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murderousscottishgremlin's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Rip Jane Lawrence, you would’ve loved autism diagnoses.
sydneyjayne's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.0
hmcreading's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
adrianagoycoolea's review
1.0
The first 100 or so pages captured my attention but the book got significantly worse as you read on. The plot completely changed and became very juvenile (not inherently a bad thing) but compared to the slow beginning of the book, the faster paced, completely unexpected plot change didn’t work for me. I understand that the mathematics metaphor is integrated throughout the book to couple Jane’s sophistication and adoration for math, but it really wasn’t working for me (I am a math university student!!). It felt really forced and not applicable in some of the instances it was trying to be used. I didn’t want to finish this book, and only did so I didn’t feel like I wasted my money buying it, but it definitely lost my attention after she learns the secrets Augustine didn’t want her to know, and I basically skimmed the rest of the book. Would not recommend and would it read again.
wyddwig's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
antari's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
justinkhchen's review
3.0
3 stars
When a novel's strength is also it's weakness; The Death of Jane Lawrence is a modern take on gothic fiction, incorporating elements of mathematics and metaphysics. While the final output suffers from over-writing, and drowning in its own complicated pseudo-logic, it is still an amiable exercise at re-invigorating a familiar setting.
Caitlin Starling's detail-oriented prose shines when it comes to establishing settings and depicting surreal, grotesque supernatural incidents. But beyond these critical moments, this devotion for the minutia can be laborious to get through; the pacing never peaks because everything is dragged out by hollow textual busywork (no matter how beautifully written). You know this is an issue when chunks of paragraph can be skipped without losing the plot—the book can easily be 80+ pages shorter.
Set in a fictitious universe, this 'alternate timeline' approach allows flexibility in imagining a world that is more fantastical than our historical reality. With the female protagonist being someone who's obsessed with logic and order, the story presents memorable moments where her belief is thoroughly challenged. On the flip-side, without a grounded context (and the book never fully fleshes out its own world), and threats repeatedly resolved by fabricated conveniences, I find myself losing empathy as The Death of Jane Lawrence becomes more and more outlandish.
The final 'revelation' (No spoiler, but to those who've read the book it should be clear which chapter I'm referring to) is beautifully complex—would've been a daring move to end the book there, as the remaining material feels anticlimactic, drawing to a conclusion very typical to stories of this genre.
Overall, The Death of Jane Lawrence excels in conjuring the foreboding atmosphere and the supernatural, but the narrative as a whole suffers from an imbalance of homage and new ideas. Still, there is enough polish here to make it worth checking out.
***This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!***
When a novel's strength is also it's weakness; The Death of Jane Lawrence is a modern take on gothic fiction, incorporating elements of mathematics and metaphysics. While the final output suffers from over-writing, and drowning in its own complicated pseudo-logic, it is still an amiable exercise at re-invigorating a familiar setting.
Caitlin Starling's detail-oriented prose shines when it comes to establishing settings and depicting surreal, grotesque supernatural incidents. But beyond these critical moments, this devotion for the minutia can be laborious to get through; the pacing never peaks because everything is dragged out by hollow textual busywork (no matter how beautifully written). You know this is an issue when chunks of paragraph can be skipped without losing the plot—the book can easily be 80+ pages shorter.
Set in a fictitious universe, this 'alternate timeline' approach allows flexibility in imagining a world that is more fantastical than our historical reality. With the female protagonist being someone who's obsessed with logic and order, the story presents memorable moments where her belief is thoroughly challenged. On the flip-side, without a grounded context (and the book never fully fleshes out its own world), and threats repeatedly resolved by fabricated conveniences, I find myself losing empathy as The Death of Jane Lawrence becomes more and more outlandish.
The final 'revelation' (No spoiler, but to those who've read the book it should be clear which chapter I'm referring to) is beautifully complex—would've been a daring move to end the book there, as the remaining material feels anticlimactic, drawing to a conclusion very typical to stories of this genre.
Overall, The Death of Jane Lawrence excels in conjuring the foreboding atmosphere and the supernatural, but the narrative as a whole suffers from an imbalance of homage and new ideas. Still, there is enough polish here to make it worth checking out.
***This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!***
wollstonecrafty's review
For a “gothic” novel to impress me, it must have have a fresh twist or distorted new perspective, otherwise I wonder why I’m not just re-reading Jane Eyre instead. While The Death of Jane Lawrence offers neither, it was bizarre enough to hold my attention with a climax that devolves into nauseating ritual and multiple timelines. And I was satisfied with the ghoulish final decision. However, it’s not even the first book I’ve read recently to unite these genres — Kristin Cashore’s Jane Unlimited pulled this move to science fiction from gothic and back again off braver and better, with more to say about love and its power to heal and reunite. I wanted this book to say more! Take more of a stance on the harmful, narcissistic martyrdom of surgeons and doctors! Tell me more about the women harmed by this! More about rich families creating cults and the non neutrality of science, but also of magic (lovecraft country comes to mind)! To this end, the barely alternate universe Britain it’s set in also feels unnecessary and lazy, a way to avoid the consequences of real research. Jane herself as a character I found oddly flimsy, vacillating to and from extremes whenever Starling wanted her to fulfill one gothic heroine trope after the other. My final stance? The book was fine, compelling at times, but the cover was better.