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thefemalekyle's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This was selected for a romance book club read from a friend of a friend (no one in the group).
When I hadn’t started it yet and another friend in the club said they were gonna “have questions about the original pride & prejudice” I should’ve known something was up. For street cred, I have a P&P foot tattoo and also was in the TRENCHES of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries fandom while it was airing as well as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Aside from all the casual racism, homophobia, and transphobia, this was a flop of a modern adaptation that the author only ‘’modernized” bits of the book when it suited them and in increasingly gross ways.
I am just gonna post my live react notes below cause I’m done dedicating brain space to this drivel:
[Begin]
Does this family…hate one another?
Oh the mom is racist AND homophobic…cool!
Jesus this is a tough read. How do you zap all of the charm from the Bennents???!!
WOW sending cheap lingerie. How charming and sexy of him.
“Bang you in a hotel I get to expense” what a fucking romantic
Girl, Lizzie you are 38. Why are you still mooning over this asshole. STAND UP!
These people text like boomers
Irrationally annoyed at this author needing to prove a point how much she knows Cincinnati. Down to the streets.
One thing I will give the story is the medical debt of Mr. Bennett is an ok change for modern times.
“Two runs? Are you anorexic?” WHAT
“A chubby chaser.” Guck. I hate it here.
They keep talking about peoples issues but then never to anything to address it. Georgie has anorexia. Mrs. Bennetts a shopaholic.
All the ‘NPC characters’ aren’t developed past the status of their skin or what genitals or ‘defects’ they have. Mary is ace and only likes bowling!!??! Shawn is Black and “oh my mom’s a racist?!” “Georgie is anorexic but WHELP what can we do?!” UGH
The language was tedious and overly flowery to the point of exhaustion at times. If Curtis was trying to emulate Jane Austen they failed. I don’t think she likes any of these characters.
AND WOW OH WOW DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE SURPRISE TRANS TWIST WITH THE WICKEM (OR SORRY, WICK AND HAM, come’on) WHO IS THE EQUIV THE VILLAIN OF THE ORIGINAL BOOK
Calling being trans a ‘birth defect’ Darcy wtffff
OMG I hate this. I truly do.
[End]
This book was so bad my friends and I continued to trash it at arts fest this weekend. It’s becoming an inside joke it was so bad.
I wish I could scrub this from my brain.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Racism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Homophobia, and Transphobia
zoiejanelle's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
here’s a horrible secret… i have never read Pride and Prejudice. this is my first experience with it (outside the 2000s movie) and i am genuinely obsessed. this is definitely not the type of book i would normally go for, so i am very proud i actually read it!
this book was recommended to me by my Children’s Book Council mentor and took me a few months to get to. boy am i glad i did. it was a perfect time capsule of 2013 culture—from the white, republican parents, to the confusion about trransgender people, to the classism and social hierarchy, AND the fashion/fitness trends… this was a trip.
equal parts cringey and charming, the story itself was fun to read and experience alongside the quirky cast of characters. i loved the tweaks that the author made to each character, but that the overall story remained largely the same. of course, i loved darcy most ardently. wink.
because of the slight transphobia and extremely datedness of the book, i cant give it a full five stars. it was extremely slow (but so is the original, i hear) and very character driven, so i got lost at a few points trying to determine where the story was headed. however, i cringed, i laughed out loud, i cried, i swooned, and i shouted… and those are all signs of a good book.
bonus—this semi-viral tweet came from my listening to this audiobook:
“instead of enemies to lovers, i'm looking for haters to lovers. two people with bad attitudes whose relationship is wholly based off their mutual, yet completely unjustified, disrespect for one another. two people who antagonize each other until it somehow turns into love.”
this book was recommended to me by my Children’s Book Council mentor and took me a few months to get to. boy am i glad i did. it was a perfect time capsule of 2013 culture—from the white, republican parents, to the confusion about trransgender people, to the classism and social hierarchy, AND the fashion/fitness trends… this was a trip.
equal parts cringey and charming, the story itself was fun to read and experience alongside the quirky cast of characters. i loved the tweaks that the author made to each character, but that the overall story remained largely the same. of course, i loved darcy most ardently. wink.
because of the slight transphobia and extremely datedness of the book, i cant give it a full five stars. it was extremely slow (but so is the original, i hear) and very character driven, so i got lost at a few points trying to determine where the story was headed. however, i cringed, i laughed out loud, i cried, i swooned, and i shouted… and those are all signs of a good book.
bonus—this semi-viral tweet came from my listening to this audiobook:
“instead of enemies to lovers, i'm looking for haters to lovers. two people with bad attitudes whose relationship is wholly based off their mutual, yet completely unjustified, disrespect for one another. two people who antagonize each other until it somehow turns into love.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Infertility, Eating disorder, Classism, Sexual content, Sexism, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Racism, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Fatphobia
Minor: Vomit, Homophobia, Abortion, Cursing, and Medical content
allthingsnerdy's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a really brilliant modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. A lot has been changed, but I think most of the changes felt like they captured the point of a scene or story arch, even if the change was significant. The only thing I missed was the final showdown between Lizzy and Lady Catherine, and Lady Catherine being a more prominent character in general. I appreciate that Kathy de Bourgh has been changed into this strong business woman and feminist, but that made her pretty irrelevant to the plot, to the point that that whole piece could have been cut out and I don't think it would have been missed. . A lot of the journalism stuff that Liz talks about is also fairly irrelevant to the plot, besides the fact that that's how she met Jasper. But overall, outside of these minor complaints, I thought it was great and would definitely be interested in reading it again!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, and Racism
skudiklier's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. On one hand, I enjoyed reading it, and was very invested in what was going to happen. I wasn't at all bored by it because I knew how Pride and Prejudice goes, or anything like that.
On the other hand, for the first third of the book I hated all of the characters, and I still don't really like most of them by the end. There's a lot of transphobia, fatphobia, racism, and homophobia. Some of these are very clearly faults of the characters, but others are less easily dismissed. (More details on each of these under the spoiler warning.)
Transphobia: a major plot point in the novel is when a character is revealed to be trans, and this is treated very badly by almost every character. This is actually the one spoiler I knew ahead of time, because I'm trans and I read a little bit about this part of the book before starting it. But what I didn't realize is that even Lizzy was going to be weird and transphobic about it. She does quickly learn what she said/did was wrong, and becomes better towards the end of the book. But still, that section was frustrating and I didn't like it. It feels way out of proportion for her to fly home because of this, and to be honest I think Darcy forgives her too easily for this. Overall though it's clear Sittenfeld meant the transphobia to be a fault of the characters, and she herself doesn't agree with that, and so on and so on. I'm glad it was so clearly disputed in the book. But I still wouldn't have made that this big of a deal in the book at all.
Fatphobia: the fatphobia is one of the bigger issues I have with the book, as it's both blatant and not super clearly disagreed with. Lizzy as the narrator repeatedly says things like how she tries not to get caught up in diet talk, but that she's not completely successful. The characters' fatphobia is made fun of in some ways but reinforced in others. Charlotte is the only fat character that I can think of who is presented in a positive light, but she's repeatedly called unattractive--by the characters, but still. I think all of the characters who are portrayed as attractive are straight size, if not actively thin.
Racism: part of me wants to say the racism is disputed in similar ways to the transphobia, but I know I might also just be less focused on that since I'm white. Lizzy does definitely point out that several characters are racist, and this is seen as bad, and it's clear neither Lizzy as the narrator nor Sittenfeld as the author think any of the racism is okay. However, the casual racism just scattered throughout the book was still obviously not great, and I'm not sure how much of it was necessary or relevant to the plot.
Homophobia/lesbophobia: the homophobia was pretty bad in the beginning, and got a little better later on. I feel it could have been addressed more clearly, rather than just being accepted as normal, but I have less issue with the homophobia than with the rest of the things listed above. Lizzy's sisters are kind of awful about it though, and if you don't feel like reading a bunch of "haha you're a lesbian" "no I'm not" interactions, I wouldn't recommend this book.
Overall, I'm pretty torn on if I liked this book or would recommend it. In general I like Sittenfeld's writing, but the more of her books I read, I'm not sure if I should want to read them. I don't think this was a terrible retelling of Pride and Prejudice, though it's definitely a different story with different characters. I was also not super convinced by Darcy's character in general; I feel like in the beginning he was an almost irredeemable asshole, and then later he just sort of became nice and interesting. I don't buy that that's the same person with the same motivations.
On the other hand, for the first third of the book I hated all of the characters, and I still don't really like most of them by the end. There's a lot of transphobia, fatphobia, racism, and homophobia. Some of these are very clearly faults of the characters, but others are less easily dismissed. (More details on each of these under the spoiler warning.)
Transphobia: a major plot point in the novel is when a character is revealed to be trans, and this is treated very badly by almost every character. This is actually the one spoiler I knew ahead of time, because I'm trans and I read a little bit about this part of the book before starting it. But what I didn't realize is that even Lizzy was going to be weird and transphobic about it. She does quickly learn what she said/did was wrong, and becomes better towards the end of the book. But still, that section was frustrating and I didn't like it. It feels way out of proportion for her to fly home because of this, and to be honest I think Darcy forgives her too easily for this. Overall though it's clear Sittenfeld meant the transphobia to be a fault of the characters, and she herself doesn't agree with that, and so on and so on. I'm glad it was so clearly disputed in the book. But I still wouldn't have made that this big of a deal in the book at all.
Fatphobia: the fatphobia is one of the bigger issues I have with the book, as it's both blatant and not super clearly disagreed with. Lizzy as the narrator repeatedly says things like how she tries not to get caught up in diet talk, but that she's not completely successful. The characters' fatphobia is made fun of in some ways but reinforced in others. Charlotte is the only fat character that I can think of who is presented in a positive light, but she's repeatedly called unattractive--by the characters, but still. I think all of the characters who are portrayed as attractive are straight size, if not actively thin.
Racism: part of me wants to say the racism is disputed in similar ways to the transphobia, but I know I might also just be less focused on that since I'm white. Lizzy does definitely point out that several characters are racist, and this is seen as bad, and it's clear neither Lizzy as the narrator nor Sittenfeld as the author think any of the racism is okay. However, the casual racism just scattered throughout the book was still obviously not great, and I'm not sure how much of it was necessary or relevant to the plot.
Homophobia/lesbophobia: the homophobia was pretty bad in the beginning, and got a little better later on. I feel it could have been addressed more clearly, rather than just being accepted as normal, but I have less issue with the homophobia than with the rest of the things listed above. Lizzy's sisters are kind of awful about it though, and if you don't feel like reading a bunch of "haha you're a lesbian" "no I'm not" interactions, I wouldn't recommend this book.
Overall, I'm pretty torn on if I liked this book or would recommend it. In general I like Sittenfeld's writing, but the more of her books I read, I'm not sure if I should want to read them. I don't think this was a terrible retelling of Pride and Prejudice, though it's definitely a different story with different characters. I was also not super convinced by Darcy's character in general; I feel like in the beginning he was an almost irredeemable asshole, and then later he just sort of became nice and interesting. I don't buy that that's the same person with the same motivations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Fatphobia, Sexism, Transphobia, Racism, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Classism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Hate crime, Addiction, Incest, Antisemitism, Racial slurs, and Pregnancy
Minor: Violence, Murder, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Alcoholism, Death, Vomit, Ableism, Outing, and Mental illness
transphobic slur (t slur)
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