This book was requested by a previous Lesbrary reviewer who did not finish or review it. In order to keep my Netgalley feedback up to date, I am submitting this review marking it as a DNF, though it was another reviewer who requested this.

First of all, this review is extremely overdue, but I’m so glad I finally got to read this book. Cornwell’s Mechanica was one of my first ARCs on NetGalley back in 2015, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to read this book.

Second, the description doesn’t mention this at all, but this book is a Jane Eyre variant. If you’re familiar with the source material, you’ll recall Rochester’s ward Adele. This book covers Adele’s life both before moving to England to live with Rochester, events during Jane Eyre, and then Adele’s life after the events of the source material.

Adele is a formidable young woman. Spending her early years in her mother’s dance hall provided her with quite the education regarding the manner in which men treat women. This leaves her jaded, even as a child, a trait she carries with her to England where she lands under the tutelage of Jane Eyre.

The majority of the narrative takes place after the events of the source material, wherein Adele enrolls in a London boarding school and becomes an avenging angel, protecting her classmates from the nefarious intentions of their suitors. Adele also finds love in an unexpected place.

I would absolutely recommend Reader, I Murdered Him. I found this book to be delightfully gothic: moody, atmospheric, and there’s one heck of a plot twist that I did NOT see coming at all. I’m the queen of guessing plot twists, but this one caught me completely off guard. I can’t wait to read more from Cornwell in the future.

I received a digital ARC of this book from Harper Collins/NetGalley.

I really struggled with this book. It was hard not to get bored. I do think that people that love classics and era reads will enjoys this book, it was not for me.

I really loved the way that the characters developed throughout the novel. I would pair this with a classic and use to help teach genre and characterization!

After reading this book, the only conclusion I have is that it's the most empowering book Ive read so far. The MC is not to be played with, and she's out for the blood of evil men. The way she protected the girls in her life and found her own freedom was just everything!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!

Having never read Jane Eyre, I enjoyed this book though it wasn't quite what i was expecting. I thought the mai focus of the plot would be the main character being a vigilante but it focused more on the lead up. I think I would have enjoyed it more if that had been the bigger plot line, the feminist vigilante roaming London and less about her relationships at school or with Jane. Also was expecting more murder based on the plot summary than what had actually occured in the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

I have pretty mixed feelings on this. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but it did draw me in. The twist at the end was very upsetting, and the resolution felt perhaps unrealistically easy— but I did have a good time.

This just fell flat for me. I was drawn in by the synopsis, but I don't feel this read delivered on the vengeful feminine rage that I was promised. I wasn't that interested in Adele or her story, but I loved Nan. I think this would have been a much more successful read had it just focused on their backstory. The twists didn't deliver and the ending was rushed. I read to finish rather than because I cared about much of anything aside from Nan. Even the sapphic aspects of the story weren't enough to save it for me (words I never thought I would say tbh)

I'm sure this has an audience, but idk who it would be.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an ARC in exchange for review.

Hm. For being such a short book, this book took too long to get to the promise of the premise in my opinion. I also found the romance way too fast paced for my liking.

This book was DELIGHTFUL. The initial reimagining of Jane Eyre from Adele's perspective was lovely, but THEN! It moves in to a dark and delicious story of feminist revenge, as Adele finds herself acting as a secret vigilante, always looking to protect other young women who find themselves at the mercy of abusive men. This, along with her queer romance, make for a empowering and ultimately rewarding historical fiction.

Reader, I Murdered Him by Betsy Cornwell delves in to the world of Jane Eyre but with a mystery adventure spin.

Thus was a fast-paced historical mystery. Because of the title, I originally thought that it was a retelling of Jane Eyre. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the original plot. I loved the characters and was glad to see a tough female detective! I recommend this fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper!

A takeoff of the character of Adele from Jane Eyre (the young French tutee), this book has a fascinating premise, and many vivid moments, but just didn't quite hit it out of the park for me. There were some character decisions that didn't feel right towards the conclusion, based on the setup at the top of the novel.

Reader, I Murdered Him is a Victorian vigilante mystery adventure by Betsy Cornwell. Released 15th Nov 2022 by HarperCollins on their Clarion Books imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out early 4th quarter 2023 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

The author is gifted with descriptive prose. The scenery and characters are rendered believably and well. The dialogue is somewhat archaic and sometimes stilted to modern ears, but it evokes the time period very well. The basic plot is a retelling/twist/expansion of Jane Eyre told from Adéle's point of view, with Adéle (Rochester's young ward) in the role of vigilante, robbing/killing evil men who would prey on women.

This is very much through a glass, darkly. For fans who love and revere Jane Eyre, although very well written, this book will likely cause rage and distress. There's no redemption for Rochester here, and the potential creepiness of his questionable relationship with his 9 year old ward (at the time of her relocation to England from France) is explored in depth.

There's a Jane Eyre meets Thelma & Louise/Natural Born Killers vibe which is odd and unsettling but fascinating at the same time. Lovers of Bronte will have conniptions.

Three and a half stars for the writing alone. Recommended for readers who do not have strongly positive feelings about Jane Eyre and who are willing to allow the author the expedient of making *all* the male characters malignant narcissistic creeps in pretty much the same way throughout.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

<i>First, a thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eARC of this book.</i>

This book was a solid 3-star affair until everything absolutely unraveled at the end and then it got (rightfully so) knocked back to 2-stars.

Listen, I'll be honest, I've never read <i>Jane Eyre</i>, and I had literally no idea of this book's ties to the classic because it isn't mentioned ONCE in the blurb, so color me surprised when I was like "what the fuck is Jane Eyre doing here??" - and then had to google a synopsis quick because I couldn't remember from what I had heard about the book before.

<b>Be warned.. Spoilers ahead</b>

If you can forgive me for that... here are my other thoughts on this novel:

*First third was okay to read, learning about a child growing up far from home in a new setting and discovering herself
*If you haven't read <i>Jane Eyre</i> and are a weirdo who still wants to claim SPOILERS for a book that's over 100 years old... well, you're gonna have a bad time
*Second third is also okay, but starts to tispy-tango toward going off the ledge
*Oh, we find out the MC is into women, okay - sort of feels forced and like the author wanted to be "not like the other girls" by throwing in a queer character
*THEN at least 50% in we see a murder, and if you're naïve like me you'll go OHHH, here we go, time to get to the meat of what I WAS SOLD ON ORIGINALLY, weird how it took us half the fucking book to get here
*But then it isn't even? Now we just get a queer "Robin Hood" who is... supposedly protecting women from shitty men by stealing their pocket watches...?
*Third third is absolutely wasted, completely drunk on tomfoolery, and flings itself off the balcony/out the window (yes this is a nod to what happens in the book) and finally dies without any dignity whatsoever
*I can't STAND <i>deus ex machina</i> in books, especially when, to me, it seems to come from being a lazy writer, NOT necessarily that you were pushing the boundaries of space and time and <i>well, the story was cool enough so I guess I can let it slide</i> - just NO, this makes me want to get out my spray bottle
*ALSO, it makes absolutely NO FUCKING SENSE that this grown ass man would look at this like ten-year-old kid and be like wow, I wanna bang her someday, guess I gotta wait for her to be older so it won't be so creepy, how about for literal YEARS I'll catfish her and pretend to ALSO be a teen and then if she falls in love with our letters, THAT I AM PURPOSEFULLY CATERING TO SUCKER HER, then it'll be totally cool for me to make her my pseudo-wife, no take-backsies, teehee!
*The epilogue was completely unneeded because by then I just wanted to be fucking done, y'all

The prose is not terrible. The rhythm and cadence of the book isn't terrible. But jfc.... I am SO mad about the end of this book, and I feel so horribly catfished MYSELF with how this book turned out, I wish I could get the time I spent reading this back so I could put it into, I dunno, actually reading <i>Jane Eyre</i> or something. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

reader, i murdered him is a reimagining of jane eyre from the POV of rochester’s ward, àdele varens, from her childhood in paris and then at thornfield and ferndean to finishing school in london, where an assault on one of her friends drives her to become a vigilante.

i respect that cornwell attempted her own unique approach to a beloved classic, but the execution left a lot to be desired. the first third of the novel, focusing on àdele’s childhood and relationships with the maternal figures in her life, is the strongest; once àdele leaves jane and rochester, cornwell seems more occupied with referencing them than telling a compelling story.

the storytelling is frustrating: underdeveloped LIs and side characters, far too many plot conveniences to be enjoyable, and heavy-handed, repetitive messaging (every single man in this book is evil in very similar ways). i also hated the plot twist near the end—this was going to be a “perfectly adequate, just not for me” read until that point.

The moment I read this title I was intrigued. My soul was saying yes before I could, no matter the fact that I usually don’t read historic fiction. I mean teenage vigilante?? Putting men in their place??? HELL YES!

Firstly, Adele Warens is an incredible character. We get to see her develop from a street smart fiesty girl to someone who the English society tries to tame and then as she tried to find her true self and a place in the society. I didn’t know that this book would look at Jane Eyre from a fresh perspective but the classic being one of my favourites, I was immediately hooked.

The story really progressed for me when Adele joined the finishing school because from thereon she was on her own and we truly saw her develop and form her identity. I loved reading about the different and complex relationships Adele had with her friends and that the girls had with each other. And without spoiling the plot, let me say that I immensely enjoyed the vigilante life Adele led – how she managed it and kept in line with all her values while still causing ruckus and chaos she went.

This book beautifully explores themes of women being oppressed in society and the kind of power men wield. It was so interesting seeing Adele try to wield this power herself and you really can’t help but root for her throughout. Themes like privilege and identity were also explored through various characters and their relationships and all in all I finished this book feeling a sense of pride and happiness for our main characters. And the sapphic romance was somewhat of the slow pining sort and I was thoroughly invested in both girls.

This one worked up until the ending. The story was a great vengeance LGBT tale that I couldn't put down. However, that being said the ending left me wanting more. It was to fast and just didn't fulfill me as much as I wanted.

I will be holding my review until the HarperCollins Union’s demands are met and the staff has a fair contract.