Sometimes a book comes along that is so fun, so unabashedly silly, and so clever that it makes you glad to be alive. Such is the case with My Plain Jane, which re-imagines Jane Eyre in such a bizarre and gleeful fashion that even in the grip of my regularly scheduled holiday depression I was overcome with bliss.

The premise of My Plain Jane is this: Charlotte Bronte is real, and attends Lowood School. Jane Eyre is also real, is a teacher at the school (she’s just a year or so older than Charlotte), and is friends with Charlotte. Jane Eyre goes to Thornfield Hall, accompanied by her friend, Helen Burns, who is a ghost. Despite Helen’s constant good advice, Jane finds herself falling in love with the mysterious and inconsistent Mr. Rochester.

Meanwhile, Charlotte and her brother, Branwell, accompany Alexander Blackwood to Thornfield Hall on a mission of their own. Alexander is a member of a secret society of ghost hunters. He can see ghosts, which is a rare quality. Branwell is his assistant. Charlotte is desperate to join even though she can’t see ghosts and even though the society doesn’t accept women. The alternative for Charlotte is to go back to Lowood and eventually become a governess herself, and she’s all, “nope.”

You see, the trio is on the way to Thornfield Hall because Alexander figured out that Jane can see ghosts and since her abilities are so rare he believes the society will hire her despite her gender. Jane refuses to join, but Charlotte hopes she can convince Jane, and thus prove her own worthiness to the society of ghost hunters.

Charlotte is constantly writing in a little book, and to my delight, everything she writes down is, in fact, something that the real Charlotte wrote down. Also delightful: the writers are fine with using anachronisms, as long as they can justify them, such as when they mention that Lowood School’s ex-headmaster, Mr. Brocklehurst, forced the students to wear burlap:

(Hey reader, it’s us again. We did some digging, and it seems as though burlap wasn’t produced until 1855. At least, that’s the popular theory. We did a little more digging and it turns out that Brocklehurst actually invented burlap just to make his students miserable, but it wasn’t widely known about until much later. Now you know.)

They use these asides just often enough to be funny and not so much that they become annoying, unless you think even once is annoying, in which case you won’t like this book.

The plot becomes impossible to describe, but involves mysteries, ghosts, Regency politics, feminism, men both noble and creepy, family, possession, and the importance of wearing your glasses. As the book progresses, things become more and more madcap, leading to dialogue like this, as the group searches for a small but important item:

“I’m afraid the Le Livre de l’esprit errance is quite impossible to obtain, mon cheri,” Mrs. Rochester dropped her eyes. “He keeps it locked in a room guarded by a three-headed dog, which drops into a pit of strangling vines, followed by a life-or-death life-sized game of chess, which opens onto a room with a locked door and a hundred keys on wings, and then there’s a mirror…”

Branwell gasped. “That’s horrible! That poor three-headed dog!”

“I bet he just keeps it in his desk,” said Alexander.

I have to admit that this book can’t quite maintain its energy and cohesiveness all the way through (hence the B+ as opposed to an A for the grade, despite a hearty amount of SQUEE experience based on my catnip). I felt that Charlotte’s jealousy of Helen, and her anger at Jane for keeping secrets, should have been resolved, whereas it just sort of drops off. I loved the gradual progression of Charlotte’s relationship with Alexander, but the resolution of Jane’s romance was not as satisfying.

This will be a love it or hate it book, based on the voices of the authors and the characters, as well as the plot. I loved it, especially since it retained a core element of the desire women have for freedom and respect, and the importance of self-respect in a world that doesn’t value you. It made me laugh and it even made me cry a bit in just the right places. All the thumbs up, despite its flaws.