Jane Doe (A Jane Doe Thriller)

I appreciate it when other reviewers report politically-motivated narrations, so I'm returning the favor.

The main character hates whites, men, capitalism, and Christianity. She might hate America, too, considering she moved to Malaysia after college. Sound familiar? The ultra-liberal's playbook. The author is clever, though. She assigns these attributes to a character that we should logically dislike, at least superficially. But the author also figures that, deep down, we will actually like her. And that's actually a sign of a good writer, so all the more shame - she IS a good writer. But she distracts from that writing, and ultimately sabotages it.

Before you think you know me, let me say that I'm an independent who favors hard work, the rule of law, taxing the 1%, and atheism. So I'm a mixed bag. I'm just so damn tired of authors using their bully pulpit to inject their political hate. I’m done with this, and I'm done with this author.

An utterly addictive psychological thriller!!! Brilliantly plotted. 5 Stars + I loved Victoria Helen Stone’s JANE DOE! On my Top Books of 2018. Hilarious! The author has some great sarcastic lines.

I read the book and listened to the audio (the audio was quite entertaining). I laughed so hard. Was glued to the pages. Nicol Zanzarella, the narrator, gave an award-winning performance. I had to rewind many chapters because it was that good!

This “killer” intelligent suspense psychological thriller and introduction to this incredible author had me rushing to audible to purchase Half Past and Evelyn, After. Loved all three. (reviews to follow for these two). Highly recommend each of these books.

JANE DOE IS AMAZING! Impressive character development and those twists! I have never met a sharper femme fa·tale. Jane knows how to play with the big boys. Bring it on. She is in a league all her own. No one has anything on Jane Doe. She knows how to deliver juicy devilish sweet revenge.

I agree with the author summary: “Fatal Attraction meets Dexter.”

Jane is smart and savvy. Devious, intelligent, and evil. (in a good way). After her best friend, from college –Meg ended her life due to a man, Jane reinvents herself and begins her plan to destroy Steven Hepsworth.

She has never killed anyone; however, desperate times call for extreme measures. She is excellent at the double life thing. A delicious game of cat and mouse. No one deserves it more than Steven and his family.

Jane was working as an American import-export attorney for a big Asian manufacturing conglomerate. With a gorgeous apartment in a modern high-rise in Kuala Lumpur outfitted with Western luxuries. The company thinks she is caring for a dying relative. She has to take a detour. She needs to wipe out Steven before she can get back to her life.

Leaving her high jet-setting life to return to Minneapolis, she rents a run-down furnished apartment and takes a job at an insurance company as a data entry clerk. Steven is a middle manager. Wearing her plain jane dresses with just enough buttons unbuttoned to entice Steven. She knows how to turn on the sex appeal.

This guy controlled her friend’s life. He was manipulative and abusive. A narcissist. He is the son of a preacher. He is all about impressing his father, and Steven is a deacon. However, little does the church know these men are not the men the church thinks they are. They do not respect women.

She wants revenge. She plays the part perfectly. She is devious, talented and highly confident in her abilities. She plays the innocent girl. She knows she will be able to wrap Steven around her little finger. She is quite the actress and delivers an award-winning performance.

Jane will destroy this family. She will find what’s most important to him and take it away. However, that plays out is okay with her. She is a master manipulator. Steven does not stand a chance. When she has the perfect murder plan, she discovers a better way. (it is a good one). A way to get back at not only Steven but his father as well.

WOW! Stone has created one heck of a character! Jane uses sex and all her assets (plus her intelligence) to bring not only Steven but his father to their knees. What a wild ride. Scandalous. Not only well-written, smart, and twisty— but action-packed, witty, and laugh out loud funny.

I loved her old college boyfriend, Luke. (cat part was a riot). The recording and video (Steven and Pastor Hepsworth) and congregation—Priceless. Steven thinks he is in charge; however, he is a mere amateur next to Jane. They will not know what hit them.

Utterly irresistible. Loved everything about this book! The author is brilliant. She keeps you guessing, and Jane is one step ahead of everyone. If you are looking for an entertaining, twisty, and satisfying thriller, Jane Doe has it all. You won't be able to put this one down. Loved the ending.

Jane Doe would make a fabulous movie! A sequel, please. More Jane, please. Why am I now just discovering this author? Trust me, she will be front and center from here on out. On my radar. Love her writing style. Move this one to the top of your list!

Fans of Green Hendricks/ Sarah Pekkanen’s The Wife Between Us, Kaira Rouda’s Best Day Ever, Liv Constantine The Last Mrs. Parrish, Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, and AR Torre’s The Girl in 6E Deanna Madden Series will devour!

A special thank you to #LakeUnion and #NetGalley for an early reading copy of #JaneDoe. Also purchased the audiobook. I listen to hundreds of audiobooks a year and think this is one of the most entertaining and best psychological suspense thriller audiobooks.

Victoria Helen Stone featured author in my forthcoming Newsletter. A Q&A elevator ride with the author. JDCMustReadBooks

First I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing me with this review copy in return for my feedback.

I was pretty disappointed with this story after reading a number of exceptional reviews. A lot of the reviews were from women, so perhaps the story struck a chord from women who have come across too many men like the targets in this story. I'll admit that they were low-life scum in their attitudes toward women, but I think Jane was looking too hard to blame them for her friend's unfortunate suicide. She looked very hard at their behavior, much of it imagined, and when she found anything she didn't like, that was enough to condemn them, even to death if it suited her. Although I wouldn't lose any sleep if someone like that died, I really think ignoring him is the right course of action for someone who doesn't treat you with respect unless there is a reason you cannot.

So, I didn't like the guy Jane targeted at all, and felt no sympathy for him or his father. But I didn't particularly like Jane either although I did feel some sympathy for her. But that was difficult, because of her actions.

Aside from this, there was just too much of the same thing over and over, hearing her justifications and reasons for her revenge. I get that she's got this antisocial personality disorder and doesn't really care about people - there's no reason to go on and on about it. I think the story might have been better if she didn't keep trying to justify her actions, and just did her thing a little more like Dexter in his TV show. He never tries to really explain or justify his actions, he just does his thing and tries not to get caught. The book was much longer than it needed to be, and it was hard not to just give up and stop reading.

Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone is a straight forward thriller featuring a self proclaimed sociopath. Jane has taken a job at an insurance company in order to get close to the manager of the company, Steven Hepsworth.

Steven is the man that stole everything from Jane in the blink of an eye. How do you ask? By breaking Jane’s best friend’s heart. In that moment Jane knew that she needed to do to Stephen just what he did to her to make him pay.

Picking up Jane Doe I didn’t realize that Victoria Helen Stone was actually such a well established author under the name Victoria Dahl or I might have suspected that this would be really great writing going into it. Instead I was more than pleasantly surprised to find myself quickly pulled into the story and completely engrossed in Jane’s revenge.

Now as the story went on Jane was always there to remind us that she is a sociopath out for revenge but quite honestly I actually found myself rooting for her the entire way. Normally one would be cringing at the dark character in a book like this but nope, it was go Jane go! When finished I’d definitely recommend this one to those that enjoy a more straight forward thriller where you sit back in anticipation waiting to see how far it will go.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

The description was clear - and the packing slip was clear - Hard Cover yet what they shipped was a soft cover.

Jane wears flowery dresses in her most unremarkable way in the most unremarkable data entry job at an insurance company. She is just the kind of woman middle-manager Steven Hepsworth likes, however-meek, demure always willing to defer to a man. No one really knows what or who Jane really is, Least of all Steven.

Jane has something to hide, and Steven has been bringing the worst out in her.

She goes straight for his heart, inserts herself into his family and his bed. Her goal is to expose all of his dirty little secrets. She wants to take everything that has ever mattered to him away.

REVIEW:

For the first time in a long time, I felt anger reading this book. I was not angry towards Jane, of course. I was angry, no, furious at Steven. That kind of guy exists EVERYWHERE. They are predators. I was glad that she had targeted him and had the plan that she did.

This was not an intelligent book, however, in that it was more of a revenge book. It reminded me of someone who had been in bad relationships before and wrote what they would have done if given a chance, or maybe they knew someone they would avenge. It was written well but lacked specific prose that I look for in books. Though it was entertaining because I like to see predators suffer, it didn't develop the characters the way I would have wanted either.

Also, a lot of time was spent explaining what a sociopath was and reminding the reader of that fact over and over again. It became exhausting. However, it was a good thing to be able to see how her mind worked and read her inner thoughts and be reassured that she wasn't as weak as she portrayed herself.

WRITING:
The writing was good. The sentences were structured well and flowed well, however, the prose was not there. I didn't get the feeling that I was reading a good story from a good novelist. It felt like this was written by an inexperienced author.

PLOT:
The plot stayed consistent over time, although some of her judgments didn't make sense to me. She was good at playing the part she intended for herself and did not falter, even though sociopaths typically have a hard time faking relationships and normal. The writer stayed the course and I think she will be successful with other books in the future with her plots if she continues down this path.

WHAT I LIKED:

I liked Jane a lot. She did let Steven get to her, but not enough to make her crumble. She was a strong character from what was described. I also liked Luke, a supporting character in the book ( which I probably shouldn't have revealed), because he helped her stay strong and feel "normal". I also liked how the story stayed consistent with the rapidity that Jane was moving along with her plan against Steven.

I liked that Jane wanted to destroy that awful guy Steven because, quite frankly, a guy like that deserves it.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:

I didn't like that story was so short. It could have been longer and more twisted, to say the least. She could have gotten more involved with Steven and gotten more from him. It just seemed too fast. I enjoy psychological thrillers with more of a twist and more of a drawn-out scenario than I got here.

Jane is a psychopath. She knows it and embraces it.

I immediately was sucked into this book. Jane is such an interesting character. She wants revenge and no one is going to stop her. As the novel goes on, we get to know Jane and her reasons for revenge.

I could not put this book down! I have to agree with fellow a bookstagrammer, she compared Jane to Joe from YOU. I can definitely see the comparison. They are both psychopaths that you are rooting for. The book is told through Jane's perspective and I wouldn't have it any other way. This is definitely a thriller that will stand out to me. It is different and memorable. I will be reading more of Victoria Helen Stone.

I found the story refreshing because it was not full of twists and turns- it was not some shocking ending. It was just a great character and story line. There are so many thrillers out there that are the same, this was different and engaging.

If you feel a bit of helplessness and some restless urge for vengence Jane Doe is a great fix. It’s definitely different and does a great job in getting that bloodthirsty feeling out of you. Great characters and nicely plotted with just the right amount of pacing.

I liked it for a quick read, I agree that it was a little far fetched

I went into ‘Jane Doe’ relishing the idea of sinking my teeth into a straight forward revenge plot, fully expecting Jane to be a female equivalent of Paul from ‘Best Day Ever’. Turns out there was so much more to her than first apparent, and it was quite the thought-provoking read. Don’t worry, there are still plenty of fun, amusing, satisfying, ‘revenge’ parts, but some emotional, touching poignant ones as well.

Jane tells us right from the onset that she’s a sociopath, and she makes no apology for being the way she is. But her self-diagnosis is almost immediately problematic, as even her reason for seeking revenge on Steven doesn’t really fit the profile of a sociopath. I don’t want to give away too much, but picking apart Jane’s behaviour and actions was fascinating, and watching her experience various feelings, and then either dismissing them, or searching the net for the one article that supported a sociopath acting that way on occasion, really endeared me to her.

Now that I think about it, it’s Steven who’s more like Paul – a nasty, women-hating bully, who deserved everything Jane dished out. It was a hoot watching Jane deliberately baiting him, especially given that he was certain he was the one controlling her. I appreciate that the author didn’t go the route of ‘all men are evil’, that she did include some nice male characters to offset the horrible ones.

It would be a good choice for those on the go, or readers who are pressed for time, as its easy-to-follow plot, short chapters, and few characters to keep track of, and the fact that the entire book is only 258 pages in length, means it’s not a huge commitment.