Jane

by Riya Anne Polcastro

Sex, drugs, and gangster rap come together in this deliciously transgressive novel to show you a side of crazy you never knew you wanted to see.


When twenty-five year old Jane moves back to her hometown in order to care for her schizophrenic aunt, miscarriage and an unfaithful fiancé fresh in her mind, the seeds are ripe for her mother’s cruel words to come true: “You’re going to end up just like your aunt. You’re going to end up in a mental hospital someday.”


Caught between the secrets lurking below the surface of such childhood traumas and Aunt Rose's demons―soon Jane is in desperate need of an escape. She find it in The Circle, a mismatched group of twenty-somethings who wave their amateur psychiatric diagnoses like badges of honor and party until the sun comes up. Little does she know, her new friends will be the source of her inevitable unravelling.

Genres: Fiction

ebook

First published February 13, 2015

Reviews

[Mary Papastavrou · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be perfectly direct and get it quickly out of the way I think that this writer is a powerhouse and leaves a strong mark on the reader.

Roland Barthes said that we love the image of passion instead of passion itself and this is what occurred to me reading Jane. Polcastro gave us a very accomplished study on madness. Jane has always been both fascinated and oppressed by Aunt Rose's volatile mental state. Since she was a child she had to be the voice of reason and maturity in order to protect herself and her Aunt by the latter's 'great ideas'. However, what Jane didn't notice was that her psyche ended up translating madness as a tool for liberation. When she is sent by her mother to care for her Aunt, Jane is introduced to the Circle and a wild lust for all things mad emerges. She and the other girls of the Circle indulge into guessing and defining their different mental conditions, all these wonderfully promising clinical terms which they wear as badges proudly and gives them carte blanche for a bouquet of transgressions. The madness, the A drugs, the wild all-women sex, the creative and playful breaking of the law, they all give Jane an outlet to liberation. And this heart breaking hunger for liberation is understandable since you get to know her grandmother and mother, two respectable, pious and diabolical characters who facilitated Rose's desperate fall.
I never thought that I could happily sit down reading lesbian orgies and not skipping pages. But it was so Pasolini in its imagery and so well written that I found it important and necessary to the plot. But the bits I found irresistible were Rose's account of her mental state. The writer can seriously write very convincing crazy and anguish, she's analytical and cerebral as much as she is raw and elemental. And also irresistible was Jane's agony of slipping slowly into her Aunt's kind of madness, near the conclusion of the story. Paraphrasing Barthes all Jane wanted was the image, the acting of madness as a katharsis, not the horrifying madness itself.

I only mentioned a few of the numerous virtues of this book and I declare myself a huge fan. Can't wait for Riya's next offering.

[Leo Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just one page in, Polcastro overtook Chelsea Handler as the number one author I'd love to get drunk with.

About five pages in, I started to assume at least some of this account was autobiographical and changed my tune!

Polcastro is successor to Joanna Russ for her wild and non-sequiturial adventures, beautifully messy SOC sections and female capital Rage!! She evokes anxiety wonderfully by personifying emotions, objects, events, until the reader feels as intruded upon as the narrator, and as the adventures progress, we really get the impression that this world is a world that is fucking difficult to contend with as a woman alone, let alone with mental health problems that can easily be described as NOT VERY HELPFUL and with everyone else with their own madnesses and anxieties flinging all their baggage all over you to hyperbolise all over- and yet the narrative rises just as highly into comedy as it delves into darker issues, enough to guide the reader to the rollercoaster's end. People are such Immanuel's SURNAMES!!!

Polcastro is a blistering, shoe-in talent, and I can't wait to see what she gets up to next. And neither should you be able to!!

[Rebecca Gransden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is as good as volleying treacle; messy, sticky, and wickedly fun in places. Structurally we zip from viewpoint to viewpoint, the heightened interplay of richly layered and well troubled mostly female voices the subject. Behind the bravura amplification of life lived in various states of desperation and undress a solid well of sadness and survival forms a cracked backbone. Boy, these women have to dredge deep, their world filled with the routine exploitations and magnified expectations inherent in the casual acceptance of a surrounding patriarchal psyche. Feminist. Read that word and weep at how loaded and demanding it is. Has it come to this? Was it ever not this or that?

Covering a selection of interconnected characters the novel deals with the roughness of tough lives and roughhouses the reader with a helter skelter visit to lives deeply messed with by all the usual suspects, the viciousness of the humour amplifying the manias and strung out lows of severe mental instability. Here is the festering heart of the book, locked up in a rusty locket, a generational legacy of mental illness and the surrounding trauma that results from its looming presence, whether active or dreaded. As a study in the recklessness and hopelessness faced by those affected this account reproduces the absurdity and challenge of flip-flopping from crash to high, from absent to deranged, with unshrinking fearlessness. The comedy is almost ostentatious at times, as the vulgar is faced and treated as a refuge, the brashness of the characters worn as an emblem of the shielding necessary to make it through.

Jane is a novel filled with characters who face dirt. They self medicate, harm, examine, destruct, neglect, indulge, and when it’s all over the dust settles. But dust is still dirt. A fine experience, this novel is obtrusive in the best way.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is a study of that thin line between sanity and madness, some of us are closer to one side than the other. Rose has been pushed way over into madness and Jane who is caring for her can see herself heading that way too, instead of avoiding it she rushes headlong towards it. She is abusive, selfish, an alcoholic drug taker, a danger to the public and willing to sleep around...I'm not entirely she has a single good character trait....but still you find yourself caring for her and hoping that she'll find her way to safety.

The writing style is unique, multiple first persons, you'd think it would create a confusing mess, but just like Hubert Selby Jr's lack of grammar it works, you don't get lost and each characters voice is different and easy to identify straight away. You even get an chapter from the point of view of a cigarillo.

The subject matter is dark and depressing and it deals with mental illness with so much care, hearing Rose's voice as her illness deteriorates and she tells her life story is one of the saddest things I've ever read.

Riya Anne Polcastro is one of the most talented and underrated writers I've ever come across, everything I've read by her has been amazing. Read this book as it will not let you down.

Blog review is here> https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2018...

[Rupert Dreyfus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastically dark, twisted and experimental. Jane has just moved back to Salem to clear her head. When we first join her she's fairly balanced and instead it's her Aunt Rose who is barking mad. However, as the story opens up Jane gets on the cocaine ghost train and starts to experiment with the sorts of drugs which eventually send people loopy. She also gets in with the wrong crowd known as The Circle and forms a number of abusive relationships particularly with her girlfriend Angela who Jane treats like shit. We grow to learn that these characters in The Circle are also plagued with their own set of complex mental health issues and at times try to out-crazy each other. It all gets a bit too much as Jane's relationship with her aunt becomes unbearably complex and her own abusive past begins to come to light. Eventually Jane goes off the walls, taking us on a descent into complete madness.

This story is in the first-person, but you shift between a number of perspectives (some real, some abstract) and never know what's real and what's fantasy. Hell, at one point I was thinking that this girl has Dissociative Identity Disorder and none of what we're reading is real (this disorder is even discussed at one point in the book). The style is unpretentious, almost conversational yet still lyrical, and flows nicely. There was a lot of sex which was written really well. Except for the 'saucy stories' section which I found in a jazz mag stuffed under my brother's bed when I was 8 years' old, I've not really read much lesbian sex in fiction. But given its frontline presence in the story it needs to be praised. Let's face it: sex in stories is very difficult to pull off and I felt like Riya's style of writing worked for her here. If it was all, 'and then she searched my cave with her five eager explorers' or some other crap attempt at erotica, I'd have struggled reading this. I'm no prude, but it's always a bit embarrassing for the writer.

In sum this had all the elements I love in stories and I'm always up for more challenging works rather than having everything spelled out with a nice happy ending with rainbows and blue skies. I think I'll be reading this book again in the future. Fans of transgressive fiction will get something out of this; so will fans of Gothic and experimental fiction.

I toyed between 4 and 5 stars and decided on 5 because it's good to see someone experimenting in this day and age.

[Xtina Marie]

TITLE: Jane
AUTHOR: Riya Anne Polcastro
GENRE: Psychological Thriller
RELEASE DATE: February 13, 2015
MY RATING:

Okay, so, I am not very far into this yet (i've been so freaking busy) but man, I am loving the atmosphere that Polcastro creates, right from the first page...

Well, I can say one thing for certain...I am totally loving this, although it is messed up...when we are in Rose's head - man, the thought processes she has creates anxiety for me LOL

[P.S. Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an edgy, nerve wracking look into a deeply anguished life, meet Jane who is in Oregon where she is losing a bit of her mind, of course she is not alone in this gripping story, The author writes a story of a demented but strangely likable character who falls in with the wrong crowd and finds life isn't as it seems. This book is complex, yet it felt like a quick read because once readers turn that first page they are hooked and drawn in and not able to put down this look into the darker world of craziness. Well done work of stranger than fiction that reads like a real life story and I have a feeling readers may find a few truths inside the pages of this novel.

[Kourtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I'm flabbergasted by how amazing this book was!

Warning: Not for the squeamish! This book will take you for a ride with self mutation, drug and alcohol abuse, schizophrenia, and orgies to name a few items, but most importantly, it's real and raw.

Jane is called home to be the caregiver of her Aunt Rose that suffers from schizophrenia. Jane has just had a miscarriage and caught her boyfriend in the act of cheating on her. This story is told from the first person perspective and switches viewpoints often. I loved that the cigar and the Zippo narrated for a bit.

I cannot wait to get my hands on more Riya Anne Polcastro novels!!

A special thank you to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and Riya Anne Polcastro for providing me with a reader copy.

[Jenny]

I stopped reading a little more than halfway through. Couldn't do it any more

[Jeff Matlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an interesting read in that the author seems to write less of a story and more of a tapestry. I mean, yeah, there is stuff that happens throughout the book, there are characters and there is a flow of behavior. But mostly the story is a tangle of drugs, sex and youth-filled, gangsta-like antics.

The story follows Jane and her clinically insane Aunt Rose, for whom she is the guardian. They drink too much, do too many drugs and find themselves in precarious positions with the law.

The writing is good in the sense that I got immersed in this dark and delusional world. It seemed real. It kept me reading.

At times the book bordered on being a Penthouse letter with the sexual escapades. But mostly it presented a study on the dark inner workings of the mind walking the ledge between sanity and beyond.

I’m glad I read it. I’m not sure I’d read anything else from this author. I get her style and don’t need to be dig into that brain again.

#netgalley #jane

[Cristie Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautifully written. The author did a wonderful job of making the reader feel invested in this story about mental illness. I wonder if it is somehow based on the author's own experiences, as it was so powerfully written.

[Andi Houtsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: I was provided a copy of this text by the author in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. The author and reviewer have no prior knowledge of or interaction with one another beyond the review of this book.
Every so often you come across a book that comes at you from out of nowhere, jumps into your hands and demands to be read, the voice (or voices, it’s appropriate here) within so fresh and original you have no choice but to sit down and have at it. Polcastro’s Jane is one of those books.
Much akin to my shock and awe in reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, for his entirely original voice, impeccable character creation, expression, and navigation, as well as story flow, Jane caught me by surprise. Salem Oregon comes to life as only a geographical native can describe with all the familiar mixed feelings of hate and home, its kooky inhabitants painted in stark colors meant not to glorify the crazy but to illuminate a dark underbelly in all its realism.
Polcastro doesn’t shy away from the uncomfortable in her work, instead embracing it for all its storytelling purposes and possibilities. Mental health, or lack thereof, is a clear and present theme throughout this book with Aunt Rose’s erratic, irrational behaviors setting the tone in the beginning. Jane has been fooled into the caretaking of her Aunt and through their re-acquaintance in Jane’s taking on the role, we’re introduced to the familial relationship stemming back to Jane’s childhood to explain her current almost blasé approach to her aunt’s antics. This introduction, in fact, opens the door for an exploration of a much deeper issue, one that leads Jane ever deeper into her pursuit of madness and walking the fine line between sanity and ‘bat-shit crazy’.
The human psyche is a complex maze that the author has seemingly mapped in exquisite detail, giving us a story that examines the ties that bind us and how we, as human beings, both fight those bonds and embrace them particularly those of family. Did Darla, Jane’s mother, create a self-fulfilling prophecy in telling Jane she’d someday end up institutionalized like her Aunt Rose? We wonder this as we watch Jane simultaneously retreat from her aunt’s madness yet descend into her own increasingly reckless and dangerous behaviors without or perhaps realizing the innate similarities and using them as subconscious fuel for the fire.
Again, like Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, there is more to Jane’s current situation and behavior than first suspected. Where does the crazy begin? Is it just Rose, or were there more family dynamics at play behind the scenes, possibly even stemming back through the years into Jane’s childhood? Whose version of old family stories is right? Where is the nugget of truth, if there’s one at all? How far back, and through how many perspectives do you need to go before you finally find the root of the problem?
Our adult lives are the culmination of all of the events of our childhood, and all of the programmings those events instilled within our developing brains. We are the products of our parents, and our parents are the products of their parents, and so the cycle continues looping backward and forward through time everlasting. Polcastro does an amazing job of illustrating this point, reaching back into the past for the pieces of the puzzle that at once give Jane’s elusive grasp on sanity a firm rooting in the present. However, what it will do toward the prospect of breaking said cycle is left up the reader to imagine in a drop off ending that left me speechless. However, I can’t imagine this book ending any other way except with an abrupt jerk that all too easily simulates real life’s unpredictability.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book for the fresh writing, undaunted subject material, and audacity of storytelling. I rank Polcastro up there with Wally Lamb, another of my favorites, and I’ll be sure to catch up with any and everything else she’s written. 5 stars all around for this original work of fiction.

[Laura Ruetz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a roller coaster ride of highs and lows. I loved the manic feel of the book and the non-linear narrative. It rapidly shifts perspectives, but there it always tells you from whose perspective you are about to read. I enjoyed the depth of characters that is present in the book, especially with Jane and Rose - and it really made the book credible and engaging. The changing dynamic is a gradual shift, and as the characters evolve (or de-evolve) the story only gets more engaging. This is a solid read if you are a fan of this type of novel, which I am. It can be dark at times, provocative and utterly enthralling - I really didn't want to put this one down once I started reading. There are not that many authors who can do this type of story well, without confusing the reader and the author did an excellent job of capturing chaos on the pages but without leaving the reader confused. I am certainly interested in reading more by this author.

I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives a compelling look into every persons aspect of living with someone who has mental illness. It started out as a drug fuled adventure in sexuality and becomes so much deeper. I especially liked the ending of the book after she finds out the families secret.
While this book did get a bit confusing now and then because almost every chapter is a different persons perspective of the same situation. While a lot of the chapters tell you in parentheses who is speaking as themselves, it becomes unclear some times. It makes you question how you react to your own situations.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
There is so much to be learned and understood by the writing this author is giving us. You get a glympse of the mind when a person is suffering from mental health issues. Jane shares the inside of the patient and caregiver, friends and family covers the twisted atmosphere and then some. Very well written.

[kaye d.hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense

A very interesting look into mental illness and life with mental illness. It's hard to put this book down because you loose your place in the craziness. Very well done.

[Cassandra Godfrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.. Fantastic.. Loved this Book!!!

This book is amazing. I read it straight through, barely able to set it aside for Kitty breaks. The author does a wonderful job or creating characters that seem like friends. I loved how descriptive she was. I felt like I was there, experiencing the highs and lows with Jane. I was especially thrilled with the ending. As a woman who has suffered many assaults in my past, the ending held a special delight.