Review : Jane Steele

Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

Genre: Historical Fiction, Retelling, Romance, Mystery, Gothic

Goodreads : Click

Purchase Link: Amazon | Kobo | BN

Pages: 416

Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A reimagining of Jane Eyre as a gutsy, heroic serial killer. 
 
A sensitive orphan, Jane Steele suffers first at the hands of her spiteful aunt and predatory cousin, then at a grim school where she fights for her very life until escaping to London, leaving the corpses of her tormentors behind her. After years of hiding from the law while penning macabre “last confessions” of the recently hanged, Jane thrills at discovering an advertisement.  Her aunt has died and her childhood home has a new master: Mr. Charles Thornfield, who seeks a governess.
 
Burning to know whether she is in fact the rightful heir, Jane takes the position incognito, and learns that Highgate House is full of marvelously strange new residents—the fascinating but caustic Mr. Thornfield, an army doctor returned from the Sikh Wars, and the gracious Sikh butler Mr. Sardar Singh, whose history with Mr. Thornfield appears far deeper and darker than they pretend. As Jane catches ominous glimpses of the pair’s violent history and falls in love with the gruffly tragic Mr. Thornfield, she faces a terrible dilemma: can she possess him—body, soul, and secrets—without revealing her own murderous past? 
 
A satirical romance about identity, guilt, goodness, and the nature of lies.

All that I can say is Wow! This book turns out so unexpected that as of now I can't think of a word to explain how much I loved this book. I've read a few books inspired by Jane Eyre in the form of comic which gives me the gist of what the book is about, and a manga form which was very exaggerated. I haven't read the actual book but got enough to know what the book was about and seeing the similarities about this book to which it was inspired from. I loved the idea that this book was about a murderess. I loved seeing the reasoning behind many of the things that have occurred in this book. I loved seeing each person that was introduced and how caring Jane Steele was to each person. I loved that she was cunning and crafty and when faced with difficult situations shes not one to back down. It might be to early to say but I think this book might be one of my favorites of this year. In fact I really feel like I'm in the mood for another reread.