A review by fallenquills
Lady Susan by Jane Austen

fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

three main takeaways:
  1. letters as a medium for story-telling is actually wonderful and should be done more
  2. i would never survive in high society if all its about is the ceaseless looping of drama
  3. everyone in this book sucks except maybe frederica

being an epistolary novel was probably the most enjoyable aspect of this book, which had me flipping back to earlier letters to red string my way through all the connections. lady susan herself is thoroughly horrid, as i'm sure was the intent, and seeing her from other POVs was also interesting. knowing that this was one of Jane Austen's earlier works makes it somewhat more palettable, however i'm just generally not a fan of the way things concluded. and after the last book i read (The Vegetarian by Han Kang), this unfortunately just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings