I don’t understand the point of having kept some of the aspects of Jane Austen’s story for the sake of mirroring it. Brooding, rich love interest? Big misunderstanding? Cousin who’s an ass and will inherit the house and ends up with someone who’s not one of the five girls? Check. Pride felt like it took the plot of the original story and turned it into a checklist (several sisters? Check. She points out hypocrisy and slanders characters while using beautiful prose. What I love most about Jane Austen’s work, and Pride and Prejudice especially, is how she has a critical, social undertone to her romances. While having its merits (I will describe them below), in the end I was disappointed by the book. I will start by saying that maybe my expectations here too high, and maybe from not knowing Ibi Zoboi’s other work, I had come too blind into the book. Still, she finds herself asking if what she feels for him is really hate. When a rich black family moves into the big house across her street, she does not expect to like them in fact, the younger son, tall and brooding Darius, is quite insufferable. Pride tells the story of Zuri Benitez,who grew up in Bushwick and wants to stop the rapidly gentrification of her neighborhood. This was among my most anticipated books of 2018, a Pride and Prejudice retelling with gentrification, black main characters, and this gorgeous, gorgeous cover. I have received this book via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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