Book Review: Until the Last Petal Falls by Viano Oniomoh

When Eru was eleven years old, he met an unforgettable boy.

Only a few weeks after, he forgot all about that boy.

Ten years later, after his parents’ sudden deaths, all Eru wants is to find a way out of the village he was supposed to leave behind, and escape the abuse of his grieving grandmother. When he receives a summons from Able Mummy, the wife of the High Chief, it seems all of his prayers have been answered.

Able Mummy needs his help. But she and the High Chief have a secret.

Once Eru uncovers the truth, he finds that the fate of the village, and that of the boy he’d been made to forget, could lie solely in his hands.

Cosy, sweet, and intimate, Until the Last Petal Falls is a character-driven Nigerian queerplatonic retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

 

Of all the genres I love fantasy the most; of all the fantasy stories I love fairytales the most; of all the fairytales I love Beauty and the Beast the most, and of all the retellings out there I love diverse and LGBTQ+ retellings the most, so I added this book to my TBR list with a quickness. I heard about Until the Last Petal Falls through Bookstagram, and bought the ebook during a stuff-your-kindle sale. I broke my "no shopping on Amazon" rule to buy this as it's not available anywhere else. 

I really liked this book. The setting (modern-day Nigeria but with gods and witch doctor magic) was very interesting to read about, as was the way Oniomoh reinvents the tale as old as time. Like all* Beautys, Eru hands over his life and future to help someone else; like some other Beasts, Esioghene goes from angry and closed-off to open and loving. Both men are aromantic, and the queerplatonic relationship that develops between them is very sweet and tender. Most of the general BatB characteristics are there: big palace/house hidden by magic, roses with petals falling counting the days, curses, etc. I would consider this book to be cozy despite the difficult things the characters go through (both are abused).

Score: ★★★★⯨ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0
Read in: February 21
From: Amazon

Genres/classification: fantasy, cozy fantasy, fairytale retelling, modern retelling, not quite fabulism but close, adult book I think, monster romance only without the romance

Tropes: forced proximity, magically bound to each other, found family, love conquers all, true love breaks the curse, love saves the day (all platonic love btw)

Representation: aromantic (both MMCs), gay queerplatonic relationship, all the characters are Nigerian as the book is set in Nigeria, ace vibes as well imo; author is (as far as I can tell) a Nigerian LGBTQ+ woman

Trigger warnings: child abuse, child neglect, domestic abuse, physical & verbal abuse, abusive & controlling parents and grandparent, depression, grief, parental loss (I think it was due to a car accident but I may be wrong), manipulation/deceit, memories magically erased

*ok probably not all

August ebooks

It is bugging me, but I can never figure out how to capitalize ebook/s. Ebook looks too boomerish, and eBook seems pretentious. Ah well.

After that fantastic reading month, I naturally reverted back to my normal "not reading, and when I do, it's ebooks" status. 

Making Waves by Joane Rock (summary) ★★★  🌶🌶🌶/🌶

Has this happened to you? You download a free romance novel ebook that promises to be steamy, but instead you're forced to read about the two leads bickering and having relationship drama for basically the entire book. Typical dramatic lustiness, and the characters were little more than cardboard. They used to date when she was 20 and he was 25 or 26, which skeeved me out. Not only was everyone in their lives was okay with this, they all actively thought they were perfect together and should get married, but then he dumped her out of the blue without telling her why (it was to go into the army as it was the 2000s). There's one scene where they go at it in a first class airplane sleeper room which makes no sense to me because I think first-class sleeper sections of airplanes aren't enclosed? Like they're not sleeper cars in a train? I have no real idea; my only knowledge of flying first class is watching Crazy Rich Asians. The hero also has some sexist alpha-ness, which is typical for the genre (not as much as others though) and always annoying. Is anyone else sick of reading about contemporary romance novel heroines who are simultaneously virginal and sexy, girlish and a mature woman? I am. I think I need to stop reading contemporary het romances. Trigger warnings: trauma involving a family member kidnapped by terrorists in I think Afghanistan (past), army veteran hero, the aforementioned age gap, that's it I think

Cinder Ella by S.T Lynn (summary) ★★★.5 

I really enjoyed this author's The Little Mermaid retelling, so I was excited to buy this ebook on sale. Like that one, this retelling has a Black trans woman as the lead. There are some Brandy Cinderella vibes. The beginning is as usual, with the step-family's awfulness and abuse including transphobia towards Ella. The ball invite comes from the princess herself, who likes Ella's dog and chats with her for a while. It's very cute. The fairy godmother is a mysterious dress seller whose dress shop-carriage is bigger on the inside. For some reason there's no magic to make her unfamiliar to her step-family at the ball, and, enraged at "him" for "his" transgressions, they drag Ella out, kick her out of the house and drop her off at the farthest part of town. Why not encourage Ella's interest in the princess so they can be in-laws with the royal family? The step-family is so stupid. The whole "whichever woman can fit into this shoe" thing makes sense in this telling as the princess first met Ella when she was presenting as a man, and she was presenting as a woman at the ball. Ella grows roses, which is nice but also a bit out of the Cinderella lane; they are important to the plot. There's this whole thing about Ella working for/as a baker and making a life for herself that felt like it was starting to go somewhere, but then it didn't, which was, like, 'why, then?' to me. The ending is a bit rushed and fairy godmother ex machina, but it's a nice little retelling that I enjoyed. I'll probably end up buying the other book in this series later.  Trigger warnings: transphobia, transmisogyny, physical and verbal abuse, forced servitude/slavery as is usual in Cinderella

short book reviews for ebooks I read in May

The Case of Barton Manor by Emily Queen, read on May 9

This is a murder mystery set in England in the 1920s. Rosemary Lilywhite used to help her late husband run his private investigator business, but she decides to put that all behind her now that he's gone. However, an old classmate comes to her for help after her father receives a death threat. In order to help her, Rosemary must reenter society, putting up with her mostly annoying family and everyone's scrutinizing eyes. She has help from her best friend, a scandalous flapper, and the detective in charge of the investigation for the murders, a friend of Rosemary's and her late husband's who is secretly in love with her. Additional motivation to solve the murders comes in the form of Rosemary's brother being the main suspect! I enjoyed this freebook (free ebook) and it really helped pass the time at the reference desk. I liked Rosemary and her flapper bestie and found the 1920s high society stuff interesting, but the author would jump from Rosemary's POV into a side character's head in order to tell us what they were thinking in a jarring way that is telling rather than showing. I would read the rest of the books in this series if the ebooks are free. 3.5 out of 5 stars. Trigger warnings for murder, blood, violence, attempted kidnapping, guns, sexism, alcohol and drunkenness/blacking out, classism

 

Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin by Tabitha O'Connell, read on May 28

This novella is a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a nonbinary protagonist. The storyline closely follows the first half of the Disney Beauty and the Beast movie, except that "Belle" is dating "Gaston", and the inventor father is now the inventor mother. You can read the book summary here. The castle from the story is now the fabled castle of mythic mages, who are still talked about in fables told to children. No one even knew the castle existed. Worried about eir mother being trapped there with an injury, Heron leaves to go to her. The castle is just as cool and mysterious as other tellings' castles have been. Instead of the original (?) invisible servants or their floating hands (or Disney's anthropomorphized furnishings), there are automaton servants built by the mages. The "Beast" is the mysterious Theomer, who is not a beast or a mage but a quiet man hiding behind a cape and a wild mane of hair. The curse is hinted at in the title. Heron gets a job at the castle working as a gardener so ey can make some money to help eir mom and have time and space to think about what to do about eir partner Thiel, who keeps pushing em to move in with him. However, Heron and Theomer grow closer, and Theomer draws em in more than Thiel ever did... Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, but it left me wanting more. I wish the author had written a full-length novel instead of a novella so the relationship between Heron and Theomer as well as the curse could be fleshed out and dwelled on more. I highly recommend this book! 4 out of 5 stars; 1 chili pepper 🌶 for spice simply because there are off-page sex mentions and some kissing. Nonbinary (with neopronouns), queer, and gay representation. Trigger warnings for body horror, blood, uneven/controlling relationship dynamics, characters refusing to have adult conversations and running away from their problems

Book Review: Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa

Oliver Bennet feels trapped. Not just by the endless corsets, petticoats and skirts he's forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society's expectations. The world—and the vast majority of his family and friends—think Oliver is a girl named Elizabeth. He is therefore expected to mingle at balls wearing a pretty dress, entertain suitors regardless of his interest in them, and ultimately become someone's wife.

But Oliver can't bear the thought of such a fate. He finds solace in the few times he can sneak out of his family's home and explore the city rightfully dressed as a young gentleman. It's during one such excursion when Oliver becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky young man who had been rude to "Elizabeth" at a recent social function. But in the comfort of being out of the public eye, Oliver comes to find that Darcy is actually a sweet, intelligent boy with a warm heart. And not to mention incredibly attractive.

As Oliver is able to spend more time as his true self, often with Darcy, part of him dares begin to hope that his dream of love and life as a man could be possible. But suitors are growing bolder—and even threatening—and his mother is growing more desperate to see him settled into an engagement. Oliver will have to choose: settle for safety, security, and a life of pretending to be something he's not, or risk it all for a slim chance at freedom, love, and a life that can be truly, honestly his own.

 You already know Jane Austen adaptations and remakes are my jam, especially if they're LGBTQ+. That the author is latino is also a bonus. I bought the ebook when it went on sale, and read it on my Europe trip a few weeks ago. I really liked this book. I liked all the OG P&P references, but Novoa played around with them in a way that felt interesting and fresh; I didn't always know what was going to happen, in other words. For some reason the characters are all aged down; Oliver is 17 instead of 20, so his sisters are all aged down the same amount. I'm not sure why; maybe it's to appeal more to teenagers? (This book is YA.) This makes marriage less urgent for the Bennet girls, although Mrs. Bennet is just as frantic, if not more, about getting the girls married as she is in the original book for some reason. I think Darcy is 17 or 18. Oliver is only out to Jane and Charlotte Lucas, who is a lesbian and has a girlfriend!!! Said girlfriend (an original character) is married for the stability and because people are less focused on/more trusting of married women; this theme of marriage = necessary stability for queer people is one that Charlotte believes in and lectures Oliver about. Obviously Oliver hates the idea of being a wife, because he is not a woman. He's not sure the stability of that life would be worth it.

There are many, many instances of Oliver feeling dysphoric and triggered by wearing female clothing and people treating him and talking about/to him like he's a girl. It makes sense that this would happen, as he has to live like his assigned gender at birth 99% of the time. Charlotte has his boy clothes stashed at her house, so he says he's going to hang out with Charlotte, walks to her house, changes into his male clothes, and spends time as his real self. He becomes friends with Bingley and Darcy as his real self, and of course clashes with Darcy as a "girl". There's one scene where Bingley & Darcy invite Oliver into a gentlemen's club (think Holmes and Wooster, not today's meaning) and I was so concerned for him because he just had his long hair tucked into a top hat so he wouldn't be able to take it off without outing himself, but apparently this was not an issue? I didn't think gentlemen were allowed to just wear top hats indoors. I like how Oliver and Darcy bond over books. There was an interesting element in the concept of molly houses (which I knew to be brothels with male sex workers) as gay clubs?? Not sure if this is true, but it makes sense queer people would hang out there to be safe/gay with each other. 

SPOILERS thoughts, highlight to read: Wickham would so totally out Darcy for being gay. Because all the characters are aged down, Wickham doesn't groom Lydia into running off with him (although he does try it with Georgiana, who is the same age as in the book.) He sets his sights on Oliver instead. I thought it was kind of weird that Darcy is gay, Wickham and Oliver know he's gay, and Darcy likes reading books by/about gay men and hangs out at molly houses to do so, yet has a closeted gay freakout when he and Oliver kiss?? That makes little sense. I don't think Mr. Collins would actually think a trans son would be a legal threat to his inheritance. Oliver comes out to his dad and he's super accepting, which made me so happy :')  The rest of his family accepts him too!

In all, I really liked this P&P retelling, and will have to read more from this author. I recommend it to people who like their classics retellings queer and to Austen fans who don't mind reading retellings that deviate from the original. 

Score: ★★★★½ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 1 out of 5 chilies (kissing, sex mentions)
Read in: May 6
From: Barnes & Noble/Nook

Representation: gay trans man main character, cis gay man character, cis lesbian side characters

Trigger warnings: transphobia, dysphoria, homophobia, a character outs a queer character (to, unbeknownst to him, another queer character, but still), closeted trans and queer characters (period-typical), misgendering (usually unintentionally), lesbian characters in heterosexual marriages, an attempt is made to force a trans man character to marry and live as a woman, period-typical sexism, blackmail in the form of threatened outing. Gabe Cole Novoa has a list of trigger warnings in the beginning of the book

Book Review: Mer Made by S.T. Lynn

Erika, who has to hide being a trans woman, sneaks on deck in her mother's dress in the dead of night and a superstitious deckhand throws her overboard from the ship. But drowning at sea isn't how Erika plans to die. She cuts a deal with a sea witch for more than her life--for the first time, she is transformed into the woman she's always known was inside. Her dress becomes a mermaid tail, and all it took was her voice.

However, the witch is on the hunt for the undersea throne, the seat of power. Ariel, the last daughter of the king, must marry in three days or the first place Erika has ever called home will be destroyed. The magic of true love is the only thing that can save them now.

This was an ebook that I downloaded for free and read on the Nook app. As you know, I am a sucker for any and all kinds of fairytale retellings, especially LGBTQ+ ones. Obviously this is a The Little Mermaid retelling, but specifically a retelling of the Disney version of the story (Erika = Eric). I read it for the Trans Rights Readathon in late March.

I thought it was well-written, although there were some errors (shined used instead of shone. I myself had to add several commas to the summary above). While I understand that the sailor throwing Erika overboard needed to happen so the story could happen, I thought it was kind of ridiculous. Obviously I know about the superstition that a woman on board a ship is bad luck, but for a sailor to be so superstitious that he sees a woman on board, grabs her, and throws her overboard??? No one would do that. He would be in such big trouble for drowning a passenger, especially one connected to the governor (Erika's transphobic dad). Sailors might be superstitious but they are practical. I liked Atlantis (that's what the merpeople city was called, right?) and thought the worldbuilding was well done; I want to visit it.

The problems were all solved kind of quickly and through magic: Erika is saved from drowning by Ursula who turns her into a mermaid (fair), Erika's voice being stolen from her by Ursula is solved by Ariel magically copying and pasting her knowledge of sign language into Erika's brain, plus the big issue at the end of the book that I won't spoil for you. I did like how diverse Atlantis is; there's tons of physical diversity, so Erika (who is Black with dark skin) fits right in, and there are enough deaf merpeople that everyone learns sign language by default, which is cool. It's also a queer-norm society, so I'm not sure why the Rule/Prophecy or whatever specified that Ariel needed a husband. I thought Erika and Ariel's friendship and then mutual pining was cute; the whole thing about them falling in love while trying to find Ariel a husband in three days for The Big Issue was a bit silly and done before. Overall, though, I did enjoy this short cute retelling of The Little Mermaid and would recommend it. S.T. Lynn has written at least one more Black trans fairytale retelling that I'd like to check out. 

Mer Made aesthetics moodboard

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0.5 out of 5 chilies 🌶 (just kissing)
Read in: March 27
From: Barnes & Noble/Nook  

Representation: Transgender, trans woman, Black, character with dark skin, sapphic (lesbian, bi/pan/omni etc. women), mute character, sign language usage, mentioned deaf rep (no named characters)

Trigger warnings: transphobia, near-drowning, misogyny, sexism, mentioned past physical abuse, abusive parent, parent death, grief, instead of having Erika agree to sign away her voice for a pair of legs mermaid tail, Ursula just took it without asking, which, hello, consent!

Book Review: Northranger by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo

Cade has always loved to escape into the world of a good horror movie. After all, horror movies are scary—but to Cade, a closeted queer Latino teen growing up in rural Texas—real life can be way scarier.

When Cade is sent to spend the summer working as a ranch hand to help earn extra money for his family, he is horrified. Cade hates everything about the ranch, from the early mornings to the mountains of horse poop he has to clean up. The only silver lining is the company of the two teens who live there—in particular, the ruggedly handsome and enigmatic Henry.

But as unexpected sparks begin to fly between Cade and Henry, things get… complicated. Henry is reluctant to share the details of his mother’s death, and Cade begins to wonder what else he might be hiding. 

I had heard about this book on (surprise, surprise) Bookstagram and immediately added it to my to-read list. A gay Jane Austen retelling starring a latino character? Hell yeah, this was made for me. I bought this from a local-ish comic book store booth at my local pride.

This graphic novel retelling of the usually overlooked Northanger Abbey follows its source material pretty closely. Gothic novel fan Catherine is now horror movie-obsessed Cade, who feels alienated from his family and community for being gay. The book summary pretty clearly lays out how he feels about having to work at the ranch; Cade, who already sticks out for being latino in a rural, white area, also hides his gay identity for obvious reasons. This is difficult because he's falling for sweet and hunky Henry (same first name as Northanger Abbey's love interest). Henry Tilney is one of my favorite Austen leading men because he's so witty and funny; Northranger!Henry is nice but not that funny, probably because it's draining to be a closeted gay Christian in the South who's endured familial loss. Due to (mostly unintentional) eavesdropping and ominous accusations made by a disgruntled farm hand, Cade gets the idea that something terrible happened at Henry's family's lake house, maybe even murder. Is Cade living in a horror movie? Could he be falling in love with a serial killer?? If you've read Northanger Abbey, you know where that line of thinking is going, but it's a wild ride anyway. 

This is a fantastic book, both as a Northanger Abbey adaptation and as an exploration of being gay and closeted in the heteronormative, Christian South. I can't say I enjoyed the book, as it's always harrowing to read about homophobia, racism and xenophobia, plus I'm a wuss when it comes to scary stories, but I'm so glad I bought and read it. 

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0.5 out of 5 chilies 🌶 (just kissing)
Read in: September 19
From: 4 Color Fantasies pride booth
Status: keeping for now

Aesthetics moodboard for Northranger 

Representation: gay, second/third generation Hispanic/Latino American (I think Cade is Mexican American?), anxiety (not explicitly stated), step-/blended family, queer Christian

Trigger warnings: homophobia, racism, ethnic/racial slurs, xenophobia, sexism, alcoholism, suicide (voluntary euthanasia), terminal illness, cancer, conversion therapy mention, being closeted, horror/suspense themes, mental illness, animal abuse, family struggling financially, alcoholic character is racist & homophobic antagonist (demonization of alcoholism)

Book Review: Ash by Malinda Lo

Spoilers throughout, since I'm incapable of talking about a book without saying them

Malinda Lo's books have at least tangentially been on my radar for a while because she writes a lot of fairytale retellings, and those are my favorites. I've never read anything by her, though, as I don't read a lot of YA these days (well, much less than I used to in my twenties). I got this one from Book Outlet, unsurprisingly. Book summary:

In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Their friendship, as delicate as a new bloom, reawakens Ash's capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing and empowering, Ash beautifully unfolds the connections between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

Everyone is familiar with the sadness of the Cinderella story: Cinderella's father is dead, or isn't around to defend/protect her from her wicked stepmother and stepsisters; said steps treat her cruelly and force her to be a servant; they don't let her go to the ball. But Ash is soaked with grief from beginning (we open on Ash's mother's funeral) to almost the end. Grief and a desire to escape is the constant throughout the story. An explanation is given for the stepmother forcing Ash to be a servant: Ash's father saddled the family with his debt when he died. The numbness from grief and depression explains why she stays and doesn't fight back. Ash does feel grief about her father's death, but it's more about losing the last bit of childhood safety and security that she had. If her grief for her father's death is a lake, her grief for her mother's death is the ocean.

The plot with Sidhean is interesting. You may have gathered from the name that the country this book is set in is based heavily on, or is a version of, medieval/renaissance Ireland (Ash's actual name is Aisling, pronounced ASH-ling). The fairies of this book and its stories are the dangerous, alluring fairies of Irish (and other) folklore. They spirit unsuspecting or enthralled humans away, steal babies and leave changelings, time in fairyland is different than time in the human world, and they are said to be found in the deep forest. Ash returns to the forest again and again for this reason. Her life is so miserable that she'd prefer to be taken by the fairies, and wonders if they took her mother. Ash's dynamic with Sidhean, who of course is gorgeous, alluring, and kind of creepy in his unhumaness, is very standard YA/sometimes adult fantasy romance. She is attracted to him, literally; she is drawn to him like a pin to a magnet. She continually asks him when he will take her away. She is SPOILER the one human Sidhean has ever fallen in love with, due to a curse. That Ash ends up with the huntress Kaisa instead is truly the funniest form of straightbating I've ever seen. I knew it was going to happen, but the way their dynamic is written made me question it, as the straight pairing really feels inevitable. END SPOILER

The dynamic with Kaisa is interesting. She's the King's Huntress, which is such a kickass title and job to have. Their relationship is a really slow-burn one, in contrast to the instant attraction to Sidhean. At first they just seem like friends. While Sidhean represents the deep, dangerous, and dark part of the forest, Kaisa is the normal, light-filled, nature part of the forest. Ash has been cooped up in the house and walked constantly in the dark of the forest, hoping to be taken, but Kaisa brings light into her life, offering her kindness and friendship to Ash. Kaisa teaches Ash to ride a horse. Ash goes to the royal hunt and the ball to see her. It may seem to most readers that less time and effort is spent on developing or depicting the relationship between Ash and Kaisa, that it lacks the spark that Ash and Sidhean have, but it's important that love is shown as not the flash of attraction, but as a quiet, steady thing you build together over time. 

I loved the little flashes of queerness in this book. It is of course very queer to feel as if one doesn't belong, to long for escape, and to be hated or abandoned by one's family, sadly. Read this article for a queer mini-analysis of Cinderella. The first time Ash feels seen after her parents' deaths and enslavement is when the huntress before Kaisa visits the manor Ash's stepfamily are guests at and smiles at and talks to her, telling her a fairytale and maybe winks at her? Ash feels alive and is a bit disappointed when the huntress leaves without looking at her again. Kaisa tells her a fairytale about a huntress and fairy queen falling in love (!) to gauge if Ash is queer. When at her stepmother's relative's house, the other servants convince her to sneak off with them to a bonfire costume party and give her a (boy's) page uniform to wear. Ash is struck at how transformed she is in male clothing, and she likes what she sees in the mirror. At the bonfire, she sees two women laughing and kissing. There is no homophobia in this universe, although heteronormativity exists. The prince still needs to marry a princess, and when Ash sees him, she wonders why her stepsisters would ever find him handsome (lol). I think today's teens would get too impatient with the lack of overt queerness (besides KAisha), as this book was published ten years ago. This was one of the first mainstream lesbian YA books, and one of the first with a happy ending. There is something healing about reading a lesbian/queer fairytale retelling, as fairytales are told to children from a young age, and are part of the indoctrination into heteronormativity. 

 My only quibble is that there is no comeuppance for the stepmother and bitchy stepsister (in keeping with other adaptations, one stepsister is nice-ish). I didn't want birds to peck their eyes out, but for Ash to stand up to them and tell them exactly how she felt about them treating her like that would have been nice. She just leaves without saying anything. Anyway, I really liked this book and am glad I bought and read it. Lo's writing is just lovely and brings to mind Robin McKinley and Patricia M. Wrede. 

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: June 7-8
From: Book Outlet
Status: keep

Cover notes: A typical example of the YA fairytale retelling from the 2000s. The girl (who appears to be Asian, like Lo, even though Ash/Aisling is probably Irish) is posed in a way that recalls Ash lying down on her mother's grave. She was wearing clothes over the corset & petticoats, though.

Trigger warnings for this book:  child abuse, (step)parental abuse, child enslavement, domestic slavery, physical abuse of child/teen, child and young adult locked in cellar, controlling and isolation of child/teen/young adult, immortal adult fairy man could be seen as grooming young human teen girl, death, grief, girl threatened with homelessness, it is implied that girl will be raped if she is homeless, adult viciously cuts girl's hair off as punishment, kidnapping mentions, animal death, hunting, blood, gore, magic/enchantment, magical curses

Book Review: Pride: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi

I love Jane Austen's books and I love retellings, so I bought this book (probably at Barnes & Noble). It sat on my Austen shelf for years until I read it last week for Black History Month. Book summary:

Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable.

When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding.

But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.

I really liked this book. I loved picking up on all the twists on the original story (Benitez = Bennet, Charlize = Charlotte, Colin = Mr. Collins). It's actually a pretty close retelling, despite the modern Brooklyn setting. Zuri, who is Dominican and Haitian American, has such a strong, confident voice. She has dreams and goals and writes slam poetry. It was soul-affirming to have a(n Afro)latine protagonist and family star in this book; they all loved each other and were there for each other no matter what. I also loved the Madrina character, who as far as I can tell takes the role of the Bennets' aunt character. She's a warm and loving Boricua Santeria priestess who counsels Zuri on her problems. I didn't think Darius had the same character arc as Mr. Darcy, as his and Zuri's interactions weren't the same as Mr. Darcy's and Lizzie's. He just chilled out some and fixed his face. The first person present tense this book is written in will also put some readers off, but it does keep us firmly in Zuri's viewpoint as she is the narrator. Anyway, I really liked this book and you should read it. 

Cover notes: Please try to find a big, hi-res image of this book cover, because it is gorgeous. It's a tactile bronze scrollwork deal with flowers and vines and such, with the title being spray-painted across. Just lovely. My hardcover has the Darius and Zuri bust portraits facing each other in the endpapers too. 

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: February 23-24
From: probably Barnes & Noble
Status: tentatively keep

Trigger warnings for this book: a minor's nudes are leaked by an older boy who groomed her, said older boy attempts to groom another young teenaged girl, alcohol use by minors, drunkenness, partying, physical fight, drug dealing mentions, racism mentions, classism, implied colorism, implied respectability politics, teens sneak out of the house to attend parties, police show up briefly

Book Review: Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin

I bought Starry River of the Sky from the Dollar Store because of the gorgeous purple cover and because I love kids' fantasy books, plus this one is diverse and has folklore I'm unfamiliar with. Here is the B&N summary:

The moon is missing from the remote Village of Clear Sky, but only a young boy named Rendi seems to notice! Rendi has run away from home and is now working as a chore boy at the village inn. He can't help but notice the village's peculiar inhabitants and their problems.

But one day, a mysterious lady arrives at the Inn with the gift of storytelling, and slowly transforms the villagers and Rendi himself. As she tells more stories and the days pass in the Village of Clear Sky, Rendi begins to realize that perhaps it is his own story that holds the answers to all those questions.

The main story is told from Rendi's viewpoint, with various characters telling stories to one another. The accompanying artwork and the gorgeous cover art is all done by the author, Grace Lin, herself! I enjoyed reading the new to me folktales and piecing together Rendi's and the villagers' stories. This story would be a great one to read to kids. The chapters are short and easy to read, as the reading level is for kids 8-12 years old (I would have been able to read this book at 7). I have not read any other books by Grace Lin, but I plan to. It must be difficult to make one's writing lyrical when writing for children, but she does it. This book reminded me a bit of Dragonwings by Laurence Yep, as it's also about an angry, far from home Chinese boy in the "real world" who finds himself dealing with mythological figures. This book also discusses loss, grief, and big feelings. I love fairytales, folklore, mythology, and the moon, and if you do too, read this book. 

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: February 15
From: Dollar Store
Status: give away

Trigger warnings for this book: attempted kidnapping, child tied up and threatened with death and violence, animal maimed by accident, verbally abusive father, violence and killing mentions in stories, adults are drugged with poisoned wine but recover, death mentions, theft, wine mentions (several), child teases/bullies younger child, period-typical sexism, angry child with attitude problems, child runs away

September books

 I actually read more than 2 or 3 books in September! Love that journey for me.

Immediately after Remember Me?, I read She's Come Undone, which was a mistake. It's just so horribly sad and depressing in a way that is in no way hinted at in the rather quirky summary. Wally Lamb is a good writer, and I cared about Dolores and wanted her to be happy, but yikes. Dolores is aptly named; the author points this out quite obviously in a patting-himself-on-the-back-for-being-so-clever way, and puts her through all sorts of sad situations. There is sort of a happy ending, at least, and Dolores finds the love she so craves. I did find the 1950s-70s upbringing interesting. Massive, massive trigger warnings for rape of a child, grooming by a predator, domestic violence, mental illness and institutionalization, fatphobia, nonconsensual sexual situations, semi-manipulated abortion, death, sex, homophobia, predatory lesbian trope, AIDS, stalking, religious abuse, alcohol and drug mentions/usage, binge eating and eating disorders, stillbirth, racism from an elderly character, infidelity. There's probably more but that's all I can think of. I left it behind in Mexico with a note telling my family not to read it (there's no way my Christian parents can handle that kind of story). Cover notes: I actually picked this up due to the interesting cover and title. It's actually the title of a 1970s song. 3 stars (4 stars for writing + 2 stars for story). 

Immediately after flying back from Mexico, I flew to New York to visit my sister and her family (I have a nephew now and he's the cutest baby in the world). We mostly hung out and went to restaurants and

bookstores. I bought Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman from Westsiders Rare & Used Books (such a fun bookstore). This feminist utopia is a reread for me, and I love it. Read my previous review here, and my mini essay comparing it to The Left Hand of Darkness here. It's so interesting how she points out that a lot of what we consider gender or how women naturally are is a result of the patriarchy and its gender roles (this was written in 1915!). However, I noticed this time how eugenics-y the book is: the Herland women are all white, despite being in a hidden part of South America or something, and they've deliberately bred themselves to be strong and tall and good at stuff and resist disease and smart, etc. I didn't really realize it until I read a quote from CPG that said that white men and women need to come together to improve the lower races, or something. All the great 19th and 20th century white feminists were all racist as hell, unfortunately. Anyway, I do like this book, but be aware of the racism and eugenics-y ways of thinking. It's critical of capitalism, the patriarchy, and Christianity (but rightfully so, imo). Loved the misandry though. 4 stars, keeping. 

Another reread this month was James Finn Garner's Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. These are fun PC satires of classic fairy tales, and it's funny to read how the tales were transformed. For instance, Red Robin Hood and the wolf chop up the woodcutter for being so sexist and speciest as to think RRH needed his help with the wolf. Per usual, one isn't sure whether Garner is poking fun at capitalism etc. or PC culture itself. I reread this one because I'm giving the series away. Trigger warnings for fairytale-typical violence, I guess? 3.5 stars, giving away. 

My last read for September was The Chickens Are Restless, a The Far Side comics compilation. I love Gary Larson's The Far Side so much. I got this from the thrift store, and I'm pretty sure I'd already seen all of these (although there were some comics I didn't remember seeing before). These are classics for a reason. I wonder, if I were to walk past all the faculty office doors at my school, how many would have a TFS comic taped to it. Probably a lot, in the sciences. 4 stars, keeping.

October-December 2016 books

I started but did not finish The Well at the End of the World by William Morris (early November), which I downloaded for free on my Nook. The author's name sounded familiar to me so I googled him, and it turns out he's one of the Pre-Raphaelites and the dude that founded the Kelmscott Press, which I learned about in my history of the book class! This explains why the language is extremely old fashioned: that is definitely the way someone obsessed with medieval romance would write. I don't see anyone who isn't at least somewhat an English major being able to understand more than 60% of the writing, though. It makes Charles Dickens sound like Ernest Hemingway. What helped me is that Catherine, Called Birdy was one of my favorite books growing up. Anyway it was pretty good and I can see why people like the Inklings liked it, but I stopped reading it once I stopped traveling. It was just really dense and pretty slow-moving, although I do want to finish it sometime.

Barnes & Noble sent me a 20 or 30% off coupon, so I used it to buy Neil Gaiman's The Spindle and the Sleeper (early December), which was really good. I love and am interested in all fairytale retellings, so when I saw that Neil Gaiman wrote a feminist version of Sleeping Beauty where Snow White saves Sleeping Beauty since she knows what it's like to be trapped in magical slumber, I had to have it. It's a picture book but not necessarily for children; I can see them getting scared of it since there's a lot of freaky stuff in that book. It was illustrated by Chris Riddell, who has illustrated a lot of Neil Gaiman's stuff, and the illustrations are gorgeous and creepy, just the way you'd expect. I'm going to talk about spoilery stuff below the cut. 4/5 stars

I'm continuing my Artemis Fowl series reread, so I read The Arctic Incident and The Eternity Code (books 2 and 3) in early and late December, respectively. These are a great series for very late elementary and middle schoolers. They've got heists and magic and fairy folk and technology and a smart-aleck genius kid who outsmarts adults. I have to admit that, rereading as an adult, they seemed way shorter and less OMG than they did when I first read them. 3.9,4/5 stars

I kind of wanted to continue my holiday tradition of reading my Christmas with Anne L.M. Montgomery holiday anthology and A Christmas Carol, but as I moved in December I packed up my books and couldn't get to them.

Flash book reviews: October

There was an ebook I read in October that I'm not going to share the title of because it was stupid, but it annoyed me that the Mexican American protagonist was said to have "two middle names" which turned out to be just her full name, including both parents' surnames, which is the Spanish naming custom. I don't remember exactly what the protagonist's name was anymore, but I'll use Maria Elena Garcia Romero as an example. The author/characters were trying to pass this off as Maria (again, not her name but I don't remember what it was) having two middle names, Elena and Garcia, even though that is NOT how the naming thing works in Hispanic cultures. Both surnames are considered just that, surnames. AND, they said that the surnames were her mother's first and her father's second. That is not how it works either!!!!! You always put the father's surname first and then the mother's. UGH. Authors, do your research before writing stuff about people from cultures that are not yours. This annoyed me a lot.

Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet, early-mid October (free Nook ebook)
This book is about a Reaper (Grim is their boss) whose job is transporting souls to the proper afterlife and making sure demons don't get them. She's drawn into a larger political scheme that threatens the very fabric of Limbo and has to juggle that plus dating an angel. This is the first in a series so it didn't have a resolved ending. There is a lot of exposition, basically tons of world-building through explanation. None of the characters really stood out to me much. I thought it was interesting how all the different mythological and religious characters from various cultures coexisted in Limbo (I don't think that's the actual name but I don't remember what it was and I'm too lazy to look it up). I also thought it sucked that the protagonist and her friends went through the same stuff as ordinary human people: a job that can be a drag, having to pay overpriced rent, etc. This author's definitely read Pratchett and Gaiman but isn't them. I can read any amount of fantasy but when it involves angels I get uneasy. I kind of want to know what happens next but I doubt I'll go out of my way to get the other books. Maybe if I come across them in the library or their ebooks become free. 3.9/5

The Shadow and the Rose by Amanda DeWees. October 12 (free Nook ebook)
This book is based on Tam Lin (one of the few fairytales I haven't read) and is the first of a series. An ordinary girl falls in love with a hot dude who is in thrall of a powerful gorgeous woman and has to save him. I had high hopes for this one (I love books where the girl saves the guy as well as fairytale retellings) but it fell flat. The characters all were cardboard cutouts and I was mad at myself for not figuring out what the villainess was before being told, despite it being pretty obvious in hindsight. There was a bizarre plot point that just made it too much for me. I do want to read the others, kinda. 3.9/5

The Ink Readers by Thomas Holdeveult. October 12 (free Nook ebook)
This is a short story/novella set in a Thailand village about wishes. There's a wish festival and the villagers have different wishes that all end up coming true in some way, although not in the way the wishers expected. The writing was lyrical and humorous, but ultimately I am skeptical of white authors writing about cultures not their own. I feel like it might be a little dodgy race/cultural appropriation-wise, and I hated that a child in the book died (and this somehow answered his wish? His murderers got their comeuppance at least). There was some crude stuff too. 3.9/5

Until I Found You by Victoria Bylin. mid-late October (free Nook ebook)
Christian romance set in SoCal. The heroine is a graphic designer who has to take care of her grandmother who's had a stroke. On her way there she gets into a dramatic car accident and is saved by a hot newly Christian magazine editor and like many other books the heroine has to Learn To Trust and Open Her Heart To Both Love And Jesus etc. etc. Also the endangered California condors are a theme throughout (they mate for life!). Here is a bulleted list of all the things I found problematic, typically from a feminist standpoint:

• super wimpy and damsel in distress-y heroine, always crying and needing to be saved by the hero
•  Bad thing happens, heroine cries and the hero saves/helps her, rinse and repeat. It's like that was the only thing the author knew to do to move the plot along and create conflict.
• all-too-common work vs. family choice that women so often have to make, made to be about her faith and relationship with the guy. Like choosing to continue as a famous rich celebrity's graphic designer for her spa ads would have been the unChristian thing to do and then the guy wouldn't have been able to be with her because of her worldiness? choosing self?, which is bogus. The core choice by itself is already hard enough without adding that.
• Seriously, the famous celebrity and the hero squared off on a virtual battle over the heroine's soul. I'm not kidding. The celebrity was all "I'm going to make her my successor and the daughter I never had and I won't let YOU get in the way!" and her plastic surgeries and focus on youth and multiple failed marriages are harped on a lot. This book takes a really weird and regressive view of Women With Ambition.
• guy's one night stand (before he became a Christian, of course) painted as abandonment to the resulting baby he didn't even know about, because he just slept with the woman and didn't make a commitment. O...kay? They took precautions against getting pregnant which didn't work, but the woman didn't tell him she was pregnant. She obviously didn't want him in the picture and only hit him up for financial help for all the medical bills and funeral costs after the baby died. That's really sad but it doesn't really mean he Abandoned the baby. It wasn't his fault. 
• grandmother's anecdotes about not being able to have children and her resulting grief and emotional estrangement from her husband painted as her being Selfish and Self-Centered and A Bad Wife As Well As A Bad Christian. Her husband, instead of trying to comfort her in her grief, was all "is that all I am to you, just someone who can give you a baby?" Once she repented and "served her husband with her body" EW EW EW EW EW, she eventually got the baby she so craved. 
• The baby grew up and got married and had the protagonist and died tragically young along with his wife, so clearly no one in this story is allowed to have nice things. Lotta death in this book. Body count: the grandfather (past), the heroine's parents (past), the hero's baby (past). P. unnecessary imo

3/5

Flash book reviews because I am super behind

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge (May 10)
Til We Have Faces meets Pandora's Box meets Howl's Moving Castle meets Rose Daughter. I LOVED THIS WOW. 4/5

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (May 31-June 6)
Thrift store purchase because it had a pretty cover. Gothic novel told through flashbacks, journal entries, letters, etc. set in WWII and present day (1990s). Well-written, atmospheric mystery. Initially sucked me in but in the end I sort of hated it due to the difficult, controlling, messed up family situation and unnecessary deaths. No one in this book gets to have nice things. 3.9/5

Dracula by Bram Stoker (mid June)
I read this for the fantasy & science fiction class I enrolled in from Coursera. I know it's a classic, and upon reading it I can see why, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's surprisingly religious and Mina is pretty awesome, despite how Perfect Victorian Woman she is. 4/5

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (June 17)
I've been following Noelle Stevenson on Tumblr for years now. This was originally a webcomic, and I had read all but the last chapter or so since I got busy with school and work. It's a sort of steampunk (not Victorian or much steam, just knights who fight with mechanical lances and mad scientists researching magic) graphic novel about a "villain" and his mysterious sidekick trying to overthrow an oppressive government. This was wonderful and I enjoyed it. The feels. 4/5

Here There Be Unicorns by Jane Yolen (June)
This was such a favorite of mine growing up. I used to read it from our public library all the time. I had some credit in my Amazon account so I bought this. It's such a weird experience rereading a book you loved as a child and haven't read since then. It's always much shorter and less impactful, less substantial, in a way. You're a different person who has learned and grown a lot since then so it doesn't affect you like it used to. Still, I have a lot of love for this book. I was kind of amazed that  I loved it that much as a kid, since the stories/poems are pretty advanced and open-ended/vague rather than having happy, tidy endings, and I was a lot less used to sad, philosophical stories back than than I am now. 4/5

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (late June)
I guess I see why this is a classic, as this is the first science fiction novel (written by a teenage girl, so take that, sexist nerd bros who think SF is only for guys), but I kind of hated this. Victor is an idiot, tons of unnecessary deaths, and no one is allowed to have nice things. Just misery. Also, I downloaded a random free ebook from the Nook store because I was feeling too lazy to connect my Nook ereader to my laptop in order to download the version supplied by the instructor of my SF/F class and it had the worst formatting I'd ever seen. Whole paragraphs, pages, were jumbles of letters with symbols. Terrible. 3.5/5

Jane by April Lindner

Read in early May. *Heavy spoilers*
This book is a modern-day retelling of Jane Eyre, which is one of my favorite books. I'd read about it on some YA blog a while back and made a mental note of it, but I didn't actually get this book until I came across it almost by accident in my favorite thrift store. While it is updated, it stays really close to the book. Recently orphaned Jane drops out of college to work as the nanny for a rock star's daughter. She's hired because she doesn't care about celebrities, but of course she falls in love with Nico the rock star blah blah wife in the attic, you know how it goes. The setting is the US East coast, and everyone who was English is now American, while the 'foreigners' are still p. much the same nationalities. The author said that she was struggling to figure out how to update the class differences (huge in the 19th century, not so much now) until she hit on the fame/celebrity thing.
I initially thought it was weird that this Jane was recently orphaned and had siblings she was estranged from (so she couldn't rely on them when her parents died), but Lindner actually combined Jane's dead parents with her abusive aunt's family, which really makes sense. Jane's brother is the abusive boy cousin, and her sister steps in for the prettier and cossetted yet selfish girl cousins. Her cold and neglectful mother who definitely favors her older two siblings over her and lets her know it all the time is basically the same person as the aunt (like if Lucille Bluth weren't funny at all), while her kind but emotionally distant and always steamrolled by his wife father is the dead uncle. It makes sense to combine the two families in this way, and it kind of makes it more heartrending since it is her own immediate family and not some semi-distant relatives who are obsessed with class and look down on her for living on their charity like in the original. It's worse, and her parents dying kind of keep Jane from being able to resolve these issues with them. The part of the book where Jane goes back to nurse her dying aunt and forgives her is turned into Jane going to visit her sister since her brother's crashing at her place after his ex-girlfriend (whom he also abused) kicks him out, and the sister wants him gone. Jane is able to get some closure re: his being a total psychopathic abuser, but it's not this touching "I forgive you!" stuff, but it makes sense that it wouldn't be. I wish he'd died in a bar brawl or whatever like the cousin in the original too; I didn't really feel like he got a comeuppance or what he deserved. We just saw that he's a pathetic awful mess and will always be that way since all his problems are his own fault and he refuses to see that.
Helen Burns is sidelined as her college roommate and former best friend that moves to Idaho or some such and doesn't really talk to her anymore, which kinda makes sense since pretty much everyone sees the meat of the story being in the Jane x Rochester dynamic, which it is, but her relationship with Helen is one of the most important in her life because it's pretty much the first person to show her real, unconditional love she didn't have to earn. No mention of the favorite teacher, either, from what I remembered. Adele is p. much the same as well. Her mom was a French pop star who took her toddler daughter to nightclubs all the time. Poor thing. I wish they'd let Adele keep her French; as a bilingual kid, keeping my native tongue is so important to me. There's like no French in this book.
The Rivers siblings become the St. John siblings (heh), and they are all pretty much the same. The boy is written like he might have like Aspergers or at least be intensely focused on things like Sherlock from the BBC show, and the sibling dynamic between them all is the same as well ("our brother's a genius with a heart for the poor!!" stop enabling him, sisters). The thing where St. John is attracted to a rich nice girl but refuses to consider dating her because mission work is there too; the only twist is that he doesn't want to get together with her and go with him not because she's so frail she'll probably die of tropical diseases, but because her dad owns some pharmaceutical company and he distrusts where her real loyalties lie. The ridiculously illogical pragmatism is the same. The mission field is in Haiti instead of India, which makes sense, and Jane practices French with him. The "Jane study Hindi with me instead of German" thing is replaced by volunteering at a soup kitchen. The creepy "Jane come be a missionary with me but we have to get married" thing is still there too but it makes even less sense than in the original since no one raises an eyebrow at girls and boys traveling together anymore; St. John's just like "we may as well be a couple since we have the same passions and we'll be working together all the time so it will probably happen anyway, who cares about attraction or chemistry" and it's somehow creepier in modernity.
Nico/Rochester's nonsense is unsurprisingly way creepier and controlling than in the original; what kind of grown-ass fortysomething man playing all these games to manipulate an inexperienced nineteen year old girl, as I kept yelling throughout the book. The playful banter/we're arguing because\but we're in love thing where Jane really just has him in the palm of her hand (I think Mallory referred to this as "topping from the bottom" [sorry, direct quote] but she may have been talking about Pamela instead) is really sadly lost. Apart from her quietly but firmly not letting herself be showered with gifts and jetsetted around the world like a typical rockstar's girlfriend, there's none of that dynamic that makes their relationship be swoony or aspirational at all (not that you should aspire to this kind of relationship omfg please don't). You know what I mean? She has like 1/4th the power she has in the original, so it loses a lot of the fun. The awed gratitude is still there, but the exultation "finally somebody loves me" is not. The "we are mental and spiritual equals, solemates" thing is mostly gone.
The Blanche Ingram character is the same, except she is an Annie Leibovitz type. I don't have much to say about her. That weird racist brownface g*psy thing that Rochester does just turns into a girlfriend of Nico's bandmate's reading Jane's tarot cards, which is less exciting and it's not like Nico had her rig their results. Nico's bandmates (he's a rock star, remember) all have girlfriends who are like models and stuff, and they are nice to and befriend Jane, which I liked.
Bertha is like a Brazilian socialite/model/Nico's wife that Nico got hooked on drugs and he feels guilty since it triggered her schizophrenia which keeps her murderous and violent and she refuses/will only pretend to take her medication and that's why he keeps her locked up in the attic. Nico's "DO YOU KNOW HOW AWFUL THOSE PLACES ARE, JANE???" when she reasonably asks him why he doesn't put Bertha in a mental institution where they actually have the facilities and teams of trained mental health professionals to deal with murderous schizophrenics instead of a perpetually drunk caregiver since this is unnecessarily endangering him, his staff, and HIS FIVE-YEAR OLD DAUGHTER, SERIOUSLY, loses a ton of weight since they don't chain crazies to the wall in damp, rat-infested basements or see mental illness as paramount to being a criminal (much) anymore. The mental illness thing isn't treated much better in the modern version than it is in the nineteenth century version; it's just updated with drugs and modern names.
Jane leaves Nico because he constantly lied to her when she gave him ample chances to tell her the truth, not because she's afraid she'll throw away her morals and live with him in sin as his mistress. This change makes sense since that's not the immoral, life-ruining thing it used to be seen as. I would have been interested to see how Jane's faith was updated and handled. I've always found it interesting that Jane, despite being religiously bullied by fundamentalist extremists at a girls' home, still developed a spiritual life that was important to her, in large part due to the important relationships she built up with her best friend and favorite teacher, both spiritual, loving people. Since both of those relationships were excised from the modern retelling, it makes sense that Jane's spirituality was too.
Here is the thing that bothered me most: you know after Thornfield Hall being set on fire and Rochester being maimed/blinded trying to save Bertha who jumps off the building and dies, then when Jane learns about this she immediately goes back to him? Well, instead of being penitent and repenting of his asshattish behavior, Nico is all "YOU LEFT ME JANE!!! HOW COULD YOU!!! I WAS IN AGONY WORRYING ABOUT YOU!!!" and Jane is all ":((( that was so wrong of me I'm so sorry my love!" PUKE. F that S. SHE LEFT HIM BECAUSE HE LIED TO AND MANIPULATED HER! THAT'S ON HIM! As Peggy says in Agent Carter, "You don't get to use my reaction to your behaviour as an excuse for your behaviour!" Nico/Rochester does not see the error of his ways or realize that what happened was because of him and his behavior and repent. He does not become humbled, only embittered. He doesn't go through this mental and behavioral change and develop a character and becomes the kind of man Jane deserves. This is the book/relationship's main redeeming quality. I am disappointed in this book because it's the most important part and it did not happen.
OH, ALSO, some mysterious relative does not die and leave Jane with a fortune of her own, which is the most important thing, relationships aside, that happens to Jane in the book. This is undoubtedly because then she'd have to share it with her awful siblings, but at the very least the worthless stocks her parents left her could have suddenly started increasing in value. I mean in the modern retelling Jane sleeps with Nico/Rochester, but she doesn't become rich and she doesn't discover she has nice family relations and no one gets the comeuppance/character change they deserve/need, so what's the point?

Pros/things I liked about this book, Jane the modern Jane Eyre: 
faithful adaptation that dealt with the different factors in interesting ways
Jane is befriended by Nico's bandmates' model/actress girlfriends, which is nice
Jane and Nico sleep together, if you're into that. I guess it is realistic for our time but I was just like meh

Cons/things I did not like about this adaptation
lol everything outlined above
no comeuppance for those who deserved it
Jane didn't feel as Jane-ish as she should have
relationship dynamic not the same
Jane's spiritual life/outlook, which is an important part of her and the way she sees things, is excised from the book
3.5 out of 5 stars