Jane’s World: The Case of the Mail Order Bride by Paige Braddock

Jane’s World: The Case of the Mail Order Bride
by Paige Braddock
Pages: 240
Date: June 14 2016
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Jane's World

Review
Rating: 3.66 out of 5.0
Read: May 18 to 19 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest review.

Introduction
Jane’s World is/was (not sure if it’s still around) a webcomic (online comic) that started in 1995. I’ve never heard of nor have I read this comic before I happened to come across this book. This book, while set, I assume, in that ‘Jane’s World’ universe, is not a comic book/graphic novel, but a fully fledged novel. Though there are a few illustrations here and there in between chapters.

I was all set to then turn from mentioning the comic and having never read it before, to the idea that I’ve never read this author before. But there are two links in the book that tell me information about the author. One says ‘About the Author’, the other says ‘By the Author’. I had not read the ‘By the Author’ one until just this moment. Apparently Paige Braddock is also Missouri Vann. And I have read a book by Vann - Whiskey Sunrise - a book I read in February of this year and gave a rating of 4 stars.

This will be/or was my first that I’ve read with the ‘Paige Braddock’ by-line though.

Characters
There are two points of view (I’m fairly certain there are only two, hopefully I’m not forgetting something).

Point of View Characters
Jane ‘J.T.’ Wyatt is a former news journalist for a left leaning newspaper that folded. Needing work, Jane joined the Library as a Librarian. She does not have a Masters in Library Science degree, though. She lives in a trailer park, and specifically in one with some guy named Ethan. I do not know what their relationship is as it was never established, though Jane appears to be fully lesbian, and Ethan is either bisexual (he really seems super close to this one guy, Silas, nicknamed ‘Bigfoot’) or straight (he drools excessively over Natasha). There is a comment by Jane about how Ethan acts like her younger brother, implying that whatever connection they have, it isn’t actually brother-sister. Romantic relationships: Jane has, apparently, dated everyone who will date her within the nearest 20 mile radius, also see Dorothy section.

Dorothy is the owner of a coffee shop. Part of the money came by way of her mother – who sees this infusion of capital as allowing her to constantly be in the coffee shop giving advice. About six weeks before the start of the book, Jane and Dorothy broke up. That’s the kind of relationship they have, though, since college. They date, they break up, they get back together, they break up again, repeat (mostly, it seems, the break ups are instigated by Dorothy).

Characters meet at the Library
Elaine – is the ‘hot’ librarian type that Jane kind of fancies. She’s also the reference librarian

Jake is the children’s librarian who dresses like a hipster.
Janice is the 65+ year old librarian.

Doris is a regular.

Captain Underpants is a regular. Someone who shows up wearing just his underwear and a towel (as a cape) to inform people about the dangers of skynet.

Jane – as mentioned, works here.

Characters meet at the Coffee Shop
Angie is a worker at the coffee shop. She’s big, tall, stern looking with a military bearing, though apparently a marshmallow.

Dorothy’s mother visits a lot to give advice.

Doris is a regular.

Dorothy owns the place and works here.

Characters meet at Jane’s Trailer
Ethan lives in Jane’s trailer.

Silas is Ethan’s BFF and looks like Bigfoot.

Mrs. Beeman is a nearly blind neighbor.

Natasha is a gorgeous woman who turns up one day and says that she’s Jane’s mail order bride.

Jane lives here.

Plot
Six weeks after being dumped by her girlfriend, Dorothy, Jane is bouncing around at her job at the library. She’s just arrived. Frantic phone calls suddenly start coming in from her roommate Ethan. Apparently there’s some hot woman there who wants Jane. Jane makes an excuse and heads home.

Ethan wasn’t wrong – there’s a hot woman there. And she ‘wants’ Jane. Natasha, the hot woman, tells Jane that she’s there as Jane’s mail order bride. She even has a receipt. One thing leads to another and Jane finally realizes that her PayBuddy account had been hacked (no, PayBuddy isn’t a way to get around using the word PayPal, it’s a cheaper alternative – at least in this book universe).

The book then unfolds as follows: Jane attempts to figure out what happened, and how to ‘get out of’ the situation. Much silliness and humor occurs. Some of which is totally over the top.

Humor
There is humor throughout the book. And the beginning can seem downright hilarious at times. There’s a slight problem, though, in that some of the humor 1) is based on silliness and absurdity; 2) gets repeated.

Humor based on absurdity kind of needs to have the absurdity to keep building to keep the humor going (to a certain extent). Meaning that the humor builds from ‘this is funny; this is absurd, but funny and still within the realm of reality; this is absurd and outside the realm of reality’.

The repetitive nature of the jokes is a separate issue. I’ll give one example, though put it behind spoilers.

There are numerous times, and I mean numerous, wherein the ‘joke’ is that someone sees Jane and assumes, based on her appearance, that she is a man. The first time this occurred caused a mild form of semi-smile. Repeated use of the joke was less funny with each repetition.

Overall
This book is set in Northern California. I mention that immediately so I can then note that there’s a vague similarity in the humor level, in the absurdity of the humor, between this book and books I’ve read by Dave Barry set in Florida (referring here to his adult books of fiction (as opposed to his many collections of his essays, and his many children’s books)). I have no real point in mentioning this except that I thought of this while reading the book so . . . there – book reminds me of a Dave Barry book like Big Trouble (which was made into a movie).

I rather liked this book and, in the beginning found it hilarious. As time passed the humor somewhat dimmed and moved into the realm of too absurd and a little too silly.

Up to 77%, I was hovering near a rating of around 4.3 stars (which basically means 4). Then things just got too bizarre and absurd. By the end I'd give the book a rating of 3.66 (basically 4).

For the most part there was some good characterization - though with a heavy dose of absurdness.

Good thing this is a humor book and not a 'lesson book' or I would have to dock a star.

Lesson: ~ accept the person as they are and don't try to change them (see: Dorothy & Jane relationship. Somewhat counter balanced by the many comments of how much people want to change Doris (and the several jokes re: her appearance. Then – in the end she had a makeover and boom everyone liked her now. Mmphs.

May 19 2016