Read this for all the sick Mr. Rochester burns.

Project: Catch Up On Review Backlog, review #2 out of 11

I didn’t like this one as much as My Lady Jane (mostly because it wasn’t as funny), but overall I still had a really fun time listening to it.

I mean, really, the standards were ridiculously high, first of all because I do think the first book was just plain funnier, but also because a) They had to live up to that all that funny and maybe the story they were telling this time didn’t lend itself as well (shifting as a concept is more hilarious by nature than ghosts?), and b) This time they didn’t have the talents of the late Katherine Kellgren as their audiobook narrator, and she was sorely missed. Fiona Hardingham was great here, but you just can’t replace all that sass in one go.

That said, I do think all three authors did their subject matter justice, and the loving fun they poke at their source material (Jane Eyre, mostly, but also the life of Charlotte Brontë) is GREAT. I almost died at how much shit they give Mr. Rochester (through the ghost of Helen, who acts as a ghostly chorus to Jane’s life, and who also gets her due here, as opposed to how shit she had it in the original book). I was also so incredibly happy to see what they did with Bertha, who like Helen (and basically everyone who is a lady in the original book, including Jane), just has the worst life and the worst things happening to her.

A small note: It’s not necessary to have read Jane Eyre in order to enjoy this, in the same it wasn’t necessary for me to know anything about English history to enjoy the first book. But here, I do think you get some of the jokes a little more, and you appreciate all the reversed circumstances more. Like, no one who hasn’t read the book will understand just exactly why it’s so great that SPOILERS Helen screams unheard invectives at Mr. Rochester after he dresses up like a lady fortune teller to get Jane to tell him secrets END SPOILERS, because honestly, Mr. Rochester, what the fuck?

As it’s been a month since I finished this, and I have nine more reviews to write in order to catch up, I won’t say too much more this time, but I’m sure I will be re-reading, as this book has cemented this series as solid, not a one-hit wonder. I’m very excited to see what they can do with Calamity Jane, who I know almost nothing about.