So. It seems that when Michael Thomas Ford was speaking with his publisher, the platitude was spoken that the only thing that was selling these days was Jane Austen and vampires. So Mr. Ford naturally wrote a book about Jane Austen being a vampire.
Fortunately, he did not do the obvious thing, setting Jane Bites Back in a bucolic Derbyshire village in 1810. I doubt I would have read it. There are so damn many Jane Austen knock-off books that I have set up a basic wall of defiance at this point. I don’t even like Jane Austen that much—I would name her a distant fourth on my list of Victorian Novelist Fave Raves, and fully expect her to drop as I continue sopping up the tomes of others. In fact, YHB had seen this book on the library shelves and chosen not to get it; my Best Reader took it out and vouched for it being readable.
And it was. The character herself is well-drawn, there are lots of fun and ridiculous plot points, a rather sweet romance, and an easy wit to the thing. The supporting characters carry the book, actually, and what’s more to the point, Mr. Ford lets the supporting characters carry the book, which is a Good Thing, because, you know, Jane Austen being a vampire. Only so much a fellow can take.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.