Reader, I Murdered Him

by Betsy Cornwell

Overview

In this daring tale of female agency and revenge from a New York Times bestselling author, a girl becomes a teenage vigilante who roams Victorian England using her privilege and power to punish her friends’ abusive suitors and keep other young women safe.

Adele grew up in the shadows—first watching from backstage at her mother’s Parisian dance halls, then wandering around the gloomy, haunted rooms of her father’s manor. When she’s finally sent away to boarding school in London, she’s happy to enter the brightly lit world of society girls and their wealthy suitors. 

Yet there are shadows there, too. Many of the men that try to charm Adele’s new friends do so with dark intentions. After a violent assault, she turns to a roguish young con woman for help. Together, they become vigilantes meting out justice. But can Adele save herself from the same fate as those she protects?

With a queer romance at its heart, this lush historical thriller offers readers an irresistible mix of vengeance and empowerment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358344964
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	782,804
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Betsy Cornwell is the New York Times best-selling author of The Circus Rose, The Forest Queen, Mechanica, Venturess, and Tides. She graduated from Smith College and was a columnist and editor at Teen Ink before receiving an MFA in creative writing from Notre Dame, where she also taught fiction. She now lives in Ireland with her son.

www.betsycornwell.com
Instagram: @BetsyCornwell

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/31/2022

Cornwell (The Circus Rose) reimagines the life of Jane Eyre character Adèle Varens as a queer vigilante in this empowering feminist thriller. Adèle is nine when Mr. Rochester, purportedly her father, whisks her away to England from the French brothel where she previously lived with her sex worker mother. Raised to be wary of men, Adèle is attuned to the possibility and frequency of male violence; she sympathizes with Mr. Rochester’s first wife, Bertha, whom he keeps locked in the attic, and becomes concerned by the feelings that her governess, Jane Eyre, develops for him. Following Jane and Mr. Rochester’s marriage, Adèle, now 15, is sent to Webster School for Young Ladies, where her mistrust of men grows as she discovers an even more abusive underbelly of English society. She soon becomes romantically entangled with Nan, a charming London thief, and begins her career as a vigilante, fending off violent men to protect her newfound friends. Cornwell’s deep-rooted understanding of the inspiration material, paired with Adèle’s characterization as a courageous and cunning protagonist, makes for an enthralling examination of justice, revenge, and romance. Main characters read as white. Ages 14–up. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"A perfect gothic read for a cozy night." — Forbes

"An enthralling examination of justice, revenge, and romance." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A delicious reconstruction.”  — Booklist (starred review)

"For those who turn from Jane Eyre with a desire for a queer heroine."  — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Captivating and delicious, Reader, I Murdered Him is the sharp stiletto edge separating beautiful and horrid, sweet and bitter, gentle and gutting. Once you meet Adèle Varens, you will never forget her. Just like your first love. Or your first kill.”

author of Dark Things I Adore Katie Lattari

11/01/2022

Gr 9 Up—The challenge of any response to Jane Eyre is how to balance the sensational and the sensible; likewise, the enjoyability of this work depends on individuals' inclination for realism or vengeance fantasy. At nine, Adèle Varens is plucked from a Parisian brothel and taken to Yorkshire by Mr. Rochester, a man who may or may not be her father. As a teenager, Adèle uneasily witnesses her governess, Jane Eyre, being absorbed by her love for Mr. Rochester. The novel is most gripping—and terrifying—in its beginning and concluding portions, which reconsider Jane Eyre from Adèle's perspective. However, the plot loses momentum in the middle, when Jane sends Adèle to a London finishing school. Adèle attends tea parties in the day and sneaks out at night as a vigilante murderess and pickpocket. The satisfaction gained from this novel hinges on whether we desire practicality in Adèle's resistance to entrenched misogyny. Jane Eyre's protagonist stays level-headed as she faces Gothic manifestations of societal dysfunction: Jane's difficult solution to her older employer's bigamous desire is to leave and get a teaching job that gives her independence. By contrast, Adèle and her lover, Nan, rob gentlemen with ease. Her targets are banal, evil products of a misogynist culture that lack the specificity of individuals, unlike Brontë's gallery of everyday villains, from Aunt Reed to St. John Rivers. Yet, eventually, a palpable threat manifests in the form of Mr. Rochester. Adèle's ability to act despite her vulnerability is much more compelling than her invincibility as "the Villainess" of London. VERDICT For those who turn from Jane Eyre with a desire for a queer heroine who can punish Mr. Rochester by way of a penny-dreadful revenge plot.—Katherine Magyarody

School Library Journal

2022-08-17
A reimagining of the story of Adèle Varens of Jane Eyre fame as a queer feminist vigilante.

Adèle grows up with her beloved Maman, a showgirl and prostitute, in a brothel in France until the day when a certain Mr. Rochester, her presumed father, takes her away from everything she has ever known all the way to the English countryside. As Adèle grows up, she studies under the tutelage of her beloved governess, Jane Eyre; discovers the appalling secret her father keeps hidden at Thornfield; and starts a correspondence with her distant cousin Eric Fairfax. But after her father and Jane get married, she is sent away to the Webster School for Young Ladies to become the perfect English lady. As Adèle and her newfound friends navigate the world of balls and courtship, Adèle discovers a darker side of life. She tangles with an alluring young woman, an honorable thief, to fend off the abusive men who come after those she loves—until the day one of them comes for her. This story inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s classic is an engaging tale of female friendship, love, and vigilantism that does not pull punches in its study of the original, especially when it scrutinizes and wholly deromanticizes Mr. Rochester. Adèle shines as an astute, clear-minded, bisexual protagonist who is moved above all by her fierce love for her friends. All main characters are assumed White.

An absorbing and empowering tale. (Historical fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews