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A review by esdeecarlson
The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker
2.0
2.5 stars.
I just didn't find the characters in this book all that compelling. The 'Hufflepuff/Slytherin' romance everyone's enjoying felt a little one-note to me, and honestly Freddy's personality, bumping between happy-go-lucky and hand-wringing, was a little grating to me. I also felt that Freddy and Griff clicked perfectly far too soon in the book, forcing the author to bombard them with outside aggravations.
And for a story that ends delivering a quote about how no one's really a villain, and everyone has many facets to themselves, this story had a cardboard cutout of a villain in Sadie, who just gave me a headache to read about. Perhaps it's because the story is told from Freddy and Griff's (both very shallow) points of view, but I found myself rolling my eyes whenever Sadie was introduced. The foreshadowing to the next book, which is focused on Freddy's sister Sabrina, felt heavy-handed and time-consuming as well.
I wish that the catty drama between the West End actors and movie stars had been cut significantly, and more time was spent slowly developing Freddy and Griff's personalities and relationships in the mystery hunt for the truth about their grandparents. I think the interpersonal drama between shallow side characters that bumble violently into the main storyline just isn't my cup of tea.
The story builds up to a big moral decision that Freddy feels she must make, but she's prevented from making that decision by other people finding out about the thing she must tell them almost immediately after she discovers it herself, which is a bit deflating. Her moral hand-wringing is also colored by an event from her past, which is hugely built up and then, once explained to Griff, immediately resolved. In fact, pretty much all conflicts between Freddy and Griff are immediately resolved, and solved by trust and true love. It makes for kind of a bumpy, unsatisfying story.
That said, the book has some fun qualities: the prose is hilarious, Griff's brother was a delight, and Tara's best friend Akiko was a breath of fresh air. I'm very open to reading more of Lucy Parker; I think Griff and Freddy just didn't do it for me.
I just didn't find the characters in this book all that compelling. The 'Hufflepuff/Slytherin' romance everyone's enjoying felt a little one-note to me, and honestly Freddy's personality, bumping between happy-go-lucky and hand-wringing, was a little grating to me. I also felt that Freddy and Griff clicked perfectly far too soon in the book, forcing the author to bombard them with outside aggravations.
And for a story that ends delivering a quote about how no one's really a villain, and everyone has many facets to themselves, this story had a cardboard cutout of a villain in Sadie, who just gave me a headache to read about. Perhaps it's because the story is told from Freddy and Griff's (both very shallow) points of view, but I found myself rolling my eyes whenever Sadie was introduced. The foreshadowing to the next book, which is focused on Freddy's sister Sabrina, felt heavy-handed and time-consuming as well.
I wish that the catty drama between the West End actors and movie stars had been cut significantly, and more time was spent slowly developing Freddy and Griff's personalities and relationships in the mystery hunt for the truth about their grandparents. I think the interpersonal drama between shallow side characters that bumble violently into the main storyline just isn't my cup of tea.
The story builds up to a big moral decision that Freddy feels she must make, but she's prevented from making that decision by other people finding out about the thing she must tell them almost immediately after she discovers it herself, which is a bit deflating. Her moral hand-wringing is also colored by an event from her past, which is hugely built up and then, once explained to Griff, immediately resolved. In fact, pretty much all conflicts between Freddy and Griff are immediately resolved, and solved by trust and true love. It makes for kind of a bumpy, unsatisfying story.
That said, the book has some fun qualities: the prose is hilarious, Griff's brother was a delight, and Tara's best friend Akiko was a breath of fresh air. I'm very open to reading more of Lucy Parker; I think Griff and Freddy just didn't do it for me.