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slflorence99's review against another edition
4.0
This is the 2nd reimagining of P&P I've read in the last year. Quick, easy, fun read with identifiable characters and a great setting.
tanya_tate's review against another edition
5.0
Bring my review back up since it's out today!
Review
You can also read it on my blog!
Expected Pub Date: September 18th 2018
I received a copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Five Stars!!
Before I finally write this review of this wonderful book before it comes out ( while juggling my memory since it's been four months since I read it while being sick)I have a confession to make.
Confession : I have never read Pride and Prejudice. I have been meaning too cause I have like this nice annoted paperback version of it that my sister bough for me in high school for my Lit class but we never did. We just ending up watching the Keira Knightley version which I told my whole class what was going on. I mean when you have a sister who loves Jane Austen and was exposed to other versions early. lol
Before you grab your bonnets and your pearls, I have watched a lot of adaptions of P&P that I did follow along with this perfectly.
I have watched
The Collin Firth Version
The Keira Knightley Version
Lizzie Bennet Daries
Bride and Prejudice ( How the fuck I missed that one!)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
I just thought about it! I did read a version of P&P but it was in manga form. Haha!
So Pride, as you can tell from my confession is a retelling or as Ms. Zoboi is calling it, a remix of Pride and Prejudice in the Streets of Brooklyn following the Bentiez family. Zuri Bentiez ,( aka our Elizabeth) the second oldest Bentiez sister is a 17-year-old Afro Latina girl who has pride in her roots and trying to navigate the streets of her home as much she trying to navigate her life. She loves her older sister,Jaene ( our Jane) who has been off to college but is home for the summer to death. She has two younger sisters who she loves but sometimes want to strangle. Also dealing with her loving Mom who loves to cook as much she's trying to hook her two oldest daughters up. ( Mrs. Bennet in the flesh) She aspires to be a poet and wants to go to college so she can spread her wings. Things started to change when her neighborhood got new wealthy neighbors, the Darcy family. A wealthy up to do family who fixed an old collapsed in apartment building and turned into a mansion. The Darcy's have two sons, Ainsley (Bingley)and Darius ( Our darling Fritzwilliam Darcy) ( Yeah they are brothers in this version which I'm going to talk about later). While Anisley who is very charming and easy-going around others and to her sister,Daruis is a very uptight 17-year-old who thinks everyone doesn't have good intentions and doesn't think very highly of people. In other words,he's a straight asshole but have a reason why he's like that which Zuri doesn't know. Zuri first thinks she hates him and thinks she know what exactly what he is but as she get to know him and see what he truly is ( which is not really an asshole) she start to question her pride and her feelings as well. While learning that the boy she thought she knew cause he grew up on her hood, Warren ( aka our Wickham) is not the person he's all cracked up to be. Also while also dealing with the perceptive of maybe leaving her neighborhood sooner than she thought she would.
So here's the main reason why I put my confession down and give it a five-star. Even though I haven't read P&P, I had enough information from watching some adaptations to follow the plot. I think even a person who wasn't familiar with P& P would be able to understand cause Ms. Zoboi's does an amazing job taking the original material and making it her own. She modernization this great piece of literature for the next generation. I can't give two much spoilers but I love her spin on the proposal scene and her take on Darcy Letter to Lizzie about the truth about Wickham. Those are two iconic scenes in the books and the adaptations and she take them to another level.
One thing I didn't like was the fact she made her Darcy and Bringley brothers instead of just friends in this book cause it changes the dynamics of the two characters. It should be for the better but it certain things that happen between two characters which is the reason why Darcy the way he is to a certain character ( who names starts with a W) is the reason why I say this.I think them being cousins would have been better cause it could have been under the guise of " Well Anisley is not near the Darcy's home as much so maybe that's why he doesn't know about a particular situation" Them being brothers is like " Well he should know about what this character done to another character who supposed to be close to him so why he's acting nice towards them unlike his brother who really want to beat the shit out them." ( If you read P& P you probably figure out what I'm talking about) That's the only major gripe I have with this book.
All and All this book was the first book in a long time that I finish it in like two days while I was sick like hell battling with Bronchitis. I just hate it took me so long to write this review. Well Life Happens. lol
Also
I forgot to show this.
I tweeted Ms. Zoboi after I finished the book in April and she tweeted me back!! I totally didn't fangirl. lol
Review
You can also read it on my blog!
Expected Pub Date: September 18th 2018
I received a copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Five Stars!!
Before I finally write this review of this wonderful book before it comes out ( while juggling my memory since it's been four months since I read it while being sick)I have a confession to make.
Confession : I have never read Pride and Prejudice. I have been meaning too cause I have like this nice annoted paperback version of it that my sister bough for me in high school for my Lit class but we never did. We just ending up watching the Keira Knightley version which I told my whole class what was going on. I mean when you have a sister who loves Jane Austen and was exposed to other versions early. lol
Before you grab your bonnets and your pearls, I have watched a lot of adaptions of P&P that I did follow along with this perfectly.
I have watched
The Collin Firth Version
The Keira Knightley Version
Lizzie Bennet Daries
Bride and Prejudice ( How the fuck I missed that one!)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
I just thought about it! I did read a version of P&P but it was in manga form. Haha!
So Pride, as you can tell from my confession is a retelling or as Ms. Zoboi is calling it, a remix of Pride and Prejudice in the Streets of Brooklyn following the Bentiez family. Zuri Bentiez ,( aka our Elizabeth) the second oldest Bentiez sister is a 17-year-old Afro Latina girl who has pride in her roots and trying to navigate the streets of her home as much she trying to navigate her life. She loves her older sister,Jaene ( our Jane) who has been off to college but is home for the summer to death. She has two younger sisters who she loves but sometimes want to strangle. Also dealing with her loving Mom who loves to cook as much she's trying to hook her two oldest daughters up. ( Mrs. Bennet in the flesh) She aspires to be a poet and wants to go to college so she can spread her wings. Things started to change when her neighborhood got new wealthy neighbors, the Darcy family. A wealthy up to do family who fixed an old collapsed in apartment building and turned into a mansion. The Darcy's have two sons, Ainsley (Bingley)and Darius ( Our darling Fritzwilliam Darcy) ( Yeah they are brothers in this version which I'm going to talk about later). While Anisley who is very charming and easy-going around others and to her sister,Daruis is a very uptight 17-year-old who thinks everyone doesn't have good intentions and doesn't think very highly of people. In other words,he's a straight asshole but have a reason why he's like that which Zuri doesn't know. Zuri first thinks she hates him and thinks she know what exactly what he is but as she get to know him and see what he truly is ( which is not really an asshole) she start to question her pride and her feelings as well. While learning that the boy she thought she knew cause he grew up on her hood, Warren ( aka our Wickham) is not the person he's all cracked up to be. Also while also dealing with the perceptive of maybe leaving her neighborhood sooner than she thought she would.
So here's the main reason why I put my confession down and give it a five-star. Even though I haven't read P&P, I had enough information from watching some adaptations to follow the plot. I think even a person who wasn't familiar with P& P would be able to understand cause Ms. Zoboi's does an amazing job taking the original material and making it her own. She modernization this great piece of literature for the next generation. I can't give two much spoilers but I love her spin on the proposal scene and her take on Darcy Letter to Lizzie about the truth about Wickham. Those are two iconic scenes in the books and the adaptations and she take them to another level.
One thing I didn't like was the fact she made her Darcy and Bringley brothers instead of just friends in this book cause it changes the dynamics of the two characters. It should be for the better but it certain things that happen between two characters which is the reason why Darcy the way he is to a certain character ( who names starts with a W) is the reason why I say this.I think them being cousins would have been better cause it could have been under the guise of " Well Anisley is not near the Darcy's home as much so maybe that's why he doesn't know about a particular situation" Them being brothers is like " Well he should know about what this character done to another character who supposed to be close to him so why he's acting nice towards them unlike his brother who really want to beat the shit out them." ( If you read P& P you probably figure out what I'm talking about) That's the only major gripe I have with this book.
All and All this book was the first book in a long time that I finish it in like two days while I was sick like hell battling with Bronchitis. I just hate it took me so long to write this review. Well Life Happens. lol
Also
I forgot to show this.
I tweeted Ms. Zoboi after I finished the book in April and she tweeted me back!! I totally didn't fangirl. lol
asreadbykat's review against another edition
3.0
True Rating: 3.5/5
Content/Trigger Warnings: mentions of underage drinking, predatory behavior, classism
My Thoughts
"My neighborhood is made out of love, but it's money and buildings and food and jobs that keep it alive -and even I have to admit that the new people moving in, with their extra money and dreams, can sometimes make things better. We'll just have to figure out a way to make both sides of Bushwick work."
I picked this book up randomly at my Tokyo bookstore's yearly mega-sale in 2022, without realizing the year it was written in. 2018; in the middle of one of the worst presidential terms in US history. A time when tensions were higher than ever. Knowing that brought an entirely new depth to this novel, which I really only picked up because I was excited to see a version of P&P starring Black characters.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable book. It takes many of the issues from the original story and updates them perfectly, while also adding in more modern concerns. Rather than the caricatures that Austen's depiction of the Bennet family were, we get a family that is just naturally loud and outgoing because it's their life and culture, and it clashes with that of the Darcy family. The issue of money remains, as does the elder girls wanting to follow their own hearts and wants while still caring for their family.
And, at the heart of it all, is a very strong, compelling story of the gentrification that is happening all throughout the poorer neighborhoods in America. Zoboi uses the novel to show the color and life that these neighborhoods can have, and how new blood in them can be both a blessing and a curse.
Zuri, a proud Bushwick native, hates the changes happening in her home and wants them to stop. This transfers to the Darcys, a rich Black family that moves into a renovated home across the street. Zuri views them as the ideal of what the rest of white America wants Black Americans and others to be, and she instantly dislikes them because of it. So she leans into her home, her roots, even more, which conflicts with her desire to leave and go away to university.
The messages in this novel are hard, messy, and unsolved. There is no easy answer to the problem, and Zoboi wisely doesn't try to offer one. She merely gets the conversations started, and leaves it up to the readers to continue them.
Where the book goes wrong, in my opinion, is the romance. It's not a bad one, but it's extremely fast. The book definitely needed at least 50 more pages, if not 100, to really make the romance feel more organic. They had their cute moments, but the entire time I also just couldn't help feeling that even for a YA novel it was fast.
There were also many times when Zuri's voice sounded much younger than her actual age. Although she's supposed to be about 17, in my head I was always picturing a girl of about 15 based on her voice in the book. That may just be a me issue; I can't really name any specific examples of it.
Overall, this was a fun and interesting retelling of one of my favorite novels that wanted to start a very necessary conversation. If you're a P&P fan and you're interested in reading different retellings, this is definitely one to pick up.
Content/Trigger Warnings: mentions of underage drinking, predatory behavior, classism
My Thoughts
"My neighborhood is made out of love, but it's money and buildings and food and jobs that keep it alive -and even I have to admit that the new people moving in, with their extra money and dreams, can sometimes make things better. We'll just have to figure out a way to make both sides of Bushwick work."
I picked this book up randomly at my Tokyo bookstore's yearly mega-sale in 2022, without realizing the year it was written in. 2018; in the middle of one of the worst presidential terms in US history. A time when tensions were higher than ever. Knowing that brought an entirely new depth to this novel, which I really only picked up because I was excited to see a version of P&P starring Black characters.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable book. It takes many of the issues from the original story and updates them perfectly, while also adding in more modern concerns. Rather than the caricatures that Austen's depiction of the Bennet family were, we get a family that is just naturally loud and outgoing because it's their life and culture, and it clashes with that of the Darcy family. The issue of money remains, as does the elder girls wanting to follow their own hearts and wants while still caring for their family.
And, at the heart of it all, is a very strong, compelling story of the gentrification that is happening all throughout the poorer neighborhoods in America. Zoboi uses the novel to show the color and life that these neighborhoods can have, and how new blood in them can be both a blessing and a curse.
Zuri, a proud Bushwick native, hates the changes happening in her home and wants them to stop. This transfers to the Darcys, a rich Black family that moves into a renovated home across the street. Zuri views them as the ideal of what the rest of white America wants Black Americans and others to be, and she instantly dislikes them because of it. So she leans into her home, her roots, even more, which conflicts with her desire to leave and go away to university.
The messages in this novel are hard, messy, and unsolved. There is no easy answer to the problem, and Zoboi wisely doesn't try to offer one. She merely gets the conversations started, and leaves it up to the readers to continue them.
Where the book goes wrong, in my opinion, is the romance. It's not a bad one, but it's extremely fast. The book definitely needed at least 50 more pages, if not 100, to really make the romance feel more organic. They had their cute moments, but the entire time I also just couldn't help feeling that even for a YA novel it was fast.
There were also many times when Zuri's voice sounded much younger than her actual age. Although she's supposed to be about 17, in my head I was always picturing a girl of about 15 based on her voice in the book. That may just be a me issue; I can't really name any specific examples of it.
Overall, this was a fun and interesting retelling of one of my favorite novels that wanted to start a very necessary conversation. If you're a P&P fan and you're interested in reading different retellings, this is definitely one to pick up.
nickscoby's review against another edition
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this one. I loved the first-gen storyline, the poetry and the modern exploration of Black on Black gentrification. But I didn't love Zuri, well, at least not all of the time. She comes across as too brittle and at a certain point I was actively rooting against her. I also got tired of the back and forth between her and Darius, and it wasn't clear to me why they liked each other so much. I felt like we were being told their storyline rather than shown.
dejalu's review against another edition
4.0
As a fan of the Pride and Prejudice characters and storyline I was interested in how this would be translated into this setting. It kept making me think of West Side Story and how lovers of Romeo and Juliet might have found that the still loved their story seen with a different lens.
The poetry interspersed within was insightful and moving. Iād love to see what Siri and the rest of the Benitez clan end up doing next!
The poetry interspersed within was insightful and moving. Iād love to see what Siri and the rest of the Benitez clan end up doing next!
hannahhbic's review against another edition
5.0
I don't even like this genre, and I adored this book. The audio version especially was spectacular.
tatyanavogt's review against another edition
3.0
So this is a pride and Prejudice retelling featuring young black & afro-latino high schoolers in the Brooklyn. It's cultured and fun to read. I listened to the audio book which is narrated by a different talented author Elizabeth Acevedo which fit well with the characters in Ibi Zoboi's novel. I enjoyed the experience and the message but felt like the characters were a little bit too young for me to get too involved in.
I also felt like there were some missed opportunities regarding the original inspiration BUT I will admit I am glad that it has its differences and stands out as its own story. It was fun seeing the connections between the original Pride and Prejudice and the remix Pride. I also love the fact that it classifies itself as a "Remix" instead of a re-telling further pushing the theme of the story.
I imagine if I was younger this would be an easy 4 stars possibly even 5 stars because the representation was lovely. I do feel like it is missing something so its possible that even at a younger more relatable age I might still not give it five stars. It just wasn't my favorite which was sad because I wanted it to be.
I will be reading more from Ibi Zaboi in the future though if given the chance because I did really enjoy the book.
I also felt like there were some missed opportunities regarding the original inspiration BUT I will admit I am glad that it has its differences and stands out as its own story. It was fun seeing the connections between the original Pride and Prejudice and the remix Pride. I also love the fact that it classifies itself as a "Remix" instead of a re-telling further pushing the theme of the story.
I imagine if I was younger this would be an easy 4 stars possibly even 5 stars because the representation was lovely. I do feel like it is missing something so its possible that even at a younger more relatable age I might still not give it five stars. It just wasn't my favorite which was sad because I wanted it to be.
I will be reading more from Ibi Zaboi in the future though if given the chance because I did really enjoy the book.
votesforwomen's review against another edition
4.0
Actual rating is probably more like 3.5 stars, just because romance as a genre is never going to be my thing. But this was a really, really good romance!
I'll come right out and admit it: I've never read Pride and Prejudice. On top of that, I'm 100% a white girl who doesn't know much about life in "a hood". So I was a little nervous about this book. BUT! It was so good!
The social commentary was so good. I've never felt this way from a book before: I felt EDUCATED about a completely different way of life from my own. But not in a condescending way and not in an intentional way. I was reading a story about a completely different world, almost, and it was so cool.
There was some cussing, some kissing, talking about something that happened with certain pictures, stuff like that. But overall, I really enjoyed this book. 3.5 stars like I said!
I'll come right out and admit it: I've never read Pride and Prejudice. On top of that, I'm 100% a white girl who doesn't know much about life in "a hood". So I was a little nervous about this book. BUT! It was so good!
The social commentary was so good. I've never felt this way from a book before: I felt EDUCATED about a completely different way of life from my own. But not in a condescending way and not in an intentional way. I was reading a story about a completely different world, almost, and it was so cool.
There was some cussing, some kissing, talking about something that happened with certain pictures, stuff like that. But overall, I really enjoyed this book. 3.5 stars like I said!