Customer Reviews

Jane Bites Back: A Novel

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Jane Austen's novels brim with irony, witticism, and in the end, a gentle reprove or two. It is why I love her writing. Few authors can deliver this dry, deft and wickedly funny style. Michael Thomas Ford is one of them.

His latest novel Jane Bites Back is more than a gentle joke, it is a sly wink at the Austen and vampire industry. The clever title alone tells us that Ford has more than a keen sense of humor. The story concept is even better. Nearly two hundred years after her reputed death and burial at Winchester Cathedral in 1817, Jane Austen is actually not dead, but a vampire living in Brakeston, a small university town in upper-state New York. As the owner of Flyleaf Books she watches with irritation and frustration as other less talented writers make a killing off her novels and characters with sequels, spin-offs and absurd self help books. To add insult to injury, Constance, the last novel that she wrote before her turning remains unpublished after two hundred years and 116 rejections.

Jane's quiet country life is comfortable but unfulfilling. She has retained her anonymity over the centuries ironically adopting the name of Jane Fairfax, one of her characters in her novel Emma who is also orphaned but a highly accomplished young lady hiding secrets. She enjoys her friendship with her young shop assistant Lucy who reminds her of her dear sister Cassandra and is both flattered and annoyed by the attentions of Walter, a local carpenter/contractor who restores vintage homes and would like to do the same with Jane's heart. Two surprising events change her life dramatically: a legitimate offer to publish her novel, and the return of a former paramour, the mad, bad and dangerous to know poet Lord Byron who seduced and then turned her two hundred years ago. The first she is elated over. The second she reflects upon falling for his entrapment with regret and horror exclaiming in a typical ironic quip...

'Men, she thought. The downfall of women since Adam blamed Eve for that stupid apple. She wondered briefly if it was too late to become a lesbian. "I'm sure they have just as difficult a time of it," she said to the empty room. "Love is dangerous for everyone."'

Our Jane is no namby pamby vegetarian vampire. A proper Regency lady she follows decorum, feeds off human blood only to stay alive, and mind you, in the most discreet fashion. Like the unpropitious characters in her novels who are in need of a dressing down, she chooses victims based on their bad behavior, never taking or turning anyone. She also enjoys a few human indulgences such as drinking wine, eating chocolate ice cream, living with a cat named Tom and an infatuation with actor Richard Mansfield, the pattering comic baritone of the D'Olyly Carte opera company, tra la. When her life gets too challenging, she closes her eyes and thinks of England.

Light, campy and a bit Buffyish, Jane Bites Back is a modern Gothic novel full of Janeite lore and paranormal hijinx that the "sick and wicked" side of Jane Austen would find quite amusing. The literary and historical references really shine. Happily, a certain Bronte scholar gets her cumuppance in a drawing room throw-down which we have been patiently waiting 150 years for and bad boy Byron's romantic and vampiric dalliances are thwarted by our light, bright and sparkly vampire heroine.

Read with tongue-in-cheek and a full glass of suspended disbelief, you will chortle and guffaw until the last bite. This Janeite was truly "glamoured."

Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Jane Austen is still alive today as a vampire. She goes by the name of Jane Fairfax now. She is the owner of a book store in small Brakeston, New York. No one knows she is Austen or that she is a vampire; not even her friendly assistant, Lucy Sebring. Jane keeps mortal men at bay for fear of becoming attached to one and eventually losing him when he dies of old age. She does not need the extra heartache. This includes Walter Fletcher, to whom Jane considers a close friend and refuses dates with.

Jane has kept a manuscript that she now dreams of publishing under her new name. She feels irritated enough that she does not receive royalty checks on the numerous spin-offs of her work, but the continuous rejection notices of her new book is even worse. Jane is about to give up when Kelly Littlejohn, senior editor for a small publishing company, offers her a contract. The book is getting rave reviews and Jane is back in the spotlight. She is thrilled until the famous poet that changed her (unwillingly) into a vampire walks into her store, intending to sweep her off her feet again. To make matters even worse, a noted scholar is accusing Jane of plagiarism.

***** FIVE STARS! This is one of the most thoroughly entertaining stories I have read in the past few years! I feel that the author succeeded in capturing Jane Austen's proper personality, as well as in how the legendary author would have reacted had she found herself an immortal vampire. Michael Thomas Ford has crafted a vivid, charming and witty tale to delight readers of any age. Absolutely fantastic! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Deft storytelling and good pacing enhance this crazy, original tale. "Original" might seem a funny word to use with regard to a Jane Austen-based storyline, but this book doesn't even attempt to mimic Austen's style and that's what makes it enjoyable. It presents Jane Austen, vampire, who has adapted to modern life and sees life's absurdities. She is instantly likable and so is this book. Great fun!

The life of Jane Austen, one of England's great novelists, is skewered in Jane Bites Back, a delectable tale of blood, history and immorality and where other beloved famous authors are perpetually kept alive atop the pages. Jane is now a vampire, her life run awry by the evil machinations of the poet Lord Byron, the secret visit to his house on the shore of Lake Geneva, the loss of her innocence when he seduced her nearly two centuries ago as his eyes burning like stars as she allowed him to lead her into the lake. This was Jane's her death and resurrection, and a time of rebirth. Now living as Jane Fairfax, Jane has proved herself to be a survivor, readily adopting all of the attributes of vampire life and finding a modicum of solace running a bookstore in the picaresque town of Brakeston in up-state New York.

Although she has the support of Lucy, her loyal young assistant, Jane finds herself echoing that desires of that famous heroine Elizabeth Bennett with all of the latest authors cash in on the Austen name. Amidst Jane Austen paper-dolls and Jane Austen cookbooks, the Austen mania is proving too much for Jane who hasn't seen a royalty check in almost two hundred years - and the fact that she was for all intents and purposes dead did little to ease her annoyance. Jane has also been despairing over the numerous rejections of her latest novel Constance. Perhaps she as to admit that perhaps Jane Austen had written her last book? After all she hadn't expected to live forever. but just as she's about to send the script of Constance to its death, she's granted a temporary reprieve from Kelly Littlejohn, the senior editor, Browder Publishing.

Jane is also filled with the possibilities of love when a potential boyfriend appears in the form the handsome Walter Fletcher. His blue eyes sparkling merrily, Walter brings her the gift of cinnamon buns and the promise of love. When Walter invites Jane to a new years eve party, she meets the enigmatic Brian George, so striking with his pale skin and a face that could only be described as beautiful. His dark eyes are matched by the darkness of is hair. Stopping Jane's heart, Brian is in fact, Lord Byron come to reclaim Jane for his own. Like a dream and plunged into reality, "her heart, to be sure is not of ice and one refusal no rebuff," Jane is furious and distraught, disdaining Bryon's seductions and fleeing to New York, where Kelly awaits. She's embarrassed by Kelly's effusive praise but the possibilities of a new romance blossoms.

From New York to Chicago and onto New Orleans, Jane's romantic life is turned upside down by Byron's arrival. After two hundred years of romantic deprivation it's time for a change. She's haunted by her declaration of love for Byron, his callous dismissal of her affections, and her shameful return to England. When the body of a dead reporter from Entertainment Weekly turns up along with an incriminating email, Jane realizes that Byron has kill her in order to frame Jane not only for plagiarism abut for murder as well. And then there's the embittered Violet Grey, an ardent Bronteite who is obsessed with Charlotte, Emily and Branwell. Violet pretends that she is Charlotte, and has managed to unearth Jane's manuscript, convincing herself it was really Charlotte who had penned it. Violet has in fact, read the original manuscript of Constance and accuses her of not only plagiarizing the novel but preventing the world from knowing that another Charlotte Bronte novel exists.

Written with such perfect pitch and a particular brand of ironic humor, it is hard not to fall in love with this delightful jewel in Michael Thomas Ford's literary crown - and that of his newly reinvented Jane Austen. As the action intensifies, Jane finds herself awash with threats of blackmail along with a fair amount of wild emotion. What follows is a terrible house fire, a disastrous book signing, a dog rescue, the appearance of yet another vicious literary villain, as well as the fear of Lucy and Walter exposed to Byron`s bloodthirsty need. Then there's Jane who remains at the center of all the drama, continually torn between Mr. "nice guy" Walter and the "incredibly sexy but totally-bad-for-you" Lord Bryon whom she can't quite get out of her mind. Meanwhile, love proves to be dangerous for everyone as Jane finds herself living in one of her novels, being pulled in too many directions to think properly, her thoughts racing from one to another and she attempts to sort out her thoughts about her book, Walter, Byron, the memories of her beloved sister Cassie, and pretty much her entire vampire life. Mike Leonard January 2010.

Jane Bites Back is a hilarious page-turner.(Full disclosure: I know the author, but only slightly.) Following Ford and his twisted mind on this roller-coaster ride made for a rollicking read--or should I say the rollicking read made for a roller-coaster ride? Either way, I had a blast, and it made me wonder why I've shied away from the vampire genre. Actually, JBB doesn't fall into any genre, fang-related or otherwise. It's a novel/romance/satire and even mystery all rolled into one. I especially loved the author's delicious satire of the publishing game, but Ford jabs at all things romantic, generic, novelistic, and vampiristic. He also does a side-splitting number on a pair of talk show hosts named Comfort and Joy.

Jane, by the way, is Ms. Austen, undead in a remote little town in upstate NY, where she's built a fairly normal life, except for her proclivity to inflict in-depth hickeys on the townsfolk every now and then. Prim and proper Jane hates having to do it, but she's hunger-driven, having been turned 200-something years ago by none other than Lord Byron. As Jane Fairfax, she runs her own bookstore and hangs out with the locals, writing a novel in her spare time. When it's published, her little world bursts wide open, bringing more excitement and danger than the poor girl's had in, oh, 150 years or so. Can she handle it?

How could she not? After all, the guy pulling her strings has a mind more imaginative than that of any writer I've encountered in a long time. And he's wickedly funny: I cackled my way through half the book, especially the vampire stuff. Still, as a writer reading a writer writing about writing, I related most to Jane as the Austenmeister. For instance, "She herself had become somewhat resentful of newly published books--much as childless women sometimes regarded new mothers and their infants with a mixture of jealousy and despair..." Talk about schadenfreude!

Ironically, a book as fun as JBB is a good cure for schadenfreude. How can I possibly resent my friend's publishing success when it's bringing me pleasure? I don't--and I eagerly await Jane Goes Batty. Hm...I just remembered...Batty. Bats. Vampires. Ford hints towards the end that Jane needs to spend more time with "her own kind." Methinks we'll be meeting some of them in the sequel.

Jane Austen is not dead. Well, she's not alive either. She's undead. She owns a bookstore in a small town in the US and feeds on unsuspecting people that come in her way. She is also fuming over the fact that a long string of hacks are using her name and that of her characters and novels to get published. To make matters worse, she hasn't sold her latest novel (under a different name, of course) in years. She has two love interests, a nice local guy and the dark and dangerous Lord Byron (yes, that Byron). Undead Jane goes through situations that are similar to the ones her characters experience in her novels, only in a far less clever degree. As if she didn't have enough problems, an undead Charlotte Bronte begins to stalk her, claiming Jane's latest book as her own.

Jane Bites Back is at times funny and entertaining. It's a satire of all the Jane Austen madness that seems to have overtaken the publishing industry. Michael Thomas Ford is one of them, of course, but at least he makes fun of the situation. The book amused me for a while, but it's forgettable at the end of the day. The whole Charlotte Bronte thing made me roll my eyes. I don't get the whole Austen vs. Bronte thing. It's like comparing apples to oranges. They weren't even alive during the same era, for crying out loud! Charlotte wasn't an Austen fan; she'd made that clear when she made that biting remark about Austen's writing. But, at the end of the day, it was just an opinion, period. I doubt she gave Austen and her books further thought after that. Also, the whole vampire thing comes across as an afterthought most of the time, a gimmick the author is forced to use to make the premise of this book work. For chapters, the topic of vampirism is not mentioned, and then all of a sudden Jane has to feed. She feeds, now it's back to other stuff. Anyway, I recommend this as a light beach read. Don't take it seriously, because it's not meant to be.

I bought copies of JANE BITES BACK for friends. I had no intention of reading it myself; I'm not an Austen fan.

But I picked up the book and glanced at the first pages. As I did, I felt my mind fogging - a pleasant feeling, like a dream. Next thing I knew I was all the way up to page 136.

Despite my reservations, it is a page-turner; a fun, easy read that's hard to put down. I will continue reading after I attend to this itching on my neck...

For fans of both Jane Austen and the paranormal, Jane Bites Back offers a bit of both. In it, Jane Austen faked her death all those years ago, as she had been turned into a vampire. She has spent the years wondering around in various towns, staying only as long as her lack of aging will not be noticed. This story finds her living under the name Jane Fairfax, in the smallish town of Brakeston, New York; she is owner of the town's local bookstore, and still trying (for the 116th time) to get her final book published. She has a young coworker she is very fond of (reminds her a lot of her sister, Cassie) and a gentleman who is very fond of her, but she can't commit due to her undead state and fears to tell him why. Things get exciting when her novel is finally accepted for publication at the same time as the man who turned her, unwillingly, finally tracks her down. Now she has more legitimate problems than just wishing she were getting royalties off all the Jane Austen books and spin off that are purchased in her store--keeping him at bay, keeping her two friends safe, and managing to look decent on national TV as she promotes her book.

Jane Bites Back is a cute book. The plot is rather transparent, and certainly not deep; the same can be said for the characters. The paranormal aspect is nothing unusual or original, rather straightforward, in fact. That being said, it's still fun to see famous and favored authors in completely different roles, and this book does just that. Overall, it's an enjoyable, light read. It's not going to be one that makes the reader awed or shocked, and probably won't stick long in the memory, but it's an entertaining way to while away a few hours.

While subtly disguised about Jane Austen's life as a vampire in the early 21st century, Grumbledog Barks Back ends up being something much more profound. While portraying its protagonist as a struggling writer angry at the world for the lack of royalties on books written years earlier, we soon learn that's not why the author is bitter. The book's author performs a neat trick, working to convince the engrossed reader that the lack of royalties is impeding the creative progress. But soon, we learn more of the character.

While openly expressing disgust at the lack of royalties through regular self-actualization, the author has been working on a novel for many years, meticulously keeping track of rejection letters from publishers & editors on both sides of the Atlantic. But then we learn something about the author. For once a publisher agrees to publish the novel, talk of royalties & profits suddenly ceases. The allure of becoming rich or famous do not, in fact, seem to motivate our author. Instead, it's the validation from having others like the book, and knowing that ever more people will read it, that is the reward our author is after.

By the end of the novel, our author is on the way to fame & fortune. But it's not the money that thrills our author, and it was never money that was the motivation. Rather, it was the creative process itself, the burst to escape the obscurity that kept millions from reading the work-- that was the payoff.

No doubt, our author will quickly learn that while those royalty checks (if they happen to exceed the advance and cover the other expenses charge by the publisher) are nice financially, it's the ancillary activities that will provide the real money for the author- book readings, book signings, paid appearances at conferences and more.

A nice trick played by the author of this book, it's as if the author is a character in the novel itself.

Jane Austen, author of classic literature still loved today by millions, died in 1817. Little do these readers know that Jane Austen is still alive (er...undead) and well in New York. She has taken the pseudonym Jane Fairfax and is the proud owner of a bookstore. She has been trying to get her book Constance published for around 200 years. Unfortunately, it's been rejected by 116 publishers. Plus, she's constantly surrounded by the hype of spin-offs and sequels to her own books and she doesn't see one penny of royalties for any of it. Her life starts to turn around when her novel is finally picked up by a publisher. Things get complicated again when a darkly handsome man from her past returns to her life and anti-Austen, pro-Bronte blogger Violet Grey accuses Jane of stealing the manuscript. Can Jane preserve her peaceful life with these obstacles plus being thrust into the limelight in the wake of her new novel?

All of the characters were detailed and realistic. I either loved them or loved to hate them. My favorites were Lucy, Walter, and Jane. Jane was exactly how I imagined her to be if she lived today. She is familiar with technology, but doesn't entirely trust all of it (like airplanes). She's a little old fashioned, but is basically just another normal modern person. She loves dark chocolate, wine, reading, and her cat. I can totally relate to her even though she's over 200 years old. I liked that the vampires in this novel really didn't have many supernatural powers. They can glamour humans, heal fast, and don't age. That's about it. I think this is part of why Jane was so easy to relate to. Even though she has a human side, she's still a vampire. And not the Twilight-esque vegetarian variety either. I admire how she unflinchingly embraces her nature and feeds on people, but not enough to kill them. There are no self-hating, brooding vampires in this story. (That means you, Angel and Edward.)

Jane Bites Back was awesome. It was a fast paced, fun read. Parts of the novel were laugh out loud funny. The characters all had dimensions that made them This concept could have gone horribly wrong, but Micheal Thomas Ford succeeded with wit and humor. I look forward to the next book in the series.