Reviews

Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell

brighta's review against another edition

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Not my kind of book.

riinaink's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

2.5

lyla_m's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Such an inspiring, moving novel of feminism and empowerment for women. The stunning writing style entranced me and I can’t wait to discover what other books this author has written and enjoy them too! The romance was on point and simply one of the greatest queer reads I’ve read. I loved Adele’s story and how it also showed me a new side of Jane Eyre’s story by Charlotte Brontë. 

I truly adored Adele’s rise from the shadows, becoming an even stronger, braver woman throughout the book. This book truly fills my heart and I can’t wait to share its words and wisdom with others!
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nomadayka's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

tyiennasreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.75

lrose02's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book was sadly disappointing. Anyone who has ever read the original inspiration of Jane Eyre should avoid this. There’s so much mischaracterisation. Jane would never abandon Adele to a school when she had her own children. Rochester was made out to be this massive evil yet pitiful villain. I barely read the last few pages cause I wanted to finish it but from the last plot twist I could barely stand it.
Rochester trying to rape and take Adele as a wife is horrifying and wasn’t needed at all. Everyone who has ever read Jane Eyre knows he loves Jane with everything
I love a feminist retelling but the author just seems to strip the original story of everything nuanced to make it clear cut black and white so Adele has the motivations needed to do what she does. It’s also hard to see her as a nearly grown woman. The entire time I pictured her as like fourteen which was horrifying when she got hurt but also really uncomfortable when the love scene happened. It’s mostly vague and not open door but still something I skimmed. I would say Adele and Nan were instant love as there wasn’t much building up before Adele was completely smitten. The side characters were interesting especially the girls at her second boarding school. Those seemed to get across the message about the horrors of the men in power more than Adele did with her stealing. It started off so well and then just kept going downhill. It built up the whole book to be able to use the title but when it did it was just so unrealistic and just ruined it. I was so close to finishing the book I just kept going even when I had the urge to DNF at 88%. But I wanted this read to count for something. 
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charsuss7's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Good for her!

anna77beth's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

ninas_unread_bookshelf's review against another edition

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2.0

I preordered the paperback version of this book back in May and eagerly awaited its release for five months. I started reading it almost as soon as it arrived in the mail. I quickly found it to be an interesting expansion of a literary world I had come to know and love. I brought it with me everywhere I knew I would have a moment to read. I enjoyed reading about Adele Varens because it meant I was connecting again with the beloved Jane Eyre. However, I almost stopped reading this book completely when I reached the final four chapters. The way Cornwell completely obliterated Rochester’s character left me feeling extremely upset. Was he a perfect man? No, of course not because no man is perfect. But he was not the monster that Cornwell made him out to be. Yes, I know this is a fictional story and therefore a fictional character, and Cornwell was well within her rights to interpret and expand upon the original story in any way she deemed appropriate, but I personally was just left feeling distraught because it felt like one of my favorite classics had been attacked and was left potentially tarnished in my mind.

easemily's review against another edition

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4.0

This book kicked ass. It was just basically about this boss girl who went to a private school and then just was a bad ass the whole time. It was fun AND she’s queer. It was just fun and mystery-ish but not too intense. It definitely was a nice read, maybe would’ve been more of a winter read than a summer one, but alas I still liked it.