Jane Doe book review
Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone Series: Jane Doe #1
on August 1, 2018
Pages: 267
Goodreads
A double life with a single purpose: revenge.
Jane’s days at a Midwest insurance company are perfectly ordinary. She blends in well, unremarkably pretty in her floral-print dresses and extra efficient at her low-level job. She’s just the kind of woman middle manager Steven Hepsworth likes—meek, insecure, and willing to defer to a man. No one has any idea who Jane really is. Least of all Steven.
But plain Jane is hiding something. And Steven’s bringing out the worst in her.
Nothing can distract Jane from going straight for his heart: allowing herself to be seduced into Steven’s bed, to insinuate herself into his career and his family, and to expose all his dirty secrets. It’s time for Jane to dig out everything that matters to Steven. So she can take it all away.
Just as he did to her.
I went into Jane Doe completely blind with only a little bit of information to go on and I have to say I was a little bit disappointed with the “thriller” aspect of this story. I was expected a little bit more brutality and anger than what I got and although I understood the sociopath storyline I felt as though it disconnected me with the characters and the story. I did enjoy this book and I was hooked into the plot and couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen and how it was going to all end up. I was really rooting for the main character even though she wasn’t necessarily the best person, it was a great dynamic for a book. I loved learning all about the different people and the point of views that came out of all of that.
The main character in Jane Doe is surprisingly called Jane, who is a sociopath who is on the path of revenge. This book is told from her perspective as she navigates the city under an assumed name and works out how to target the man she’s stalking. I think Jane herself was an interesting character with a completely uninteresting storyline. I don’t think the story did her justice and I think I would have preferred there to have been stronger plot that would have gone into all of the details of her personality traits and developed them further. I just wished there had been more of an exploration of her and why she was the way she is and how it got like that. I thought that the information surrounding her past life was interesting and I would have loved for there to be more of that.
I think the best bits of Jane Doe for me was definitely watching Jane working out where she stood in different situations and how she reacted to different people. I loved the stalking aspect of the story and watching as she worked out the best way to rid herself of the problem and how she would create the perfect solution. It was interesting to see her mind work through the issues logically and without restraint.
I think the worst bits of Jane Doe for me was definitely the ending. I wish there had been more of a climactic end and there had been more justice but I think that was because I connected with Meg and understood her pain. There was so much going on in the run-up to the ending and I just thought something else was going to happen and when it didn’t I was really underwhelmed. I also think it was wrapped up too nicely and dare I say it, I wanted it to be a little more angsty!
I would recommend Jane Doe purely because it really did keep me hooked on the story and I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen and how.
Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!
