Hardcover, 324 pages
Release Date: October 19, 2021
Published by: Wednesday Books
Read from: October 21-29, 2021
Stand-alone
Source: Bought
TW: Dismemberment
For Readers Interested In: Fantasy, Romance, Retellings, Horror, Gothic, YA0What the heart desires, the house destroys…
Andromeda is a debtera—an exorcist hired to cleanse households of the Evil Eye. When a handsome young heir named Magnus Rochester reaches out to hire her, Andromeda quickly realizes this is a job like no other, with horrifying manifestations at every turn, and that Magnus is hiding far more than she has been trained for. Death is the most likely outcome if she stays, but leaving Magnus to live out his curse alone isn’t an option. Evil may roam the castle’s halls, but so does a burning desire.
Kiersten White meets Tomi Adeyemi in this Ethiopian-inspired debut fantasy retelling of Jane Eyre.
*MY THOUGHTS*
When I heard about this book I was floored at the fact it was a horror re-telling of Jane Eyre. I always thought the two were complete opposite, so I couldn’t understand how this would be a thing. (Also because I never actually read Jane Eyre, but we’ll ignore that lmao) But it turned out to be really good!
Andi is an exorcist, hired by families to cleanse their houses of the Evil Eye. Andi is hired by a Mr. Rochester to cleanse his house, but it turns out to be a lot more than she bargained for. She then realizes that the person who hired her is hiding a lot from her. Enough to where dying while trying to cleanse the house seems inevitable. Can she cleanse the house and save everyone? Including herself?
This book was labeled as horror and although it had its moments, it wasn’t super scary. I loved the way she tied some of the things from Jane Eyre into it’s spooky moments. (The Red Room is something else lol) My only problem was that’s where the spooky started and ended.
For this to be horror, the atmosphere was non-existant. I didn’t feel spooky until we made it to the spooky parts. But being in the mansion and stuff like that, didn’t seem scary to me at all. It really only mentioned the house was cold and no one should come out of their rooms after dark. And as someone who loves reading because of the setting and atmosphere, that was kind of disappointing for me.
I also wasn’t a fan of the plot. We’re put right in the middle of the action. As someone who was reading this for the creepy aspect, I had no idea what was happening in the beginning. In the ending all the questions I had were answered, but it felt weird not knowing them from the jump. I know that sounds a lot like I was just impatient to get to the end, but really it was more of I wanted to know about what started this. Why they had so many other debtera, the legends of the house, etc. I wanted to know why he hadn’t been seen in public for over 3 years and all that. Maybe its answered in Jane Eyre, but like I said, I haven’t read it and I don’t think I should be “punished} for not having done so.
I did like that the spooky parts were actually spooky. I remember even saying WTF at one point. Idk, since the atmosphere itself wasn’t as scary as I was expecting, I wasn’t expecting the actual parts when it was spooky to be scary either. But once they started, they went IN. And it definitely went from 0 to 60 at that point.
Definitely a book that I’m glad I pulled out just before Halloween. It wasn’t super scary, but when it went there, it WENT THERE. It’s not traditional, but it’s still a good enough re-telling to be a classic during this holiday’s season.
Overall, I give this
