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inthestacks
Mar 17, 2013inthestacks rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
A contemporary twist on Jane Eyre set in 1950s-60s Scotland. The early part of the novel is the most engaging as it closely mirrors Jane Eyre, with Gemma enduring the abusiveness of her aunt and cousins, and her transforming experiences at boarding school. After that, the novel veers off into the implausible plot devices of a romance novel. Setting the novel in 1960s as she did, it would seem that Livesey intended to infuse the 19th century classic with the dilemmas faced by women as their roles in society began to change. While she incorporates some of that in her novel, she never quite gets free of a lifeless love story that prevents the story from taking flight.