A review by lrose02
Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell

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

1.5

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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