Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Quain's witty debut, a Pride and Prejudice remix, white high school junior Georgiana Darcy struggles to rebuild her reputation following a disastrous sophomore year. When Georgie's former boyfriend, white Wickham Foster, is caught dealing Adderall from her dorm room at esteemed Pemberley Academy, it's a surprise to everyone, including herself, that she doesn't get expelled. But "brother-equivalent of a helicopter parent" Fitzwilliam--Georgie's legal guardian after gaining emancipated minor status from their perpetually absent mother three years prior--persuades the academy to keep her enrolled. Navigating societal expectations surrounding her family name, and the student body's ire, she finds an unlikely ally in senior and handsome trombonist Avery Simmons, also white. The two develop a plan to patch up Georgie's crumbling social status, which includes setting Fitz up with self-assured Lizzie Bennet, even as Wickham tries inserting himself back into Georgie's life. The rapid-fire banter, while good-humored, occasionally stalls forward momentum, and situations surrounding the Darcys' financial privilege are left largely unexamined, but hard-earned character development and dynamic relationships are keenly explored. Quain uses the source material's infrastructure to establish the narrative's stakes and emotional gravity while skillfully setting it apart from its Austenian roots. Ages 13--up. Agent: Moe Ferrara, Bookends. (July)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up--A light boarding school YA with a light Pride and Prejudice flavor. Georgie Darcy is back at Pemberley Academy for her junior year despite The Incident with Wickham Foster that almost got her expelled. She hopes to repair her reputation and her relationship with her brother (and guardian) Fitz, but the return of manipulative drug dealer Wickham is making it difficult. The two make a deal--if she can get back in her brother's good graces, ex-boyfriend Wickham will leave her alone. She decides to play matchmaker to her overbearing brother so that she can devote her time to becoming the perfect Darcy. Charlie Bingley and Lizzie Bennet make appearances, but it's really the fleshing out of Georgie's tale that makes this contemporary retelling a fun read for non-purist Janeites. Character development isn't always consistent, and the charming tone sometimes clashes with the more serious aspects of the novel--Georgie's low self-esteem and desperate attempts to fit in her family, Wickham's sinister gaslighting of the younger girl. However, the heroine's reckoning with her own racial and class privilege is refreshing, and her complicated but loving relationship with her brother is a shining point. All the main characters are assumed white. VERDICT The novel plays fast and loose with the plot of Jane Austen's beloved classic, but for fans of boarding school dramas and rom-coms, this fits the bill.--Shelley M. Diaz
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Georgiana Darcy from Pride and Prejudice is here reimagined as a contemporary American heiress looking for her own source of pride. Sixteen-year-old Georgie starts her junior year at swanky boarding school Pemberley Academy isolated and ostracized after last year's scandal in which her brother, Fitzwilliam, caught her bad-boy boyfriend, Wickham, dealing Adderall from her dorm room. Now Fitz, 19, has transferred from Caltech back to New York to attend the local state university campus and keep an eye on her. Their father is dead, and their mother took off, handing over legal guardianship of Georgie to emancipated minor Fitz three years ago. Embarrassed, lonely, and struggling to believe herself a suitable representative of the Darcy name, Georgie embarks on an ill-conceived plan to use her family's considerable funds to attract a girlfriend for Fitz and make herself some friends. Her schemes backfire--and Wickham is still lurking. Quain's debut follows in the footsteps of many Austen remixes but adheres only loosely to the original's plot in which Georgiana is a minor character. Unfortunately, the pieces don't all mesh, especially the emotional notes: Though now overprotective, Fitz supposedly ignored Georgie the previous year, and that element plus their mother's abandonment are treated a touch too lightly. Wickham also gets dealt with too easily. Georgie's cluelessness about the depths of her financial privilege grates despite a mitigating lecture from Fitz. Main characters are White. A take on a classic that doesn't quite gel. (Fiction. 12-16) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
