Belle's Reviews > My Plain Jane

This was such a delight to read! And so. Much. FUN.

I'm going to be honest: I didn't know what to expect going in, whether I would even like this book very much. Everything about it screamed "not my type," what with this being a retelling of a classic British novel (hate 'em) and a girl's face being on the cover (aesthetically speaking, not usually a fan)

But the second I opened this, I was swept up into a whirlwind adventure with Victorian ghost hunters and I loved every second of it. It features a ragtag cast of characters that you can't help but fall in love with. It's so much fun to see them interact as they go through this crazy chain of events together, and along the way you find yourself growing more and more attached to them. This book almost gave me Fantastic Beasts vibes for this very reason, and the two stories definitely share that same overall spirit of these characters thrust into a chaotic situation together, chasing after something—whether that be creatures or ghosts.

I also just can't stress enough: this book was so, so much fun. I felt like I was grinning the entire time, and there's so much of that dry, offbeat British humor that makes this book absolutely hilarious. (see below for my favorite moments) There are times when I can't quite get into dry British humor that I often found others raving about in various books and TV shows, but when I read this, I felt for a moment like I got it, like I knew what people were talking about and I could finally get in on it. Huh. Maybe all this time, all I needed to enjoy books like Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre was a little more modernizing and a smidgen of Ghost Busters vibes!

I genuinely can't say enough good things about this book. I loved all of the characters so much. Especially Charlotte... and Bran... and Helen... and okay basically all of them. I shipped the everliving heck out of two of the characters in this book and was SO happy when they finally got together. There are just so many warm fuzzies that I will forever feel when I think about this book now, and it'll just make me want to go on a good ol' spoopy ghost adventure with my favorite 19th century friends all over again.

Favorite quotes:

--- Even when she was committing murder, she was thinking of others.

--- And that's when, as they used to say, the dung hit the crosswind.

--- And with that, Jane and Helen found themselves out the door. Alone. On a dirt road. Which was blanketed in a thick fog.

"This is going so well," Jane said.
"We're all going to die," said Helen.

--- Charlotte swallowed down a lump of disappointment in her throat, both because she was a wretched female and because she had never died, not even once. It all felt so wildly unfair.