Despite writing and creating enchanting love stories, Austen, in turn, never experienced the longed-for and fantasy love that she put into practice in her works. And this is the starting point of the book “Jane in Love” authored by Rachel Givney, published in May 2022.

In 1803, Jane Austen feels all the pressure of society on her shoulders. For all the residents of Bath, England, it is absurd that she is almost 30 years old and has not found a husband yet. Her mother forbade her from writing her stories, and she also constantly insists that she cannot be smarter than her suitor. No man wants a know-it-all.

After 7 long months without a suitor, a young man finally visits her, filling her with hope, but it doesn’t take long for the news of his engagement to another woman to arrive, taking all her faith with it. Because of this disappointment, through a recommendation from third parties, Jane meets a matchmaker who confides in her that the love she is looking for is not there and she will need to travel to find it.

And it is through this trip that Austen ends up in 2020, on a film set where an adaptation of one of her books is being filmed, and meets Sofia and Fred.

Is this worth reading?

The book’s language is complicated at the beginning and becomes simpler as the chapters go on. This may be to keep up with the pace of writing at the time the scenes are set, with a sophisticated language in 1803 and simpler in 2020.

This really helps to keep the reading pace steady, without too many complications or the need to run to the dictionary every time a new word appears.

As for the story itself, it is exactly what we expect from it. When reading the book’s synopsis, we don’t need much to guess the ending. Torn between love and her career, it is easy to deduce what Jane Austen will choose.

However, the way the development between Jane and Fred is delivered, as well as Jane’s friendship with Sofia is described, is rushed in a way that could have been contained. The impression you get is that, despite having 392 pages, everything happened too quickly.

Jane falls in love with Fred, everything is mutual and beautiful, but at the same time, so quickly that it is difficult to identify what caused such love. Furthermore, the author tries to portray the relationship between the two as enemies to lovers at various times, but what could be beautiful and exciting gives us the feeling that it was just thrown in there just to be something (and it wasn’t).

And that’s why I say that predictability is sometimes necessary. If the book had ended differently, it would be hard to defend Jane Austen’s choices or even see any sense in them.

I won’t lie that, despite not being a very impactful book, it caught me off guard and at a sensitive moment. Even with all the complaints above, I shed a few tears in the final pages.

“Jane in Love” is one of those books that would be perfect if adapted for an afternoon session. And, in my opinion, that’s not a problem, because once they find their target audience, these works can consolidate themselves and go far.

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Hazelwood’s debut book became popular through “BookTok”, a literary community on TikTok. In the book, a kiss between professor Adam and doctoral student Olive ends up trapping the two in a fake relationship.

Bisous Pictures is the production company responsible for the adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic “Persuasion”, released by Netflix in June of this year.

Because it was born from a fanfiction (story created by fans) about Kylo Ren and Rey, characters from Star Wars, fans want to see actor Adam Driver playing a character created in his honor.

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In this first production, the one who takes on the role of spokesperson for the facts is Thalita, who introduces us to her 3 best friends: Augusto, Davi and Andreia. This group of high school students had their lives drastically changed after finding an unknown book in the school library.

The object, although strange, has nothing written on its thin pages. Even so, Augusto decides to keep it, which leads the others to believe that it is nothing more than a joke by his friend – since he had already tried to convince them to play an RPG together. As the story progresses, we begin to wish that it was just a joke.

Victims of bullying, the characters end up finding a possible solution to their problems – instructions for a seemingly harmless ritual, which appears in the pages of the book. This motivates them to embark on a search for a definitive end to the suffering they face at school. What they did not imagine is that they would be guided by hatred and blinded by the resentment of all those who hurt them, making them sink into endless darkness.

Many stories have addressed the issue of bullying, placing greater emphasis on the suffering of those who experience it. However, the author of The Unnameable manages to guide our thoughts to this subject, without using a “moralizing” tone to indicate that this is what he expects. He presents us with the reasons for the characters’ hatred and the situations each one has suffered, but we are left to understand the metaphors used by ourselves. For example, how the darkness in which they find themselves takes hold of them, inciting them to harm those they hate without thinking about the consequences.

“O Inominável” is a short book, with eight chapters of a story, told in the first person, that can keep you hooked from beginning to end. The work makes us think about each act that has caused us suffering and our actions that have affected someone. When we finish reading, we are left with a mix of feelings which oscillate between the understanding that what the characters went through motivated them to act in a certain way, and the doubt as to whether or not we would do the same in their situation. Perhaps we all have a darkness inside us, just waiting to be released.

Additional information

“O Inominável” is available on Wattpad and Luvbook, with a total of 2.5k reads. This is the debut book by author Gustavo Lopes, but the São Paulo native also has a blog (Blog do Gusta), where we can find another short story by him, called “A coroa”, as well as several texts on other themes.

• This post was originally posted on the website Travessia Cult in 2017. You may check the original post clicking here.

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Meggin Patricia Cabot, better known as Meg Cabot (not to mention the pseudonyms Patricia Cabot and Jenny Carroll) is an American writer, famous for her The Princess Diaries series. She has admitted to having read the all Jane Austen books and being a fan of Clarice Lispector. With degree in Arts from Indiana University, she tried to pursue a career as an illustrator, before have her passion for writing awakened.

Meg has written more than 70 books, among which is the bestselling 11-volume series, The Princess Diaries (2000-2015). In 2013, she released Livro das Princesas (Book of Princesses), in partnership with Brazilian authors Paula Pimenta and Patrícia Barbosa, as well as another American, Lauren Kate.

Shadowland is the first book in a series of 7 volumes – the most recent was released in August 2016, 12 years after the sixth book. They are: The Mediator, The Ninth Key, Reunion, Darkest Hour, Haunted, Twilight and Remembrance. We still don’t know if there will be a sequel or if the seventh volume published was the necessary conclusion, made just to satisfy the fans’ longing.

This first book takes us to the sunny and cheerful city of Carmel, full of palm trees and a breathtaking sea. A city with no room for the leather jacket, ripped jeans, black boots and army backpack of Suzannah Simon. Although she appears to be an ordinary 16-year-old girl, she has kept a secret since she was 2 years old: the ability to see ghosts and also to hit them with punches and kicks (something that can be very useful sometimes).

Our mediator – who helps ghosts find peace and finally rest (which is somewhat reminiscent of the CBS series Ghost Whisperer, 2005-2010) – was taken from her hometown and suddenly had 3 siblings and a stepfather. In addition, she had to make countless other adjustments in her new life, such as a new school – with a principal who is also a mediator – and an out-of-control ghost who wants revenge. Even in the face of all this, she remains uncomplaining, because she wants to see her mother happy.

On the way from the airport to the new house, everything seemed normal, until one of the new siblings told her that the place was over 200 years old. Let’s just say that the girl doesn’t get along very well with old buildings, after all… It usually have “other residents”. Freaking out on the inside and keeping calm on the outside, everything changes when Suze enters her room for the first time and finds a ghost sitting in the armchair that her stepfather had lovingly placed by the window.

This is the first appearance of Jesse (one of the main characters), the ghost who has lived in the house for 150 years and is too beautiful to be dead. He has a charming smile and a strong Spanish accent, so get ready to fall in love with the affectionate nickname “hermosa” and the description of this memorable character.

The character’s personal dilemmas, which are presented in the background, are explored in an interesting way, without losing sight of the main focus of the story – the supernatural part. The work is capable of keeping us hooked until the last minute, not because it is a surprising fiction or has a plot very different from the stories that are presented today, but because of the naturalness with which the author Meg Cabot narrates the facts, the subtlety of the events and the simple language used. These small details make this a great read for those who want to distract themselves.

• This post was originally posted on the website Travessia Cult in 2017. You may check the original post clicking here.

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