Sourced at Publisher's Website
Hi Book Club;
It's been a while since I last posted in the Book Club, but I finished this one about an hour ago and I felt compelled to share it with the world! Now, I'm an audiobook listener, as a consequence of spenidng 90 minutes driving each day.
So why did I pick this book? The old idiom, I judged the book by the cover - and it had been a while since I'd picked up a thriller. I hadn't seen the book in bookshops nor heard of the author before - what a joy then that this book was magical. It turns out the author, Rachel Hawkins, is based in the southern states of America (Alabama) and the novel is very much situated in this area and has a very southern feel.
This novel opened with an epigraph from Wide Sargasso Sea - itself a re-framing of one of the characters from the novel Jane Eyre - seeking to give Bertha voice. I thought it an interesting allusion and as the book unfolded, I got it. This book is a modern retelling of Charlotte Bronte's classic, Jane Eyre. And - what a joy! Let's face it, Jane Eyre is a bit dense and in places, difficult to engage with. This novel, however, very much puts you in the mind of Jane and develops a story with intrigue in such a clever way - and, even though you know how it's going end, it didn't matter - you just needed to stay with this one to see how it was going to end!
The novel opened with Jane, a down and out young woman with no great prospects, but ambition. She has been in the foster system and had aged out and she was seeking to build a life. She finds herself living in a dingy apartment in the bad part of town, yet an opportunity to take up dog walking takes her into the wealth Thornfield Estate, a well-to-do gated community. As it turned out, when one wealthy so-and-so seen someone else with a dog-walker, then they needed one too, and busy was starting to boom. This led her one day to be walking past one of the grandest homes in the area owned by Eddie Rochester.
A flirtation developed and soon, this orphan girl, much like the original Jane Eyre, was now the hired help and the relationship between Jane and Rochester developed and this leads to an engagement proposition. Next to this developing love story was the mystery surrounding Eddie's former wife, Bertha, who had taken on the name 'B'.
Months earlier, B had gone missing, presumed dead, on the same night her best friend, Blanche, had been murdered. As Jane integrates into the Thornfield Estate community, she seeks to learn more about that night and what happened, and how her new fiance with involved.
The audience, however, understand that B is being held captive in an upstairs panic room - where she is visited by Eddie regularly who brings her food and water, and allow his love for her to keep their physical relationship alive. The audience must start putting the pieces together, as Blanche's husband, Tripp, is arrested for the murder of his wife, the list of suspects and scenarios the audience must work through grows.
NO SPOILER!
But, I won't spoil the ending - except to say one twist leads to another, and the voice shifts from Jane to B to Rochester and we start to garner an understanding of B's ability to dangerously manipulate any situation.
Why did I love it?
Jane Eyre, for me, has always been a pious kind of woman, and Hawkins develops this and gives us insight into her own ambition and trains of thought. The reason for her need to steal things, the careful way she seeks to construct her own identity and the way she hopes to manipulate Rochester. Her thinking pathways are delicious in their construction, and come across as honest and raw and absolutely relatable to us - especially when we're at our worst.
The shift in the voice, to hear B's perspective and Eddie's, which cut in a number of times in the novel help to build the mystery of what happened, and red herrings keep popping up to throw us off the scent. Honestly, I was kept on my toes right until the end, and even then, the surprises kept coming.
You need to read this book, the language is beautifully raw and the physiological development of the characters is given space at just the right times, prioritised over the plot. It is also such a joy when authors take timeless classic stories and reinterpret them into a modern context, it speaks about the power of literature and narratives to transcend time. What a joy!
I'd give this one a 8.5/10.
I wouldn't read it again, but I'd definitely recommend it.