caramel_sundae's profile picture

caramel_sundae 's review for:

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
4.0
adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-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

I thought this was pretty cute!! i can def see why people don't consider northanger abbey to be jane austen's masterpiece or anything but I think it is underrated for how funny and entertaining it was <33 there are so many small subtleties that are done really well, and I really love how it spends an entire page in the middle just going on about the values of reading fictional novels lmao, like jane you are preaching to the choir but yes <33 fully agree <33

I think my main issue with it was that the title is just straight-up misleading T_T the book spends maybe a quarter of its time actually in northanger abbey... the rest is in bath, which isn't all that interesting?? there's a lot of funny moments and dynamics with catherine and the various annoying thorpes, and the early stages of henry flirting with her are very cute, but overall I was waiting for the book to move on and finally take us to the abbey because that's what I wanted to see the most, and it took foreverrrr T_T 

I also think catherine & henry's romance is a little on the weird side T_T like I do see it and I thought they were cute overall but he just comes off as too mature for her, and there isn't that much time spent on developing them together... but again I get the appeal from both sides and I'm glad it ends so happily <33 but I'm ngl when he first showed up I thought he was a distraction from the inevitable main love interest lmao, he seemed like he was going to be the wickham-esque red herring T_T


anyway, all of that aside I had a good time with the book overall, and it's really made me want to read more  austen!! the language was much easier to get through than I thought it would be and her humor is delightful just like you'd expect <33 I really want to read emma next, it has to be so many people's favorite for a reason T_T but the only other one I own as of rn is persuasion, so maybe I'll get to that soon??