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A review by taylersimon22
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
3.0
I have just recently shifted my reading tastes to other flavors besides vanilla and now have a more intentional focus on reading works by authors of color. I read Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev and I can definitely detect hints of spice under the trope of, well, the pride and prejudice trope that launched the classic into infamy.
Before I start my rant, I just want to say that it was also fascinating reading about a racially and ethnically complicated character that was more than a half black, half white person (which is still a really complex identity who’s nuances aren’t explored enough as it is) living in America. I want more stories about complicated identities like this!
I stayed interested in the book because it was a refreshing twist on the classic novel, but y’all, let me tell you how much I didn’t know I have grown to dislike the common game in romances, both page and screen, of let’s find people who don’t have anything in common and start out hating each other, insert some fierce sexual tension, and make them fall in love, because that’s how real life works.
This is just the adult version of “If a boy likes you, he will physically and emotionally harm you.” Boys will be boys, after all.
Please take this as a critique on the troupe, rather than the novel itself. We need different voices contributing stories because there are more experiences than white, cis-het, affluent, able-bodied individuals. And someone, still trying to figure out who (white supremacy, maybe?), keeps telling us that we, the mainstream, won’t “relate” to any other stories.
Before I start my rant, I just want to say that it was also fascinating reading about a racially and ethnically complicated character that was more than a half black, half white person (which is still a really complex identity who’s nuances aren’t explored enough as it is) living in America. I want more stories about complicated identities like this!
I stayed interested in the book because it was a refreshing twist on the classic novel, but y’all, let me tell you how much I didn’t know I have grown to dislike the common game in romances, both page and screen, of let’s find people who don’t have anything in common and start out hating each other, insert some fierce sexual tension, and make them fall in love, because that’s how real life works.
This is just the adult version of “If a boy likes you, he will physically and emotionally harm you.” Boys will be boys, after all.
Please take this as a critique on the troupe, rather than the novel itself. We need different voices contributing stories because there are more experiences than white, cis-het, affluent, able-bodied individuals. And someone, still trying to figure out who (white supremacy, maybe?), keeps telling us that we, the mainstream, won’t “relate” to any other stories.