Monday 30 May 2016

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye // horrifyingly magnificent


Title: Jane Steele
Author: Lyndsay Faye
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Warnings: self harm, murder, suicide, attempted rape
Rating: 5 stars
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I'm sad to say that I was determined to dislike this. I'm not one for the gruesome, and as you can tell from the warnings I've listed above, Jane Steele was a quite violent novel.

Jane Steele's life mirrors that of Jane Eyre, but with one vital difference. For every wrongdoing done upon her, a dead body is left behind.

When discovering her childhood home is under a new master, she returns in disguise and gets caught up in a complex mystery that has cost many lives.

Despite her homicidal tendencies, Jane is a character that is so easy to click with. Somehow the writer was able to portray all the killing she does as somewhat justifiable - as though there was no other thing to be done in the situation. And that's a horrifying thing - for a  reader to understand the choices made by a serial killer.

Faye's writing is not just remarkable in getting the reader on the side of her protagonist. Her language is every bit as remarkable as Bronte's with Jane Eyre, but with a twist of grotesqueness that made the stark differences with Bronte's work all the more prominent.
"Secrets decay, as corpses do, growing ranker over time."
But the story is not all blood and gore. Above it all sits a fantastic mystery involving a war and thievery of priceless jewels from India many years before. Once the story entirely broke off from mirroring the novel it was inspired by, there was plot twist after plot twist, all linking slowly together to a shocking revelation.

I'd recommend this novel to even those who have not read Jane Eyre (although I also hold that book with high regard). It's a complete page turner filled with murder and mystery that is not for the faint hearted.

An ebook copy of this book was provided to me via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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