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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5. I'm a huge fan of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and it was cool to take a journey of self-discovery with Lydia here. However, I did feel like it dragged at parts and I would love more Milo and Kat.
I loved this book! Better than The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, because the authors weren't constrained to matching along with the Lizzie Bennet Diaries videos, nor were they limited to the diary format. I'm so glad they continued Lydia's story; a great way to wrap things up not only for Lydia, but Mary as well (and to a lesser extent, Jane and Bing). I'd love to see Mary's story continue next, or maybe Charlotte? But even if there are no more, this is a great way to leave the Bennet family of California.
I loved love love The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and have watched the series a few times now, so when I saw this at the library I knew I had to pick it up. In Pride and Prejudice, Lydia is not a very sympathetic character. She’s flighty and silly and immature and selfish. But in the LBD, she really grows and is completely a sympathetic character. Part of it is the acting by the amazing and hilarious Mary Kate Wiles, but the writers of the series really gave great material. This book is the continuing story of Lydia Bennet, and it is so much fun yet had a lot of heart. We get appearances from all our favorite LBD characters, but I loved being inside Lydia’s head and seeing everything from her point of view. Loved this.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a light and cheesy book, with a fair helping of cliches, but I still liked it. Lydia was never my favorite character in the web series, but it's nice to get inside her head and follow along on her adventures for awhile. Even if she makes a lot of cringeworthy decisions, you kind of get why she does it. I enjoyed the amount of story in this book - a lot happens! - and the side character stories are touching as well. Some scenes made me roll my eyes, but nothing too terrible. Basically, it was fun and engaging even though sort of light and fluffy.
The first part of this was really kind of hard to get through because I don't really like watching people kinda self-destruct, but it needed to happen that way and the second part made up for it. I definitely had Mary Kate Wiles' voice in my head throughout.
4/28 of my 'books I've owned for over 5 years' collection.
I honestly don't know why I've hung on to this. I found it for 1$ at a thrift shop and I think a tiny part of me was like 'well, let's see if they at least tried to improve on the absolute trainwreck that was the back quarter of the web series'. A quarter where they pretty much destroyed this character and got actively hostile towards a portion of their fans.
I mean... as a resolution to the storyline they gave her... it wasn't half bad. It was a little slow and nothing much happened, but they could have done worse in resolving the abuse narrative they set up. Although, no matter how much commentary, dialogue or one-liners they threw in to the contrary, this wasn't Lydia being "Lydia still; untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless." And I think I knew that'd happen. They've made it clear in the story they wrote, and honestly in the acknowledgements to this book as well, that they don't actually like Austen's Lydia.
And as for the being actively hostile to that portion (my fellow Gigi/Lydia people) of the fans? Not great in that category either. It's very Supernatural's "we refused to make this character people are headcanoning as queer queer, but we're also going to play into it for jokes and give you a handful of queer characters to appease you" rather than 9-1-1's 'oh this makes sense and we're going to roll with it."
Well, as with Supernatural, I say, as I get it out of my house:
I honestly don't know why I've hung on to this. I found it for 1$ at a thrift shop and I think a tiny part of me was like 'well, let's see if they at least tried to improve on the absolute trainwreck that was the back quarter of the web series'. A quarter where they pretty much destroyed this character and got actively hostile towards a portion of their fans.
I mean... as a resolution to the storyline they gave her... it wasn't half bad. It was a little slow and nothing much happened, but they could have done worse in resolving the abuse narrative they set up. Although, no matter how much commentary, dialogue or one-liners they threw in to the contrary, this wasn't Lydia being "Lydia still; untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy, and fearless." And I think I knew that'd happen. They've made it clear in the story they wrote, and honestly in the acknowledgements to this book as well, that they don't actually like Austen's Lydia.
And as for the being actively hostile to that portion (my fellow Gigi/Lydia people) of the fans? Not great in that category either. It's very Supernatural's "we refused to make this character people are headcanoning as queer queer, but we're also going to play into it for jokes and give you a handful of queer characters to appease you" rather than 9-1-1's 'oh this makes sense and we're going to roll with it."
Well, as with Supernatural, I say, as I get it out of my house:
4 stars
In case you didn't get the memo, I adore The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. It's a fabulous modern day retelling of Pride & Prejudice in a webseries format, and now it's spawned TWO books to give even more depth to the story. The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet tells Lydia's story after the webseries ends... and boy. It's a doozy. It's only right that Lydia, arguably the series' most complex character, gets the chance to shine in her own story. I loved it.
This book is all about Lydia, so whether or not you like it will hinge on whether or not you like her voice. She's so complicated and flawed, but I find that makes her so much more interesting. You see her using cheerfulness as a mask. You see her running away from any dark feelings. You see her stubbornly pretend she's okay and awesome, when actually she feels anything but. Considering the ordeal she went through in the webseries, this book is not a particularly cheerful one. But it's a very realistic one. It perfectly captures the mess that's left behind after someone gets out of an abusive relationship. She's coping - badly - but gradually getting stronger.
The journey Lydia goes through in this book is a very intrinsic, character-focused one. If you're looking for super swoons or exciting plot, it may not be for you. But if you do like super duper depth in your characters, heartbreaking feels, and some genuinely good anxiety and therapy related scenes, you will likely appreciate it anyway. I was completely sucked into Lydia's story and hoping and praying so hard that things would get better for her. She deserves happiness, because despite all of her flaws, she's not a bad person. I just have a lot of feelings about Lydia. And I adore what this book did for her character.
I would also argue that this is very much a new adult book, though without the sexual content. It deserves the label, because Lydia faces a lot of the new adult struggles and anxiety that actually come with being in your 20s. She's been left behind by her successful sisters, she has almost finished community college, but she has no idea what direction she wants to go in her life. Or, she thinks she knows, but then she messes it up again. She's now an outcast from her community because of the sex tape scandal, and she faces a shit-storm of prejudice because of it. Your 20s are filled with stress, anxiety, and peer pressure, and Lydia faces all of that and more. It was seriously relatable.
You also get to see familiar faces - Lizzie, Jane, Bing, and Mary most prominently. Honestly I adored seeing how deep the friendship went between Lydia and Mary (despite their share of drama in this book). It was super heartwarming. And, yeah, Lydia doesn't really have a shippity ship of her own, but that kind of makes sense since she just got out of such a terrible relationship. She needs to learn to stand on her own two feet. But Mary does get a ship - one that's super exciting and full of F/F adorableness. And I love how Lydia's response to that again shows her growth and her genuine friendship with Mary.
Though I feel like Kate Rorick and Rachel Kiley caught Lydia's voice perfectly (seriously, it was like Mary Kate Wiles was talking in my head), my main hangup about this book is the writing. Something about the style was a little bit off for me - it's mostly told in present tense but it awkwardly switches to past tense in some of Lydia's thoughts (which aren't clearly separate from the general narrations). This made me stop and start quite a bit and just kept the story from flowing smoothly. It took quite a bit of effort to just ignore it.
Summing Up:
Lydia is flawed, complicated, and eccentric, but she's also super endearing. Her voice shines in The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet, where she doesn't actually have epic adventures, but instead finds herself and her place in the world after the ending of the webseries. I loved this book - particularly because Lydia deserved to have her own story told. It was realistic, heartbreaking, and, ultimately, empowering. Not a fluffy book, but one definitely worth reading.
GIF it to me straight!
Recommended To:
Fans of the webseries.
In case you didn't get the memo, I adore The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. It's a fabulous modern day retelling of Pride & Prejudice in a webseries format, and now it's spawned TWO books to give even more depth to the story. The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet tells Lydia's story after the webseries ends... and boy. It's a doozy. It's only right that Lydia, arguably the series' most complex character, gets the chance to shine in her own story. I loved it.
This book is all about Lydia, so whether or not you like it will hinge on whether or not you like her voice. She's so complicated and flawed, but I find that makes her so much more interesting. You see her using cheerfulness as a mask. You see her running away from any dark feelings. You see her stubbornly pretend she's okay and awesome, when actually she feels anything but. Considering the ordeal she went through in the webseries, this book is not a particularly cheerful one. But it's a very realistic one. It perfectly captures the mess that's left behind after someone gets out of an abusive relationship. She's coping - badly - but gradually getting stronger.
The journey Lydia goes through in this book is a very intrinsic, character-focused one. If you're looking for super swoons or exciting plot, it may not be for you. But if you do like super duper depth in your characters, heartbreaking feels, and some genuinely good anxiety and therapy related scenes, you will likely appreciate it anyway. I was completely sucked into Lydia's story and hoping and praying so hard that things would get better for her. She deserves happiness, because despite all of her flaws, she's not a bad person. I just have a lot of feelings about Lydia. And I adore what this book did for her character.
I would also argue that this is very much a new adult book, though without the sexual content. It deserves the label, because Lydia faces a lot of the new adult struggles and anxiety that actually come with being in your 20s. She's been left behind by her successful sisters, she has almost finished community college, but she has no idea what direction she wants to go in her life. Or, she thinks she knows, but then she messes it up again. She's now an outcast from her community because of the sex tape scandal, and she faces a shit-storm of prejudice because of it. Your 20s are filled with stress, anxiety, and peer pressure, and Lydia faces all of that and more. It was seriously relatable.
You also get to see familiar faces - Lizzie, Jane, Bing, and Mary most prominently. Honestly I adored seeing how deep the friendship went between Lydia and Mary (despite their share of drama in this book). It was super heartwarming. And, yeah, Lydia doesn't really have a shippity ship of her own, but that kind of makes sense since she just got out of such a terrible relationship. She needs to learn to stand on her own two feet. But Mary does get a ship - one that's super exciting and full of F/F adorableness. And I love how Lydia's response to that again shows her growth and her genuine friendship with Mary.
Though I feel like Kate Rorick and Rachel Kiley caught Lydia's voice perfectly (seriously, it was like Mary Kate Wiles was talking in my head), my main hangup about this book is the writing. Something about the style was a little bit off for me - it's mostly told in present tense but it awkwardly switches to past tense in some of Lydia's thoughts (which aren't clearly separate from the general narrations). This made me stop and start quite a bit and just kept the story from flowing smoothly. It took quite a bit of effort to just ignore it.
Summing Up:
Lydia is flawed, complicated, and eccentric, but she's also super endearing. Her voice shines in The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet, where she doesn't actually have epic adventures, but instead finds herself and her place in the world after the ending of the webseries. I loved this book - particularly because Lydia deserved to have her own story told. It was realistic, heartbreaking, and, ultimately, empowering. Not a fluffy book, but one definitely worth reading.
GIF it to me straight!
Recommended To:
Fans of the webseries.