Jane Steele

Not a retelling as Jane Steele admits to being inspired to set her experiences down on paper after reading an especially riveting book called Jane Eyre. Still, she notices some similarities between Charlotte Bronte's protagonist and her own experiences. The conceit allows Lyndsay Faye the much needed freedom to take us the reader anywhere, borrowing what works but not slavishly tied to mirroring the original work.

We're taken on a fun romp that starts with Jane Steele admitting to her many murders up front and ending in a pastoral estate run entirely by some well-armed Sikhs.

Lyndsay Faye has appropriated the language of the 19th century but kept the pacing upbeat and current. The characters, though situated in Victorian London, are thoroughly modern, sexually and culturally diverse and resolutely feminist. Jane Eyre as Dexter Morgan and all kinds of unapologetic fun.