I follow a lot of authors on twitter. Every once in a while a bunch of writers will start talking about one book. A couple of months ago, that book was Jane Doe. Authors, all women but from several genres, were reveling in Jane’s darkness and her passion for revenge.
Jane has diagnosed herself as a psychopath. She doesn’t feel emotions the way normal people feel them. It makes her good at business but bad at relationships, with one exception. Steven hurt the only person Jane cares about and now she is going to destroy him. It’s like Fatal Attraction, but Alex is the heroic protagonist and Dan is a misogynist shitheel (Dan is a misogynist shitheel, his wife should have drowned him in the bathtub). No bunnies or other small animals are harmed in this book.
I don’t really know how to classify this book. Is it a romance? It has a happy for now ending. It has some of the tension of a mystery/suspense novel, but we know who done it from the very beginning. I was never in doubt that Jane would prevail, but I was happy to go along for the ride. It is a love story told by someone who doesn’t feel love.
This is love. This is my love, and it may be a dark, mean, greedy thing, but it is real. I feel it.
I loved Jane. She is a great character to spend time with. She is a refreshing anti-hero. Her purpose is clear, her motives are never in question. She is selfish, but never unlikable. I spent the entire book with her plotting and carrying out a brutal revenge and I never found her unlikable. The weak link in the book is Steven. I found him too unsubtle to be entirely believable. Two predators facing off against each other would have been a 5 star read. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
Victoria Stone announced last week that she is working on a sequel called Problem Child.
