep affinity, but we don’t get to see enough of that affinity. I wish we got more from Rochester after the revelation - he’s actually in surprisingly little of this book. Weirdly, I feel like I didn’t really get to know him as much as I should have.
St. John drove me nuts, and I’m so mad thathe claims the closing of the book . Like, Charlotte. What the fuck. Why did I have to listen to that man one last time ?!?!?
The constant god-talk wore on me, and some of the language and descriptions were repetitive. Parts of the book really drag, and just feel like unnecessary filler. Also Bronte’s racism… really showed. It was rough.
I love how much you can read between the lines with what Jane does and does not narrate. I love how much she blossoms once she’s finally in a place that feels like home. Jane and Rochester are both interesting characters, and a lot of their interactions are dynamite. I love the idea that their romance stems from a deep affinity, but we don’t get to see enough of that affinity. I wish we got more from Rochester after the revelation - he’s actually in surprisingly little of this book. Weirdly, I feel like I didn’t really get to know him as much as I should have.
St. John drove me nuts, and I’m so mad that
The constant god-talk wore on me, and some of the language and descriptions were repetitive. Parts of the book really drag, and just feel like unnecessary filler. Also Bronte’s racism… really showed. It was rough.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Classism
Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Fatphobia, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
DNF audio book at 4%. Didn’t like the narration or the writing. Book starts with a boring info dump.
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Easy, enjoyable read. I expect this kind of book to be a little formulaic and predictable, but this one was pretty far in that direction. Several obvious shortcuts were taken that the author should have figured out a way around, like the MC only experiencing three of the cliques, and spending very little time with some of them. I think this could have been significantly better and more interesting with some pretty minor changes, so it's disappointing that it's not.
