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Oshkosh Trilogy #2
Call me Jane
Jane’s too nice a girl to steal her best friend’s boyfriend but there's just something about Paul...
Sometimes attractions are more powerful than loyalty and friendship. Then things get more complicated. Turns out Jane was getting herself into more than she bargained for.
Jane is a nice girl, and nice girls do the right thing, but can she?
Sometimes attractions are more powerful than loyalty and friendship. Then things get more complicated. Turns out Jane was getting herself into more than she bargained for.
Jane is a nice girl, and nice girls do the right thing, but can she?
- GenresRomanceYoung Adult
130 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 21, 2012
6 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Anthea Carson
18 books95 followersAnthea Carson is the co-author of the bestselling chess book, "Tactics Time," “Tactics Time 2,” “399 Super Easy Chess Puzzles,” co-author of “Game of Kings: A Thrilling Modern Reimagining of Pride and Prejudice,” "How to Play Chess Like an Animal," a children's chess book based on chess openings with animal names, as well as a children's tactics puzzle book, and several novels and novellas including "The Dark Lake," a psychological suspense as complex and twisted as any chess game. She is a tournament chess player, a chess coach, and the Game 60 Female US Chess champion of 2004. Anthea obtained her bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, with an emphasis in literature and mathematics. Her fiction writings include a trilogy, several novellas and short stories, some of which, unsurprisingly, are about female chess players in the male dominated world of tournament chess. She currently resides in Colorado Springs with her husband and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 12, 2013
Both the innocuous title of this book, ‘Call Me Jane’, and the sweetly innocent cover-shot belie the crazy, teenage drug- and alcohol-fuelled world waiting for the reader on the pages.
There’s nothing ‘plain’ about Jane and if she is the girl-next-door at the outset, inexpertly applying make-up for a dance at the Y (youth club?), the death of her idol quickly metamorphoses her into a hardened teenage rebel when she changes school and begins to mix with the wrong crowd.
Jane’s life becomes a dizzying diary of breakneck car-rides across town, late nights spent in smoke-filled dens, missed classes and endless inarticulate and inconclusive (but heart-felt) arguments about popular music, all lived out amidst a relentless regime of drug-taking and alcohol consumption. Jane and her friends are out of control, they live without obvious supervision or accountability of any kind, using drugs and alcohol under their parents’ and teachers’ noses and coming and going at all hours with no questions asked. Jane herself has the all-but unlimited use of her mother’s car and uses it at her friends’ beck and call to collect drugs, find aberrant boyfriends, and give lifts home to remote out-of-town locations, and these become the main preoccupations of her life. She is stoned or drunk for most of the time but her parents don’t even seem to notice, let alone attempt to intervene. Jane finds herself on a chaotic path of self-destructive hedonism as party follows gig follows party, and voracious, continual dope-smoking and drinking leads to LSD in a spiral of hopeless, wanton addiction.
As a white-knuckle ride, as far as it went, the story was coherently written in a credibly lightweight, teenage ‘my diary’ style. It kept my attention, but, as with white-knuckle rides, I was glad when it was over.
The prevailing timbre of this book is of relentless devil-may-care recklessness. My overall observation is that there is no light or shade within its tone. A voice of restraint or reason, some retrospective provided by an older, wiser Jane, even some moments of honest, clear-eyed reflection by the teenage Jane would have added depth and balance, but with such a limited range of nuance, the highs and lows all felt the same.
Jane has a large circle of ‘friends’, whose zany names did nothing to help me relate to them individually, and who I felt lacked roundness. Equally manic in their unremitting decadence, they were all lost in the fug of smoke and alcohol, indistinct and interchangeable. I couldn’t tell one from another and in the end I gave up trying. Their determined, unrelieved narcissism wore out my sympathy. It all seemed such a pointless waste.
Jane herself, as her name is designed to suggest, is a ‘nice’ girl. She is clever – she plays chess - and beautiful although with a saccharine self-deprecation that doesn’t realise it. But neither her niceness, her brightness nor her beauty make her sympathetic. She reduces herself to the lowest common denominator of her peers. Although clearly able to take her pick from the whole crew of boys, she allows herself to be drawn into a clandestine relationship with the boyfriend of one of the other girls. Against the otherwise profligate backdrop of her life I found her sexual prudery hard to compute, as well as the boy’s interest; she never goes beyond ‘first base’. The story which unfolds out of the corner of the reader’s eye while Jane is contemplating the end of her roach and necking in the back of her car is sad, but, surely, not unusual in the 1980s, and the scale of her self-reproach seems way out of proportion.
1980’s youth culture with all its eccentric and – looking back on it, ridiculous - manifestations in fashion, music and lifestyle provides the nostalgic and well-researched setting for this novel. For Jane and her contemporaries – as, I suspect, for teenagers of any and every generation - it’s a serious and important and self-defining time, but I worry that this thirty year old time frame will seem too ancient to today’s teenagers, the writer’s presumed audience, who might otherwise relate to the youth and hedonism of the protagonists and could undoubtedly benefit from the hard lessons of drug abuse from Jane’s world. The central issue, incoherently discussed at successive parties and eventually concluded in a momentous play-off (whether the Beatles were better than the Stones) seemed to me to be an even older discussion, belonging in the 70s rather than the 80s.
The style is generally conversational, unadorned and fast-moving. Personally, I longed for some retrospection, some contemplative detail as respite. I’d like to have seen much deeper characterisation amongst the gang and an antiphonic point of view to the thoughtless teenage epicurism. Some of the prose has a sloppiness which goes beyond the teenage idiom of the narrator and there are places where a stringent editorial eye would be beneficial. There are some trails which were promising but which, in this novel anyway (and I know there is at least one more) turned out to be dead ends: the episode of the squashed frogs; the visit to the deserted farmhouse.
All that said, if you want a no-frills roller-coaster read, you couldn’t do better.
There’s nothing ‘plain’ about Jane and if she is the girl-next-door at the outset, inexpertly applying make-up for a dance at the Y (youth club?), the death of her idol quickly metamorphoses her into a hardened teenage rebel when she changes school and begins to mix with the wrong crowd.
Jane’s life becomes a dizzying diary of breakneck car-rides across town, late nights spent in smoke-filled dens, missed classes and endless inarticulate and inconclusive (but heart-felt) arguments about popular music, all lived out amidst a relentless regime of drug-taking and alcohol consumption. Jane and her friends are out of control, they live without obvious supervision or accountability of any kind, using drugs and alcohol under their parents’ and teachers’ noses and coming and going at all hours with no questions asked. Jane herself has the all-but unlimited use of her mother’s car and uses it at her friends’ beck and call to collect drugs, find aberrant boyfriends, and give lifts home to remote out-of-town locations, and these become the main preoccupations of her life. She is stoned or drunk for most of the time but her parents don’t even seem to notice, let alone attempt to intervene. Jane finds herself on a chaotic path of self-destructive hedonism as party follows gig follows party, and voracious, continual dope-smoking and drinking leads to LSD in a spiral of hopeless, wanton addiction.
As a white-knuckle ride, as far as it went, the story was coherently written in a credibly lightweight, teenage ‘my diary’ style. It kept my attention, but, as with white-knuckle rides, I was glad when it was over.
The prevailing timbre of this book is of relentless devil-may-care recklessness. My overall observation is that there is no light or shade within its tone. A voice of restraint or reason, some retrospective provided by an older, wiser Jane, even some moments of honest, clear-eyed reflection by the teenage Jane would have added depth and balance, but with such a limited range of nuance, the highs and lows all felt the same.
Jane has a large circle of ‘friends’, whose zany names did nothing to help me relate to them individually, and who I felt lacked roundness. Equally manic in their unremitting decadence, they were all lost in the fug of smoke and alcohol, indistinct and interchangeable. I couldn’t tell one from another and in the end I gave up trying. Their determined, unrelieved narcissism wore out my sympathy. It all seemed such a pointless waste.
Jane herself, as her name is designed to suggest, is a ‘nice’ girl. She is clever – she plays chess - and beautiful although with a saccharine self-deprecation that doesn’t realise it. But neither her niceness, her brightness nor her beauty make her sympathetic. She reduces herself to the lowest common denominator of her peers. Although clearly able to take her pick from the whole crew of boys, she allows herself to be drawn into a clandestine relationship with the boyfriend of one of the other girls. Against the otherwise profligate backdrop of her life I found her sexual prudery hard to compute, as well as the boy’s interest; she never goes beyond ‘first base’. The story which unfolds out of the corner of the reader’s eye while Jane is contemplating the end of her roach and necking in the back of her car is sad, but, surely, not unusual in the 1980s, and the scale of her self-reproach seems way out of proportion.
1980’s youth culture with all its eccentric and – looking back on it, ridiculous - manifestations in fashion, music and lifestyle provides the nostalgic and well-researched setting for this novel. For Jane and her contemporaries – as, I suspect, for teenagers of any and every generation - it’s a serious and important and self-defining time, but I worry that this thirty year old time frame will seem too ancient to today’s teenagers, the writer’s presumed audience, who might otherwise relate to the youth and hedonism of the protagonists and could undoubtedly benefit from the hard lessons of drug abuse from Jane’s world. The central issue, incoherently discussed at successive parties and eventually concluded in a momentous play-off (whether the Beatles were better than the Stones) seemed to me to be an even older discussion, belonging in the 70s rather than the 80s.
The style is generally conversational, unadorned and fast-moving. Personally, I longed for some retrospection, some contemplative detail as respite. I’d like to have seen much deeper characterisation amongst the gang and an antiphonic point of view to the thoughtless teenage epicurism. Some of the prose has a sloppiness which goes beyond the teenage idiom of the narrator and there are places where a stringent editorial eye would be beneficial. There are some trails which were promising but which, in this novel anyway (and I know there is at least one more) turned out to be dead ends: the episode of the squashed frogs; the visit to the deserted farmhouse.
All that said, if you want a no-frills roller-coaster read, you couldn’t do better.
May 28, 2013
Carson had kept me waiting anxiously for this book when I read The Dark Lake and I was not disappointed. The roller-coaster ride of Jane's life just goes on to show how messed up a person can be. While I am from a culture where girls with Jane-esque problems are rather rare, I could still feel connected to the character. There is a certain realism in Carson's work which makes this book hard to put down.
The author continues the story and we see a lot of Jane's past and get closer to understanding the driving force behind the character. Reading this book took me longer because I felt I needed to read The Dark Lake once again to fully appreciate the complexity of Jane's past. I appreciate Carson's ability to weave the past and present seamlessly. Like the previous book, Carson has left some loose end to induce interest in the upcoming sequel.
I felt that the pace of the novel was a bit too fast and it kept me on my toes. Carson had the scope for adding a lot more content which might have slowed down it's pace but would have made it an excellent read (not that it isn't good in itself).
Sequels have a lot to live up to and sometimes they don't come across as well as the original. However, Call me Jane I feel is better than the The Dark Lake. I hope the third book is even better.
The author continues the story and we see a lot of Jane's past and get closer to understanding the driving force behind the character. Reading this book took me longer because I felt I needed to read The Dark Lake once again to fully appreciate the complexity of Jane's past. I appreciate Carson's ability to weave the past and present seamlessly. Like the previous book, Carson has left some loose end to induce interest in the upcoming sequel.
I felt that the pace of the novel was a bit too fast and it kept me on my toes. Carson had the scope for adding a lot more content which might have slowed down it's pace but would have made it an excellent read (not that it isn't good in itself).
Sequels have a lot to live up to and sometimes they don't come across as well as the original. However, Call me Jane I feel is better than the The Dark Lake. I hope the third book is even better.
July 21, 2013
A Disturbing and Potentially Powerful Story
This story exposed me to a lifestyle I've never known. My teenage years were filled with books and dogs so I missed out on much of what happened with some of my classmates. And I seriously doubt my parents would have been as complacent as Jane's. This lack of supervision provides an excellent backdrop for what goes on in this book. It's as if the lack of questioning on the part of what should be the guiding influences in Jane's life contribute to her own lack of introspection
I would strongly agree with the reviewer who called this a cautionary tale, and I hope it can serve that purpose for readers. But I look at this story from the distance of many years older, and not completely in touch with the youth of today, which is the major audience. And I wonder if the underlying message is the same for them.
My recommendation would be to more fully develop the characters, but I'm not sure the starkness of this writing isn't part of the message being told. No frills, no padding, just reality slapping us between the eyes.
This is not a book I would pick up for light reading but the message is well told, if disturbing and in many ways so sad.
This story exposed me to a lifestyle I've never known. My teenage years were filled with books and dogs so I missed out on much of what happened with some of my classmates. And I seriously doubt my parents would have been as complacent as Jane's. This lack of supervision provides an excellent backdrop for what goes on in this book. It's as if the lack of questioning on the part of what should be the guiding influences in Jane's life contribute to her own lack of introspection
I would strongly agree with the reviewer who called this a cautionary tale, and I hope it can serve that purpose for readers. But I look at this story from the distance of many years older, and not completely in touch with the youth of today, which is the major audience. And I wonder if the underlying message is the same for them.
My recommendation would be to more fully develop the characters, but I'm not sure the starkness of this writing isn't part of the message being told. No frills, no padding, just reality slapping us between the eyes.
This is not a book I would pick up for light reading but the message is well told, if disturbing and in many ways so sad.
November 30, 2012
A Cautionary Tale for Teens!
Jane's a nice girl who gets caught up in a she believes she can handle in a public school. Upon her transfer from a private school, she befriends a crowd into the alcohol, drugs and party scene. Jane is really an outsider trying to gel with the in crowd. She is a young woman of substance just trying to fit in. She is very smart and plays chess, but finds herself drawn into her friends’ shallow world because she wants to belong.
This book introduces us to a young woman who is coming of age in a time of difficulty and confusion during junior high and high school when other kids can be cruel. Call Me Jane reminds me of the movie “Thirteen” because there is a group of teenagers engaged in activities way above their maturity levels. This book takes the reader into the sheer ugliness of being a teen, all the temptations that could possibly lure a good kind off the straight and narrow path.
If you want to delve into a realistic picture of what life is like for today’s teenagers. Read Call Me Jane and get a real wake-up call.
Jane's a nice girl who gets caught up in a she believes she can handle in a public school. Upon her transfer from a private school, she befriends a crowd into the alcohol, drugs and party scene. Jane is really an outsider trying to gel with the in crowd. She is a young woman of substance just trying to fit in. She is very smart and plays chess, but finds herself drawn into her friends’ shallow world because she wants to belong.
This book introduces us to a young woman who is coming of age in a time of difficulty and confusion during junior high and high school when other kids can be cruel. Call Me Jane reminds me of the movie “Thirteen” because there is a group of teenagers engaged in activities way above their maturity levels. This book takes the reader into the sheer ugliness of being a teen, all the temptations that could possibly lure a good kind off the straight and narrow path.
If you want to delve into a realistic picture of what life is like for today’s teenagers. Read Call Me Jane and get a real wake-up call.
April 27, 2013
I'm so glad I took the time to read this book; the writing is fast paced and has an eclectic feel which I found natural considering the story. The narrative was comfortable and I was pulled into the story instantly. There was an older feel to it which added a certain historical feel to it - I'm not that older than the characters, but they seemed from an earlier time - but it added something rich to the story. I guess I was a little stunned at the ending, which was darker than what I'm used to, but it was well written, so I would definitely recommend this book.
November 27, 2012
I had a wonderful time reading this book. Jane is a teenage girl who likes to spend time with her peers and have a good time. Like every teenager she has her first encounter with drugs, drama and love.
March 4, 2019
Call Me Jane looks at the teenage years of Jane, the "protagonist" of The Dark Lake. I use quotes because Jane is an awful awful person. She is mentally ill, or seems it, but beyond that, she is just a horrible human being.
The book opens up with Jane having a party and letting people trash her parents home. She meets several public school kids, but doesn't know them well as she goes to a private school. Then, John Lennon is killed and Jane is a huge Beatles fan. When kids at her private school don't know who John Lennon is, she tells her mother that she wants to transfer to the public school. (Not a normal reaction, no matter how upset you are by the death of a celebrity).
Jane joins up with a group of punks at her new public school, many of whom were at her house trashing party. Jane spends most of her time getting drunk, doing drugs and losing her mother's car. She seems to treat her parents like trash. Her closest friend is at first a girl named Lucy, but Jane decides that she wants Lucy's boyfriend Paul for herself. She starts making out with Paul, and continues to do so not caring about Lucy's feelings, or realizing that Paul is trash for cheating on his girlfriend. Lucy is pregnant by Paul and has an abortion.
Jane and her friend Krishna have a competition at a party to decide if the Beatles or the Rolling Stones are more popular. Jane "loses" and then acts like an ass at the party before going home and taking a whole bottle of pills.
This review/summary sounds disjointed because the story is disjointed. Jane is the first person narrator and sometimes she makes no sense. She is a horrible person, and the book doesn't' tell more about who was in the car that we hear about in book one, but this is still a fascinating read.
The book opens up with Jane having a party and letting people trash her parents home. She meets several public school kids, but doesn't know them well as she goes to a private school. Then, John Lennon is killed and Jane is a huge Beatles fan. When kids at her private school don't know who John Lennon is, she tells her mother that she wants to transfer to the public school. (Not a normal reaction, no matter how upset you are by the death of a celebrity).
Jane joins up with a group of punks at her new public school, many of whom were at her house trashing party. Jane spends most of her time getting drunk, doing drugs and losing her mother's car. She seems to treat her parents like trash. Her closest friend is at first a girl named Lucy, but Jane decides that she wants Lucy's boyfriend Paul for herself. She starts making out with Paul, and continues to do so not caring about Lucy's feelings, or realizing that Paul is trash for cheating on his girlfriend. Lucy is pregnant by Paul and has an abortion.
Jane and her friend Krishna have a competition at a party to decide if the Beatles or the Rolling Stones are more popular. Jane "loses" and then acts like an ass at the party before going home and taking a whole bottle of pills.
This review/summary sounds disjointed because the story is disjointed. Jane is the first person narrator and sometimes she makes no sense. She is a horrible person, and the book doesn't' tell more about who was in the car that we hear about in book one, but this is still a fascinating read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2024
As someone who grew up in Oshkosh during this time period, I have to say the drinking and drugs in this book was a little blown out of proportion. Yes, teens did go to parties and drink (mostly beer, because that was easier to get than hard liquor), and some teens smoked pot (but most just smoked cigarettes). So I found the level of drinking and drugs to be over the top for these teenagers. I lived about 5 or 6 blocks away from where Jane lives, so I know the areas that were described in the book. I also went to North High School, and the scene that is described where Jane drives up a hill and parks outside the classroom windows is totally off the mark. There were no hills to drive up and park next to the school, and there are also no classroom windows to park by and see into the classrooms. So there are some inconsistencies with the story setting. I'm mainly reading these books because I grew up in Oshkosh, and I'm curious to see how this story ends. 2.5 stars for this book.
June 17, 2014
The Dark Lake ( book one in The Oshkosh Trilogy)
The Dark Lake is an amazing book that doesn't so much keep you guessing but draws you in. For the first book in a series I very quickly become involved in the lives of both the main character and her world of friends, family, and otherwise. Not only did I want to keep reading, it was easy to do so. This book flows so that although putting it down might be hard picking it back up and remembering where you are is not. I found myself really into how life would turn out for Jane and how she got to where she is to begin with. Jane is a great character who has emotion and scars like everyone but isn't as keen on hiding them. Why should she have to? This book gives you a lot to think about if you are young. For anyone who was ever life Jane as a youth, you get a lot to remember and process.
This is a promising series with so many different ways that we could be presented the rest of Jane's life. Mrs. Carson writes in a way that though I didn't live Jane's life I sure feel like I have been where she has been. Let's do this Jane!
Call Me Jane (book two in The Oshkosh Trilogy)
Call Me Jane is the second book in Mrs. Carson's Oshkosh Trilogy. In this book we learn more about Jane as a child and how her life ended up where she is in book one. Here is where we start to meet the people you have already been introduced too only this is when their lives really started changing. You see the beginning of the end of Jane's relationship with her parents and her ride down the roller coaster of teenage challenges with emotions. Jane is a complicated character that shows how everyone's choices effect others whether you see that effect or not. I read Jane as me when I have been told I am not good enough or when I get questioned on my choices.
Who Jane is in The Dark Lake starts to take form in Call Me Jane as friendships form while others break and Jane starts to form the habits that choose her path for her sometimes. Where The Dark Lake makes you confront your demons as an adult, Call Me Jane shows us the little starts to some of our darker issues.
Mrs. Carson makes you a very welcome guest in her world. It is distinctly Jane's world but I never feel out of place. I find myself finding little things through out this series that make me smile because I understand the feeling or meaning behind them from my own life. Mrs. Carson takes you places, she does not lead or suggest, she takes you places in a very good way.
Thin Ice (book three in The Oshkosh Trilogy)
Thin Ice is the third (and although it says trilogy I hope it will not be the final) book in Mrs. Carson's Oshkosh Trilogy. Thin Ice follows our Jane deeper into her world where she tries to recover from her choices but struggles when she is surrounded by people who don't always want to help her. We start to understand the events from The Dark Lake as time and bad decisions catch up to Jane. Her family is crumbling despite everyone's individual efforts. Her friendships flow like her emotions as she tries to get a grip on her slipping reality. Thin Ice brings home the feelings that are tied into all of this series with the question almost everyone asks. Will Jane ever get better? Just like it is for the rest of us in our lives, the answer is still unclear.
As in the rest of The Oshkosh Trilogy, Mrs. Carson sets a tone and feel that drags you in the moment you start reading. I was always where she wanted me to be, I never had to go to far from her plan. She conveyed her story with clarity and to say the very least convection. I feel you can tell when an author lives their books whether they lived the events in them or not. Mrs. Carson brought me her world and let me be a part of something pretty intense. As a reader, thank you.
The Dark Lake is an amazing book that doesn't so much keep you guessing but draws you in. For the first book in a series I very quickly become involved in the lives of both the main character and her world of friends, family, and otherwise. Not only did I want to keep reading, it was easy to do so. This book flows so that although putting it down might be hard picking it back up and remembering where you are is not. I found myself really into how life would turn out for Jane and how she got to where she is to begin with. Jane is a great character who has emotion and scars like everyone but isn't as keen on hiding them. Why should she have to? This book gives you a lot to think about if you are young. For anyone who was ever life Jane as a youth, you get a lot to remember and process.
This is a promising series with so many different ways that we could be presented the rest of Jane's life. Mrs. Carson writes in a way that though I didn't live Jane's life I sure feel like I have been where she has been. Let's do this Jane!
Call Me Jane (book two in The Oshkosh Trilogy)
Call Me Jane is the second book in Mrs. Carson's Oshkosh Trilogy. In this book we learn more about Jane as a child and how her life ended up where she is in book one. Here is where we start to meet the people you have already been introduced too only this is when their lives really started changing. You see the beginning of the end of Jane's relationship with her parents and her ride down the roller coaster of teenage challenges with emotions. Jane is a complicated character that shows how everyone's choices effect others whether you see that effect or not. I read Jane as me when I have been told I am not good enough or when I get questioned on my choices.
Who Jane is in The Dark Lake starts to take form in Call Me Jane as friendships form while others break and Jane starts to form the habits that choose her path for her sometimes. Where The Dark Lake makes you confront your demons as an adult, Call Me Jane shows us the little starts to some of our darker issues.
Mrs. Carson makes you a very welcome guest in her world. It is distinctly Jane's world but I never feel out of place. I find myself finding little things through out this series that make me smile because I understand the feeling or meaning behind them from my own life. Mrs. Carson takes you places, she does not lead or suggest, she takes you places in a very good way.
Thin Ice (book three in The Oshkosh Trilogy)
Thin Ice is the third (and although it says trilogy I hope it will not be the final) book in Mrs. Carson's Oshkosh Trilogy. Thin Ice follows our Jane deeper into her world where she tries to recover from her choices but struggles when she is surrounded by people who don't always want to help her. We start to understand the events from The Dark Lake as time and bad decisions catch up to Jane. Her family is crumbling despite everyone's individual efforts. Her friendships flow like her emotions as she tries to get a grip on her slipping reality. Thin Ice brings home the feelings that are tied into all of this series with the question almost everyone asks. Will Jane ever get better? Just like it is for the rest of us in our lives, the answer is still unclear.
As in the rest of The Oshkosh Trilogy, Mrs. Carson sets a tone and feel that drags you in the moment you start reading. I was always where she wanted me to be, I never had to go to far from her plan. She conveyed her story with clarity and to say the very least convection. I feel you can tell when an author lives their books whether they lived the events in them or not. Mrs. Carson brought me her world and let me be a part of something pretty intense. As a reader, thank you.
September 1, 2013
Call Me Jane is the middle book of Anthea Carson's The Oshkosh Triology, a superb psychological tale of the downward spiral of Jane, also known as Janey Lou, and its tragic and frightening consequences. What is fascinating about this series is that the first book, The Dark Lake, depicts Jane as an adult who is still haunted by the memories that occur in the two final books. The reader does not know what why Jane, as a thirty-something, still lives at home and cannot help but to relive the harrowing accident on the dark lake some twenty years before.
Call Me Jane helps to unravel the mystery. It begins with Jane just wanting to have fun, to fit in with the alternative set in her high school, to be a Beatles and punk rock loving party goer. She has a crush on her friend Paul. (She admits she loves Paul McCartney but claims John is her favorite Beatle.) Her friends party hard, and she takes her first steps into the fog that slowly swallows her life. There is lots of drinking and a lot of dope smoking, rides on dark streets and to Madison for her friends' gig at a club. Jane loses control and as the story progresses, she acts increasingly erratic, behavior brought on by her guilt over having done something that might have ruined a friend's life. Throughout the book, the reader is struck with a part of Jane that is ultimately innocent and so very vulnerable to the amoral nuances that her group of friends have created for themselves. She is young and alive, open to hurt, in Call Me Jane. In Thin Ice, depression and an emotional detachment is felt in the narration. As the year descends into winter, Jane inner and outer shadows intensify. In The Dark Lake, they have won.
The tension in Call Me Jane slowly builds until elements of horror emerge, setting the stage for the climax in Thin Ice. There is a truly horrific scene with frogs that will make you want to never drive with your windows down. The plague that attacks Jane and her friend foreshadow the even more disturbing things ahead of her.
Call Me Jane helps to unravel the mystery. It begins with Jane just wanting to have fun, to fit in with the alternative set in her high school, to be a Beatles and punk rock loving party goer. She has a crush on her friend Paul. (She admits she loves Paul McCartney but claims John is her favorite Beatle.) Her friends party hard, and she takes her first steps into the fog that slowly swallows her life. There is lots of drinking and a lot of dope smoking, rides on dark streets and to Madison for her friends' gig at a club. Jane loses control and as the story progresses, she acts increasingly erratic, behavior brought on by her guilt over having done something that might have ruined a friend's life. Throughout the book, the reader is struck with a part of Jane that is ultimately innocent and so very vulnerable to the amoral nuances that her group of friends have created for themselves. She is young and alive, open to hurt, in Call Me Jane. In Thin Ice, depression and an emotional detachment is felt in the narration. As the year descends into winter, Jane inner and outer shadows intensify. In The Dark Lake, they have won.
The tension in Call Me Jane slowly builds until elements of horror emerge, setting the stage for the climax in Thin Ice. There is a truly horrific scene with frogs that will make you want to never drive with your windows down. The plague that attacks Jane and her friend foreshadow the even more disturbing things ahead of her.
December 29, 2012
Jane's world changes when she transfers from a private to the public high school. She falls in with a crowd whose world is centered around booze, pot and music. Yet, we get the impression Jane isn't totally a part of this scene. She has a complexity about her (for example, she's a chess player) at odds with how the party crowd is usually portrayed.
Call Me Jane successfully takes us into Jane's difficult and often confusing world. Along the way we meet an interesting cast of characters who engage in assorted and intriguing adventures. It's not always a pretty picture, but neither is the real world, and this book has a grittyness which will appeal to readers who aren't looking for their stories sugar-coated. The ending is both satisfying and unexpected.
Call Me Jane is a prequel to The Dark Lake, which I have not yet read. It's certainly not necessary to read The Dark Lake first (in fact, if you prefer reading in a sequential timeline you'll want to first read Call Me Jane), but if you've had the advantage of reading The Dark Lake I suspect Call Me Jane will be especially appealing.
Call Me Jane successfully takes us into Jane's difficult and often confusing world. Along the way we meet an interesting cast of characters who engage in assorted and intriguing adventures. It's not always a pretty picture, but neither is the real world, and this book has a grittyness which will appeal to readers who aren't looking for their stories sugar-coated. The ending is both satisfying and unexpected.
Call Me Jane is a prequel to The Dark Lake, which I have not yet read. It's certainly not necessary to read The Dark Lake first (in fact, if you prefer reading in a sequential timeline you'll want to first read Call Me Jane), but if you've had the advantage of reading The Dark Lake I suspect Call Me Jane will be especially appealing.
November 27, 2012
A Crazy Good Sequel
I've been waiting anxiously for this sequel. Waiting for it drove me crazy, but not nearly as crazy as Jane! This girl has issues... Ever since reading the Dark Lake I've been wondering what caused Jane to be out on the ice on that lake, and how all her so-called friends (who don't seem so helpful all the time) fit into the story. In this second installment of the Oshkosh Trilogy we learn a lot more about Jane, about how she (doesn't) fit in, and about what might have caused her to be out on the thin ice, and then beneath the lake. I went back and re-read the Dark Lake, and still can't figure out the whole mystery. I guess I'll just have to wait for the series finale! Please don't keep us waiting too long!!!
Anthea is a skilled chess player, and her analytical and deep-thinking skills are on display in this sequel to The Dark Lake. You can pick this book up and read it first, because even though it's the second in the trilogy, it's almost a prequel. I can highly recommend this book if you liked books like Catcher in the Rye and Go Ask Alice.
I've been waiting anxiously for this sequel. Waiting for it drove me crazy, but not nearly as crazy as Jane! This girl has issues... Ever since reading the Dark Lake I've been wondering what caused Jane to be out on the ice on that lake, and how all her so-called friends (who don't seem so helpful all the time) fit into the story. In this second installment of the Oshkosh Trilogy we learn a lot more about Jane, about how she (doesn't) fit in, and about what might have caused her to be out on the thin ice, and then beneath the lake. I went back and re-read the Dark Lake, and still can't figure out the whole mystery. I guess I'll just have to wait for the series finale! Please don't keep us waiting too long!!!
Anthea is a skilled chess player, and her analytical and deep-thinking skills are on display in this sequel to The Dark Lake. You can pick this book up and read it first, because even though it's the second in the trilogy, it's almost a prequel. I can highly recommend this book if you liked books like Catcher in the Rye and Go Ask Alice.
Read
April 2, 2013I have to think on this one before I can assign a rating. It's an interesting idea, basically the same story as this author's first book, The Dark Lake, but told as the events are unfolding, giving more backstory and more detail, and not looking back with a faulty memory. It's ... I think I liked it, but I have to think about it more!
Disclosure: I edited this previously released book for a re-release.
Disclosure: I edited this previously released book for a re-release.
March 31, 2014
I really enjoyed this book and am now reading The Dark Lake (the first book of this trilogy). This was a fun, quick read. I think reading this book before the other two might be easier since it gives a clear and straightforward storyline about Jane and the other characters, but the books can be read in any order.
January 18, 2017
Even without having read the first one, it was easy to get into the world and the characters. A very interesting read on youth during the punk era. would love to read the first and third, specially considering the cliffhanger at the end of this one
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