Reader, I murdered him

Title:

Author:

Summary:

Adele grew up in the shadows—first watching from backstage at her mother’s Parisian dance halls, then wandering around the gloomy, haunted rooms of her father’s manor. When she’s finally sent away to boarding school in London, she’s happy to enter the brightly lit world of society girls and their wealthy suitors. Yet there are shadows there, too. Many of the men that try to charm Adele’s new friends do so with dark intentions. After a violent assault, she turns to a roguish young con woman for help. Together, they become vigilantes meting out justice. But can Adele save herself from the same fate as those she protects? -- Amazon.

General Note:

"Vengeance is sweet." -- Dust jacket.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

291 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Romance fiction.

Historical fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Subject Term:

Vigilantes -- Fiction.

Revenge -- Fiction.

Assault and battery -- Fiction.

Boarding schools -- Fiction.

Bisexual teenagers -- Fiction.

Swindlers and swindling -- Fiction.

Female offenders -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

London (England) -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Clarion Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers,

Publication Date:

2022

ISBN:

9780358306641

Publication Information:

New York, NY : Clarion Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2022]

Call Number:

YA CORNWELL

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003686246	New Young Adult	CORNWELL	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In this daring tale of female agency and revenge from a New York Times bestselling author, a girl becomes a teenage vigilante who roams Victorian England using her privilege and power to punish her friends' abusive suitors and keep other young women safe.

Adele grew up in the shadows--first watching from backstage at her mother's Parisian dance halls, then wandering around the gloomy, haunted rooms of her father's manor. When she's finally sent away to boarding school in London, she's happy to enter the brightly lit world of society girls and their wealthy suitors.

Yet there are shadows there, too. Many of the men that try to charm Adele's new friends do so with dark intentions. After a violent assault, she turns to a roguish young con woman for help. Together, they become vigilantes meting out justice. But can Adele save herself from the same fate as those she protects?

With a queer romance at its heart, this lush historical thriller offers readers an irresistible mix of vengeance and empowerment.

Author Notes

Betsy Cornwell is the New York Times best-selling author of The Circus Rose, The Forest Queen, Mechanica, Venturess, and Tides. She lives in Ireland with her son.

www.betsycornwell.com, Instagram: @BetsyCornwell.

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up--The challenge of any response to Jane Eyre is how to balance the sensational and the sensible; likewise, the enjoyability of this work depends on individuals' inclination for realism or vengeance fantasy. At nine, Adèle Varens is plucked from a Parisian brothel and taken to Yorkshire by Mr. Rochester, a man who may or may not be her father. As a teenager, Adèle uneasily witnesses her governess, Jane Eyre, being absorbed by her love for Mr. Rochester. The novel is most gripping--and terrifying--in its beginning and concluding portions, which reconsider Jane Eyre from Adèle's perspective. However, the plot loses momentum in the middle, when Jane sends Adèle to a London finishing school. Adèle attends tea parties in the day and sneaks out at night as a vigilante murderess and pickpocket. The satisfaction gained from this novel hinges on whether we desire practicality in Adèle's resistance to entrenched misogyny. Jane Eyre's protagonist stays level-headed as she faces Gothic manifestations of societal dysfunction: Jane's difficult solution to her older employer's bigamous desire is to leave and get a teaching job that gives her independence. By contrast, Adèle and her lover, Nan, rob gentlemen with ease. Her targets are banal, evil products of a misogynist culture that lack the specificity of individuals, unlike Brontë's gallery of everyday villains, from Aunt Reed to St. John Rivers. Yet, eventually, a palpable threat manifests in the form of Mr. Rochester. Adèle's ability to act despite her vulnerability is much more compelling than her invincibility as "the Villainess" of London. VERDICT For those who turn from Jane Eyre with a desire for a queer heroine who can punish Mr. Rochester by way of a penny-dreadful revenge plot.--Katherine Magyarody

Publisher's Weekly Review

Cornwell (The Circus Rose) reimagines the life of Jane Eyre character Adèle Varens as a queer vigilante in this empowering feminist thriller. Adèle is nine when Mr. Rochester, purportedly her father, whisks her away to England from the French brothel where she previously lived with her sex worker mother. Raised to be wary of men, Adèle is attuned to the possibility and frequency of male violence; she sympathizes with Mr. Rochester's first wife, Bertha, whom he keeps locked in the attic, and becomes concerned by the feelings that her governess, Jane Eyre, develops for him. Following Jane and Mr. Rochester's marriage, Adèle, now 15, is sent to Webster School for Young Ladies, where her mistrust of men grows as she discovers an even more abusive underbelly of English society. She soon becomes romantically entangled with Nan, a charming London thief, and begins her career as a vigilante, fending off violent men to protect her newfound friends. Cornwell's deep-rooted understanding of the inspiration material, paired with Adèle's characterization as a courageous and cunning protagonist, makes for an enthralling examination of justice, revenge, and romance. Main characters read as white. Ages 14--up. (Nov.)