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mervalkn 's review for:

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
3.0

whatever the historical equivalent of a wattpad story is but the heroine is stupid and nothing really happens

half of this was catherine speaking to really obnoxious people and misunderstanding their intentions, which i liked, miscommunication is one of my fav tropes but at some point it got flustrating. she went through every canon event a naive teenage girl has to go through, first love, first long trip, first friendship breakup and in every situation she manages to be taken advantage of

the other half is jane austen directly telling you how things wouldve went if this was a more interesting story and proceeding to show that nothing happens. she develops a crush on someone she danced with at a party and he suddenly disappears. no no hes actually just fine and invites her to their house to visit him and his family. zero inconveniences on the road, everything goes perfectly well. i wonder what secrets are hidden in this big gothic house. she finds a mysterious box. nothing in it. mysterious roll of paper. its just a washing bill. could the general be a murderer? nah. shes just a normal teenage girl going through normal teenage girl things. i could do without the satire really. at the end theyre like "these events completely changed her she is now a different person!!!" but was it really worth writing a book about? maybe i wouldve enjoyed it more if i genuinely liked any of the characters