Review: Ironskin

Ironskin
by Tina Connolly

Plot Summary:

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin.

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.

Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey.

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

Expectations:

This one sounded very promising, and I love how the names of the main characters are very close to the original.  I love the cover as well - it's so ethereal and lovely, so I was looking forward to a story that seemed romantic and Gothic.

Review:

What a beautifully layered story! For what seemed like a Jane Eyre retelling with supernatural elements, I was expecting something more straightforward and recognizably similar to the plot structure of Jane Eyre, but this novel was full of the unexpected! It does not directly follow the arc of Jane Eyre, but infuses the spirit and romance of the original novel into a new story. I found the relationship between Jane and her pupil, Dorie, unexpectedly complex, as Jane struggles to get through to her and in the end through Dorie, Jane comes to realize something very important about herself. The author also sets up a strong history in the narrative, with the Great War, and the influence of the ultimately treacherous fey adding to an intricate fictional/ alternate reality where humans are still struggling to recover from the effects of war and the loss of the fey-technology. The details of this history and Jane Eliot’s involvement is slowly meted out however, so there is a feeling of tension as you try to catch up on what everything means.

What I liked best about this story is how the author weaved in many elements - fantasy romance with touches of steampunk, and nods to Beauty and the Beast as well as elements of Jane Eyre - to create a heavily atmospheric, dark tale of love and beauty and secrets. The nature of the secrets are very unpredictable, just like Edward Rochart, the mysterious widower artist, who sees Jane Eliot not as fey cursed, but as a brave, strong woman. And yet Jane struggles to cope with her past, and her curse, and to find the self-respect she needs to accept love, making this novel a gloriously touching romance between two damaged people. Although I could have used a little more development between Jane and Edward’s relationship, and there are still some unanswered questions as to the nature of the fey (but this is the first book in a series), I loved this intricate, intelligent, Gothic tale and I highly recommend it to fantasy and Jane Eyre fans!

review copy kindly provided by the publisher through Netgalley
Ironskin is available to buy today!  And an excerpt of the first chapter is up on Amazon.

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Fifth book of ten in the 2012 Books of Eyre Reading Challenge

A Look Ahead: Different Takes on Jane Eyre

I like nothing more than to read some book that reminds me of, or references my favorite novel Jane Eyre.  I keep lists of books that are derivative of it in some way and I am steadily making my way through them.  There are a few that are coming out this year that I've been eagerly waiting for, and I wanted to get some of my giddy impatience out by blogging about why I CAN'T WAIT for another chance to relive aspects of Jane Eyre.

Out of my list of books for this year, Dark Companion by Marta Acosta is the first to be released (July 3rd) and I was happily able to obtain a galley for review from NetGalley and really enjoyed the gothic, atmospheric writing.  A proper review will be posted in the coming weeks, but I just wanted to acknowledge this book in my post as I am also eager to read other blogger's reviews and thoughts on it.  The Jane Eyre aspect is not as blatant as I was expecting which was a surprise, but this was not the disappointment I would have thought, because the story is such a page-turner.

Death of a Schoolgirl by Joanna Campbell Slan is probably the one book I am MOST looking forward to, and luckily it is being released relatively soon (August 7th).  The premise sounds like so much fun, and different from the derivatives of Jane Eyre that I am used to.  Jane Rochester investigating a mysterious death at Adele's new school?  And then Jane goes undercover!!  Yes please!  I hope this book will be fun and the mystery well written.  And I especially hope the characters are true to their source.  And maybe Mr. Rochester will turn up at the school in an exciting climax to save Jane from some dangerous mad person.  And this time it won't be Bertha. ... or will it??!! (I mean if Sherlock - as played by Benedict Cumberbatch - can jump to his "death" off a building and survive...)

Wish You Were Eyre by Heather Vogel Frederick looks to be a fun, short read in a similar vein to It All Began With Jane Eyre by Sheila Greenwald, where the story of Jane Eyre comes up at useful times to illustrate what is going on in the characters personal lives.  I actually really don't know, as I haven't been able to find too much information about the plot and can only judge from the previous books in the series (which all seem to be based around a different novel).  This book comes out September 11th, and I'll be eagerly waiting for more information on it to turn up.

This one sounds very promising!  Ironskin by Tina Connolly - similar to Dark Companion perhaps with it's paranormal twist on Jane Eyre, but I think this one might follow the plot of Jane Eyre much more closely, as the two main characters are named Jane Eliot (I see what you did there!) and Edward Rochart. (I see what you did there again!)  And the cover is fantastic - gothic and a lovely, ethereal monochromatic color scheme.  For the hero's secret, I hope that the nature of it will be sufficiently major enough to break up the couple as I am always disappointed when I don't understand the motivation of the Jane character to leave her Rochester.  The Flight of Gemma Hardy (although a well-done book) had a particularly weak "secret" I felt.  Ironskin is set to release on October 2nd.

Well that's it for now.  These are the the books I would drop everything to read!  If any readers of this blog are Jane Eyre fans like woah, let me know so I can enthuse with you! :)