The war agaisnt the fey left many people scarred, but one of the more obvious in Jane Eliot, who bears a magical curse on her face which infects those around her with rage. Jane covers her scar with an iron mask to contain the curse, but it has the side effect of driving people away (including employers). Desperate for any kind of job, Jane accepts a position as a governess at the mysterious Silver Birch manor, home to the reclusive Mr. Rochart and his unusual daughter.
If this plot sounds kind of familiar, that's because it's a retelling of Jane Eyre. Bronte's work is one of my favorite books of all time, so needless to say I had high expectations for this book (maybe a little too high...). Don't let the Beauty and the Beast quote on the front fool you: Jane Eyre is now and has always been a retelling of Bluebeard.
The book starts out strong: it's Jane Eyre all right, but in a 1930s world still struggling to find an alternative power source to the fey-powered bluepacks that have fueled human technology up to that point. It's also a society still fighting to rebuild after the devastation of war, and the loss of an entire generation. Into that setup we get Jane, a young woman who's been not only wounded in the war, but then ostracized for it. She meets Rochart, a sensitive and eccentric artist who's keeping secrets in the attic (no, not THAT secret, despite the basis on Jane Eyre. There are a few clever nods to it though, for those who know the source material).
It's about a third of the way in that the novel starts to diverge from Bronte's source material, and to lose focus. Jane goes from a sensible person to a rash, impulsive being, who seems to decide that she and Rochart are in love after having all of two conversations with him (Jane and Rochester at least had their nightly conversations for months before the Declaration! Mr. Rochart is hardly present at all for the bulk of this book, so I never got attached to him). From there, the story starts to go its own way, breaking from Bronte's plot even more--there's no wedding, no governess-bashing, and no St. John Rivers (you CAN'T get rid of St. John Rivers...said no one ever). There's a lot of magic and possession going on in the last third of the book, and the segues aren't always the smoothest, so I had a little trouble following the story to its conclusion. Additionally, Connolly's writing style (despite being perfectly good) didn't jive with the story, which needed a little more of the gothic atmosphere and smoldering romance that make Jane Eyre so distinctive. There's also some unsettling implications about physical beauty towards the end of this book--it's hard to discuss them without spoilers, but I don't think the author intended for it to be quite as creepy as it was. Overall, this was a light, quick read, but didn't hold up to the source material.
For a better retelling of this story (still with a fantastic twist), I recommend Sharon Shinn's Jenna Starborn, which stays truer to the original novel.
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