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lenorayoder's Reviews (163)
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I don't have much to say about this one. I liked it. It was an easy read. Day gets a little ridiculous with the adjectives and adverbs sometimes, but overall the book competently written. Decent sex scenes (though some are better than others), decent plot, decent mystery. Unfortunately, that's more than I can say for most published erotica.
It should be noted that while this is a romance set during regency-ish times, it isn’t an adaptation of or play on Pride and Prejudice at all. In that respect the title is misleading, and was likely chosen for marketing purposes.
I liked this one. It's interesting to see Jane's perspective change throughout the book, especially because she's an unreliable narrator. It's also interesting to see how this changing perspective changes her relationships and how she interacts with other people. This is the kind of book that you can either engage more or less in because of the main character's unreliable narration - you can either take what she says at face value, or you can question her interpretations of other characters' words and expressions. Although, Faye only takes this so deep; in a better book there would be more layers to this.
Unfortunately, I think playing up the Jane Eyre connection and sticking to the Jane Eyre format might have hurt more than it helped. This is definitely the case for the first third of the book, which drags and definitely should have either been condensed or left as a mystery that Jane slowly reveals through dialogue and action. 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 in the first half of Jane Steele the constant comparisons just made me wish I was reading Jane Eyre instead. Also, once all is revealed and we know the context Jane is writing this autobiography in, her writing and intending to publish it no longer makes sense.
Final thoughts: I found the resolution of the chest frustrating. The pacing during the climax and denouement felt a little off. Agatha was done dirty. While I appreciated the diversity, the complete lack of hiccups in Jane's interactions with various marginalized groups feels very hand-wavy for a white woman with a secluded, English upbringing in the 1800s.
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I did not like this book. City of Bones only gets that half star because I liked some of the worldbuilding and some of the adult characters.
But my god. So many of my pet peeves in one book. 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. How is no one catching these basic continuity errors before publication?
These teenagers were infuriating. You could argue that such is the nature of teenagers when you’re an adult, except a couple of the teenagers were regular levels of teenage dumb and annoying and I was fine with that. People were being stupid left and right. Worse, they were being stupid in a way that actively got people killed. How am I supposed to believe the premise of this society and be invested in the story when characters that are supposed to be exceptional are making such basic mistakes?
I read this because I’m curious about YA books from my tween and teen years that I missed out on. I’m glad I skipped it then and I will not be reading more. What is wrong with y’all, making this a bestseller? Also the title is clearly a ploy to have a series of similar titles - they visit Bone City once, briefly, and it does not at all encompass or represent the “themes” of the book. Ugh. Obviously I would not recommend.
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.
dark
mysterious
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This book probably deserves a higher rating but my ratings are subjectively about how much I like a book and this one was tough to enjoy.
The perspective character is so unpleasant that this book is hard to read, especially the first 50% or 70% in which not a lot is happening. Once we get towards the end and everything really starts to move the book gets a lot more enjoyable. The main character is still deeply unpleasant, but it becomes more interesting and because more is happening I wasn’t just marinating in that awful personality with nothing else to think about.
The perspective character is so unpleasant that this book is hard to read, especially the first 50% or 70% in which not a lot is happening. Once we get towards the end and everything really starts to move the book gets a lot more enjoyable. The main character is still deeply unpleasant, but it becomes more interesting and because more is happening I wasn’t just marinating in that awful personality with nothing else to think about.
It was an easy read, but it just felt so generic. Nothing about the setting or characters really drew me in, and there’s a big chunk of the book where barely anything happens. A lot of stuff threatens to happen, and the main character is afraid of stuff happening, but not much actually does. Or, I should say not much happens to the main character - everyone else seems to be living in a more interesting book that we don't get to read.
I also didn’t really believe the love between the main character and her love interest. Probably because neither felt like enough of a real person to me, and there were so many time skips. We're told their relationship and feelings develop, but we're rarely shown.
Just very meh, won’t be reading the next book.
funny
hopeful
I read some of this online back in the day but never finished, so it was nice to finally see the story's conclusion. I enjoyed the read but don't have much to say.
Jack and Bitty are cute as ever. The couples and friendships are all still heart-warming. Love the humor. I think the plot of this one isn't as interesting as Book 1, and especially the ending felt a little rushed and cliche. I still prefer Ukazu's old art style so I don't love how the characters look in this book. Still recommend, still worth the read.