Scan barcode
A review by jzmiao
Meg and Jo by Virginia Kantra
3.0
i was between 2 and 3 stars, and i think it was ultimately pushed to a 3 star rating just out of my goodwill for little women.
in all fairness, i think taking on a modern retelling of little women is a tall order, and i admit any retelling would have to clear high expectations. i have to admire the author’s guts to do it. however, i think i was let down because the author didn’t seem to take much advantage of the modern setting. i know i’m probably biased but a modern retelling seems like the perfect opportunity to explore jo’s sexuality and maybe even introduce a queer relationship. instead, the new storylines are to do with laurie (trey in this version) being a douche and the father being a dick. sure, the original version mostly skimmed over the relationship with the father so i could see the potential in exploring that more. it just didn’t feel like the end result added much or changed our perceptions of the characters. meg’s struggle with internalizing her gendered role as martyr/homemaker is probably shared by many women, but i personally was not compelled by it.
i was also deeply frustrated by the fact that so much of the conflict driving the plot revolves around meg and jo being awful at communicating with their partners. once or twice, i could understand, but their inability to talk to their partners is what carries a lot of the plot in the first half. you would think a retelling that focuses mostly on their adult lives rather than their childhoods would feature them…behaving like adults?
in all fairness, i think taking on a modern retelling of little women is a tall order, and i admit any retelling would have to clear high expectations. i have to admire the author’s guts to do it. however, i think i was let down because the author didn’t seem to take much advantage of the modern setting. i know i’m probably biased but a modern retelling seems like the perfect opportunity to explore jo’s sexuality and maybe even introduce a queer relationship. instead, the new storylines are to do with laurie (trey in this version) being a douche and the father being a dick. sure, the original version mostly skimmed over the relationship with the father so i could see the potential in exploring that more. it just didn’t feel like the end result added much or changed our perceptions of the characters. meg’s struggle with internalizing her gendered role as martyr/homemaker is probably shared by many women, but i personally was not compelled by it.
i was also deeply frustrated by the fact that so much of the conflict driving the plot revolves around meg and jo being awful at communicating with their partners. once or twice, i could understand, but their inability to talk to their partners is what carries a lot of the plot in the first half. you would think a retelling that focuses mostly on their adult lives rather than their childhoods would feature them…behaving like adults?