4 Janes - Marian Yee - ★

AUTHOR: Marian Yee

GENRE: Historical Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: June 30, 2026

RATING: 1 star.

In a Nutshell: A historical fiction offering us “4 Janes” similar to the character Jane Eyre. Not a retelling. Four distinct sections with minimal interconnection in plot. Insipid characters, forced lyricism in the writing, random story development. I struggled to reach the finish line. This gets a no from me.

Plot Preview:

If you have read Charlotte Brontë’s classic work ‘Jane Eyre’, you know that it ends with her marriage to Edward Rochester. But what if Jane’s destiny lay somewhere else?

In this book, we meet 4 Janes: a missionary’s wife battling a new land and life, a Vietnamese bookseller battling a forbidden crush, a historical time traveller battling a recent grief, and a modern-day immigrant (most probably battling his need for self-identity and love; I lost all interest in the book by then.)

The story comes to us in four distinct sections from the point of view of the four key characters.

I picked this book up for two main reasons: I needed a Jane Eyre retelling for a reading challenge, and I was intrigued by the line in the blurb claiming “Jane Eyre is reimagined in the parallel lives of one soul searching for meaning, connection, and a place to belong.” This declaration isn't wrong. However, it comes to fruition in the most boring way possible, leaving me befuddled as to how such an intriguing premise can end in such a dull read. I have had more than my share of duds in 2026, but this is easily among the bottom ten reads of the year.

The story comes to us from four sections, each with no connection in plot but a minor alluded connection through characters. The sections have separate characters in the lead, and come from varied times and places. The first and third section are from Jane Eyre’s point of view, but her circumstances are vastly different. In Section One, she is married to St. John Rivers (her cousin, whose proposal she declines in the classic novel) after Rochester’s death in the big fire. (IYKYK.) In Section Three, she is married to Rochester as expected, but is struggling to keep a hold on her grief after a painful loss. So the mood in the two sections isn't the same. Sections two and four come from the POV of Vietnamese-origin characters not seen in the original classic. You might wonder how Vietnam pops up in a Jane Eyre retelling, but the connection is established through Section One.

As you can see, the idea is quite clever. Almost like getting four stories for the price of one. I still can't believe such an innovative storyline ended so badly. The issue clearly is with the execution, which didn’t work for me.

For one, there is absolutely no connection between the four tracks, even though the alternate storylines have connected characters. The ending of each section is somewhat incomplete, stopping at a critical point in the character’s life rather than at a happy/settled moment. So the immediate jump to the next section, which is in a totally different place and a different historical period, feels very abrupt. It takes time to adjust to the radical transition.

Further, I never felt connected to any of the characters, whether the ones reprising their roles from the classic or the new entrants. All of them felt insipid and self-absorbed, not because they were vain but because they were constantly moping only about themselves. The first and fourth sections had the strongest chance of being memorable for me because a good chunk of Section One is set in India and Section Four, though set in modern-day USA, is the closest of the four to being a Jane Eyre retelling. However, the Indian content felt very artificial to me. The thinking of the characters was also annoying, though I must say they mostly reflected the ethos of the era. The fourth section could have been a novel by itself with better character development and a deeper narrative. One-fourth of a novel is too short to do justice to a retelling. Moreover, Section Four doesn’t have a single quotation mark for the conversations, and many times, a single para contains spoken dialogues as well as the general narration and inner monologues. My concentration was greatly affected by this writing choice.

All the sections contain at least some mention of religion, but none of the religious content worked for me. (I am a practising Christian, so this isn't a case of a religion-reader mismatch. I just didn’t like the approach of the book towards the faith.) Do note that despite the Christian content, the book cannot be classified as “Christian fiction” because of a few of its plot inclusions.

Lastly, the writing is lyrical, but somehow, it doesn’t feel natural. I felt like it was trying too hard to be literary, and in the process, it lost its impact. This, combined with the random story development within each section, ensured my boredom.

No book works the same for every reader. So I can only hope that this story resonates better with others. It might click more with those who don’t have preconceived expectations from a Jane Eyre retelling and are okay with a meandering narrative. As the content is mostly independent of the classic novel, there is no real need to read the original before attempting this atypical variant. However, you might connect better with the characters if you are familiar with the Brontë work (though it clearly didn’t help me.)

My thanks to Little A for providing the DRC of “4 Janes” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work better for me.