Review: "Escaping Mr. Rochester" by L.L. McKinney

Escaping Mr. Rochester by L.L. McKinney
Published January 2024 via HarperTeen
★★★

This time, Jane fights back.

Jane Eyre is my all-time favorite book. I probably need to revise that assessment (though—in my defense—I have never liked Rochester; I'm in it for Jane's agency), but for now it stands...and it's such a delight to see new takes on the novel. Especially ones that are queer, especially ones that treat Rochester as the ass that he is, and especially ones with POC heroines. And Escaping Mr. Rochester delivers on all three counts.

This is Jane Eyre in an alternate history: There's a queen on the British throne (perhaps Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom? In the book it's Queen Amelia the Second); Bertha hails from New Orleans rather than from Jamaica; Jane (canonically plain, whatever that means) and Rochester (canonically harsh of feature) are both described as stunning/handsome/etc.; Jane and Bertha are both Black. And this Rochester is cruel, far crueller than the original book would have him—though of course, in the original book, he is cast as a hero.

McKinney is not shy about adjusting the original story as she sees fit, and the book is better for it. I've gone on record many times before arguing that adaptations of classics almost always work better when the writer doesn't feel obliged to hew too closely to the original—things that made sense in the early 1800s don't always make sense in the 2020s, after all. Here, McKinney flicks away side characters if they're going to get in the way, recasts Helen as someone who was something other than a perfect angel child, and of course turns the love story of the original on its head.

Jane is warier here, but not necessarily more street smart—if anything, she verges at times on reckless as she and Bertha get to know each other. In many ways she's not really Jane; she's an original character dropped into the Thornfield world to do battle with Rochester's extra-slimy stepbrother. (I never wanted to marry Rochester...but I really, really wouldn't want to marry this Rochester.) I do wish there'd been a bit more depth to this version of Rochester: villains are at their most interesting when they're allowed some good parts alongside the bad, and villains whose entire existence seems to be dedicated to villainy (not even high-level villainy, but low-level nastiness) have never brought me as much joy. I'd also have loved to see a bit more worldbuilding for this alternate universe, because a lot of the language is quite modern, but there's much that isn't explained (race relations, how visible queer people are, what happened that we ended up with a Queen Amelia the Second), and I'm chronically, terminally curious.

Three cheers: one for queering Jane, one for diversifying her, and one for escaping the dread Rochester.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.