Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 Jane Steele is not a direct retelling of Jane Eyre. It's the story of a Victorian woman, Jane Steele, who reads Jane Eyre and is inspired to write her own autobiography. Their lives are not exactly the same but they share many parallels - both wind up as orphans with cruel aunts, both attended wretched boarding schools, and both work as governesses for brooding, mysterious men with whom they fall madly in love. Unlike Jane Eyre, however, Jane Steele has just as many secrets as her employer does, including but not limited to the fact that Jane Steele has killed several people. 
 I am desperate not to reveal spoilers in this review, which is simply torture, for I long to spill EVERYTHING, especially a speech on page 326 that had me IN TEARS. Suffice to say that if Jane Steele is a bad person, then so am I, because every time she killed someone I cheered and did a happy dance. Seldom have I been so thoroughly thrilled and delighted by murder. Readers should be advised that the book does include description of and discussion about sexual and physical abuse, especially in the first section of the book. 
 My measure for whether an adaptation succeeds or fails has nothing to do with the fidelity of the adaptation to the setting or other details of the original. Heck, one of my favorite adaptations of Pride and Prejudice is The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which involves a modern-day graduate student and her vlog. I care about whether the adaptation succeeds in highlighting the themes of the original work, and Jane Steele does a marvelous job with this. Like Jane Eyre, Jane Steele feels herself to be sinful, unworthy, and unlovable. Yet, like Jane Eyre, Jane Steele believes that her life has value, and she fights to keep it from being wasted . The triumph of the story in Jane Eyre is not that Jane Eyre finds true love - it's that Jane Eyre finds true love on her terms. The triumph of Jane Steele is that Jane Steele finds the ability to forgive herself and love herself, which makes it possible for her to accept love from others. It's not a direct parallel to Jane Eyre, yet clearly Jane Steele sees in Jane Eyre a model of how to hold oneself as worthy when the rest of the world claims that you are not. 
 This book is bloodthirsty and exciting. It's hard-boiled and tender. It's funny and full of gothic melodrama. I enjoyed every bit of it. Above all, I loved that Jane Steele, who in most ways resembles me not a whit, shares with me a deep affection for Jane Eyre and a sense that Jane Eyre inspires us to value our own lives and our own stories. I'm giving this book an A- instead of an A+ only because once Jane meets Charles the story gets full of perhaps a bit too much melodrama for its own good. 
 - Carrie S.