Michael Thomas Ford

I received Jane Goes Batty as a part of LibraryThing member giveaway. I don't normally like vampire books, but the notion of Jane Austin, Lord Byron, and Charlotte Bronte all being vampires was interesting enough for me to enter. I was pleased to win and so am posting my review.

Though the second book in a series it was very accessible to someone who's not read the first book. I jumped right in and had no problem following along. I read it in less than a day. The book was a light, fun read. show more I was hoping Jane would succeed and reading about her running around trying to juggle her crazy life was rather entertaining. It's not a book with dark, evil, insane vampires nor was there wasn't much violence, which I appreciated. At times Jane and Byron were hilarious and sarcastic, both with their recollections of the past 200 years and their critiques of modern culture. The book was fast paced and flowed very well, I like Ford's style. He used many literary references, old and new, and had his vampires as witty and upbeat. They mention Emily Dickenson right along with Twilight and has them critique modern reworkings of their famous works. It was refreshing and entertaining.

In conclusion, contrary to my usual critique of the recent vampire craze, this book was different. Violence and sex was not main themes, overall it was rather clean. It was engaging and kept me reading to the last page. A fun, light read for an afternoon. I am interested in reading the rest of the series. show less

Fifteen-year-old Jeff wakes up on New Year's Day to find himself in the hospital. Make that the psychiatric ward. Didn't remember about the bandages on his wrists and the notes on his chart, not worried about his problems with his best friend, Allie, and her boyfriend, Burke. Jeff's perfectly fine, perfectly normal, not like the other kids in the hospital with him. Now they've got problems. But a funny thing happens as his forty-five-day sentence drags on: the crazies start to seem less show more crazy.Compelling, witty, and refreshingly real, author Michael examines that fuzzy line between "normal" and the rest of us.

Suicide Notes has 45 chapters, each one representing a day in the life of 15-year-old Jeff, who is in the psychiatric ward of a hospital after his suicide attempt on New Year’s Eve. Title may depress you but not the story

Jeff is quick, witty, sarcastic, and absolutely hilarious as he manages to evade any “real” discussion with his psychiatrist, Dr. Katzrupus, also known as Cat Poop, about what made him try to kill himself. He learns more about himself as he endures individual and group therapy, makes friends, experiences grief and loss, and comes to terms with his sexuality.

The story takes a more serious turn when Jeff gradually opens up to Cat Poop, and details of his family life, his friendships, the events that led to his suicide attempt. His thoughts, feelings, confusion and pain and teenager tendencies . I would highly recommend this story to teens that are gay, straight, or somewhere in between, and to adults who remember what it was like to read this once show less

REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2011/02/11/jane-austen-dead-and-loving-it-cassie-la-arg...

Jane Austen… Is a vampire… Living in the 21st century. Hearing this synopsis, I knew that few people in the literary community would appreciate this series, and I knew I was one crazy few who would read it. Yes, the premise is ridiculous, but that’s what makes this book, and it’s predecessor Jane Bites Back, so refreshing. It doesn’t try to be high brow. Instead it strives to be fun show more and entertaining, succeeding without crossing the line into literary slop.

Jane Bites Back and Jane Goes Batty are the kind of book you can start reading late at night and fight off sleep just so you can keep reading them. Ending just shy of 300 pages, these fast paced novels can be read in a day or two whether you’re a voracious reader or a voracious eater. Because you will want to read these books while doing everything.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Cassie, this is just yet another way to capitalize on the classic novel plus random pop culture monster phenomena. Isn’t this just Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, or Android Karenina rehashed with a non-fiction cast? And the answer is no. Yes, it might be latching onto a current theme (one which I love and find no fault with simply because it gets people reading classic literature AS CREATURE FEATURES) but it has its own unique voice. Plus, if one were to believe the book, Abraham Lincoln actually was a vampire hunter.

Unlike Jane Bites Back, which focuses on Jane’s attempts to get her novel published and plagiarism charges by a Brontë scholar who ends up being Charlotte Brontë herself, this book focuses on the after affects of fame. It also is a lot more campy, with a romance novel blogger turned vampire holding a carnival complete with a dunk tank allowing people to dunk Darcy and a very non-rousing game of croquet that will make you want to chew and someone’s neck in annoyance. There is also a ball in which everyone inexplicably seems to already own regency era clothing.

The title character Jane Fairfax is refreshing, going against the mold much like the heroines in her novels. Her lightness and humour come through in her popular culture references, particularly her appreciation of “Clueless” and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. If I were 80 years old I would probably refer to her as FANGTASTIC! But I’m not so you can just pretend I didn’t even write that last pun.

My only problem with Jane this go around is her tendency to stray to the dark side of things, as is inherent in all vampire fiction (with the exception of Twilight which strays to the lame side of things). Unlike some vampire novels which symbolize the sharing of blood as a metaphor for AIDs, or the exploration of the rigid morals in the Victorian era, Jane is merely concerned with her soul (much like one of my favourite vampire figures, Louis from Interview with the Vampire). Although this angsty self-reflection can get a little tiring at times.

Plus, who cares. Religion = boring. Although the introduction of a Rabbi character who Jane goes to when considering converting to Judaism amused the agnostic Jew within me nonetheless.

The other main character, that steals the novel from its protagonist, is Lord Byron, a self-obsessed sexaholic who much like his historical counterpart has something of a reputation. In the beginning of the novel it is revealed that he is enamored with two twins (complicatedly named Ned and Ted), and one night while drunk turns the straight twin by mistake. After finishing the novel, I still did not know out of Ned and Ted which twin was a straight vampire and which was a gay human. This is the only redeeming part of Twilight: it is easy to remember that Edward Cullen is the sparkly gay vampire.

Lord Byron is the spark in some moments that Jane is lacking (much like Magnus Bane or Cinna from City of Bones and The Hunger Games respectively). He also quite reminded me of Herbert the gay vampire from Tanz Der Vampire. Although, sadly, no one sings “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in this series.

Then there is her boyfriend Walter, who is without a doubt the least exciting character in the entire series. He restores houses, but other than that is generally boring, which is probably why he mostly remains on the periphery and stammers about marriage. He is also blissfully unaware that his wife and her amazingly hot ex-lover are vampires. It is a wonder why she dates him at all considering who she has to choose from. I suppose she gave up on looking for her Mr. Darcy 200 years ago.

Jane Goes Batty may seem ridiculous and overly campy to some, but was wonderfully entertaining for me. Although I think “Sharktopus” was a cinematic gem, so I suppose my judgment isn’t perfect. Regardless, I highly recommend this book and its prequel. It will have you dying to meet your favourite authors.

(See what I did there?) show less

I particularly enjoyed all the "writing" atmosphere - Jane's bookstore, and her publication experiences, and all the writer characters. It was fun! Making Jane Austen an immortal vampire in a modern world creates all kinds of fun situations, but there is a thread of more thoughtfulness. Being immortal means being cut off from friends and family, as they age and die. It means moving on and on and on in order to hide that immortality. It means being alone in a very real sense - and that makes show more this story more dimensional than one might first think. show less