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A review by thetamari
Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
3.0
I think any reader would approach the Austen Project adaptations as something that's a bit of fun. Clearly, no one is really going to out-do what Jane Austen originally did, rather, the contemporary authors are going to pay homage to the beloved classics, work in a bit of their own style, and explore some similarities and differences between the eras of Regency characters and their updated counterparts. I was excited to read this book as soon as I saw that Northanger Abbey was moving up into Scotland and the Edinburgh Festival was subbing in for Bath. I have to confess, my knowledge of NA comes entirely from watching a recent TV adaptation and references to NA in other books like the Jane Austen Book Club. Which might be just as well, because maybe I wasn't as invested in McDermid's treatment of the original material.
This book is quite readable, but not without its issues. The author's grasp of modern teen language was pretty embarrassing and often unrealistic. In some cases, she's using the text-speak to make the point that certain characters are insufferably dim (Bella Thorpe, with her attachment to "totes"), but generally with her modern Cat Morland, I think she just doesn't get it. Modern Cat is still 17, and as an explanation for her naïveté of character which drives the story, McDermid has made her home-schooled. Cat is still attached to her phone and social media though, which plays an important role in showing the social interaction at the heart of Austen comedy. This gets pretty tiring though, as the characters are always mentioning "Facebook and Twitter" (in that order) in a way that doesn't seem entirely natural. It's as if the author thought of social media and using textspeak as being a really novel and funny way of updating the material, but it just makes her stand out as someone who doesn't especially understand that generation or zeitgeist. McDermid does use the Twilight series as this version's Mysteries of Udolpho, which I think translates rather well.
Another issue was not changing the characters' ages, while having them still be so invested in marriage. Teenagers from today who are thinking about marrying the first person they fall in love with is culturally weird. I also wondered about Henry Tilney being that interested in a seventeen year old, when he'd at least be in his mid twenties. She's a bit young, bro.
As for the promised "frisson" that crime writer McDermid is supposed to bring to this retelling, it comes mainly in the form of Cat and Henry using the word "frisson" repeatedly throughout the book. There's no sense of menace or thrill whatsoever.
This book is quite readable, but not without its issues. The author's grasp of modern teen language was pretty embarrassing and often unrealistic. In some cases, she's using the text-speak to make the point that certain characters are insufferably dim (Bella Thorpe, with her attachment to "totes"), but generally with her modern Cat Morland, I think she just doesn't get it. Modern Cat is still 17, and as an explanation for her naïveté of character which drives the story, McDermid has made her home-schooled. Cat is still attached to her phone and social media though, which plays an important role in showing the social interaction at the heart of Austen comedy. This gets pretty tiring though, as the characters are always mentioning "Facebook and Twitter" (in that order) in a way that doesn't seem entirely natural. It's as if the author thought of social media and using textspeak as being a really novel and funny way of updating the material, but it just makes her stand out as someone who doesn't especially understand that generation or zeitgeist. McDermid does use the Twilight series as this version's Mysteries of Udolpho, which I think translates rather well.
Another issue was not changing the characters' ages, while having them still be so invested in marriage. Teenagers from today who are thinking about marrying the first person they fall in love with is culturally weird. I also wondered about Henry Tilney being that interested in a seventeen year old, when he'd at least be in his mid twenties. She's a bit young, bro.
As for the promised "frisson" that crime writer McDermid is supposed to bring to this retelling, it comes mainly in the form of Cat and Henry using the word "frisson" repeatedly throughout the book. There's no sense of menace or thrill whatsoever.