forpeterssake reviewed Being Mary Bennett by J.C. Peterson
Young adult romance fluff with a little bit of self-improvement substance to make it worth reading
3 stars
I picked this up not realizing it was a Young Adult novel, but I read it anyway and enjoyed it for what it was worth. The title is a reference to the unlikeable younger sister of the protagonist in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and the book begins with a realization by the narrator that she is more like Mary Bennett—off-putting, pedantic, uptight, anti-social—than the heroine of that story. She vows to change, and has some help along the way by an unreasonably supportive roommate, a new friend, and large, chaotic family.
This story follows in the well-trod footsteps of many a YA novel before it. The young protagonist lurches from one awkward scene to the next, with a forced rollercoaster of highs and lows and a series of decisions that don't always make sense, but seem to be necessary to get to the outrageous scene in the following …
I picked this up not realizing it was a Young Adult novel, but I read it anyway and enjoyed it for what it was worth. The title is a reference to the unlikeable younger sister of the protagonist in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and the book begins with a realization by the narrator that she is more like Mary Bennett—off-putting, pedantic, uptight, anti-social—than the heroine of that story. She vows to change, and has some help along the way by an unreasonably supportive roommate, a new friend, and large, chaotic family.
This story follows in the well-trod footsteps of many a YA novel before it. The young protagonist lurches from one awkward scene to the next, with a forced rollercoaster of highs and lows and a series of decisions that don't always make sense, but seem to be necessary to get to the outrageous scene in the following chapter or scene. Where it rises above the genre, I think, is the premise of a young person realizing she wasn't on the path she wanted to be, and working hard to expand her horizons, try new things, and become a person she's more proud of. It's a journey a lot of younger (or older) readers can relate to. As the book highlights towards the end, we're all the main character of our own story, and if you aren't a "Lizzie Bennett" (to use the Pride & Prejudice example) then you can change yourself or change the story for your own goals.
I never did get very "into" the romance portion of this book, but it was pleasant enough, and chaste to the point of almost Victorian standards. One of the main goals of the protagonist—to win a school prize—seemed like a forced MacGuffin that neither I nor the protagonist cared about after a while, although the final stage of that process ended in a rom-com public declaration of a different sort that subverted my expectations. The small circus worth of family members were hard to keep straight, but there were a few characters (particularly the sister who was a stand-in for Lydia Bennett from Pride & Prejudice) that I thought would have a bigger role and about whom I wanted to know more. It wasn't a perfect book, but it wasn't bad, and the breezy pace made it an easy book to pick up and finish quickly.