A Jane Eyre Inspired book featuring a Queens dwelling mixed race Korean American Jane Re, an orphan raised by her uncle in Flushing. Recently graduated but not finding work beyond toiling in her uncle's grocery store, Jane decides to take an au pair position with a Brooklyn family. The wife is obsessed with schooling Jane on feminism, and Jane finds herself drawn to the husband, staying up late nights having sandwiches and talks. When she makes a fateful choice, she will have to deal with the consequences of her actions and also find out who she truly is.

ane has lived in Flushing, Queens her entire life. After she was orphaned as a baby, her grandfather sent her from South Korea to live with her Uncle Sang in America. She was always told it was for her own good due to the fact that her father was an American G.I. She knews almost nothing about her mother. In Queens, she works at her Uncle Sang's grocery store. She is not happy with her life, as her Uncle and other family members always talk her down. She sees an advertisement where a familyMazer-Farleys, two English professors, from Brooklyn with an adopted daughter from China, asks for a nanny. She applies for the job, and because of the father of the family thinks Jane is Chinese just as their daughter, gets it. There she lands in a world that is completely different then her own.But when two events happen, But when a family death interrupts Jane and Ed’s blossoming affair, she flies off to Seoul, leaving New York far behind.

Reconnecting with family, and struggling to learn the ways of modern-day Korea, Jane begins to wonder if Ed Farley is really the man for her. Jane returns to Queens, where she must find a balance between two cultures and accept who she really is.

The first part of Re Jane, a modern story inspired by Jane Eyre, was very entertaining. Somehow it reminded me more of the amazing novels by Jean Kwok, which are also set in New York, be it that Re Jane is set in the Korean neigborhood of Flushing, Queens and Kwok's novels in Chinatown. But both have the same type of main character.

However, the first part the author builds an amazing tension between the Jane and the Mazer-Farleys. Something is happening between her and Ed Farley, and you just keep wondering what''s going to happen and if Beth will find out sooner or later. But just when it keeps getting more interesting in that part, Jane leaves, and you think: no! now we are not going to know how that would have ended! Jane's experiences in Korea are nice too read, but it never got very interesting. The end though was good, when the author picked up where Jane left earlier, she goes back to New York city and wonders about Ed and Beth, if they are still together. I found it a bit questionable though why Jane did what she did with Ed, as it seemed so inappropriate and he seemed so much older then her. But as this is fiction maybe you have to put of your common sense at some points. Jane's relationship with her Korean family was very mixed. Uncle Sang was very harsh to her mostly, but in the end of the book you find out that is just the way Korean parents( as he certainly acted like her father figure in the story) act to their children out of love, altough this is difficult for Jane.


I recommend reading ReJane as it is beautifully written, has interesting main characters and all along the backdrop of New York and South Korea.

I tried and I tried to get into Re Jane, but couldn't. I just couldn't connect with any of the characters.