The Other Bennet Sister

"Mary Bennett, the pedantic, bespectacled middle sister to lovely Jane, sparkling Elizabeth, and tempestuous Lydia finally gets the book she deserves in this insightful novel. Although Mary has been the heroine of at least <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2624545761?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1">three decidedly inferior adaptions</a> , Hadlow is the first to explore her inner struggles without succumbing to the temptation of making her into a brilliant, misunderstood artiste.<br/><br/>Hadlow succeeds where others have failed by looking seriously at how Mary is treated in <i>P&P</i>, and the psychological damage she endures from our beloved Bennett characters. Keenly aware of her physical imperfections, Mary is bullied by her mother, mocked by her father, teased by her younger sisters and ignored by her older ones. Her father's rejection is particularly painful; noting how much he values scholarship, Mary determines to earn his respect and perhaps affection by doggedly preparing extracts from serious books, only to incur further mockery, joined by his beloved Elizabeth. The moment Mary realize her father will never love her the way he does Lizzie is heartbreaking.<br/><br/>After presenting an alternative view of the events in <i>P&P</i> from Mary's perspective, the novel takes her to London for a stay with the lovable Gardiner family. Removed at last from her sisters' competition, Mary begins to bloom, attracting the attention of 2 likely marriage prospects. Unfortunately, at this point the story begins to resemble a traditional Regency romance, full of dinner table flirtations, awkwardly obvious misunderstandings, and significant glances while roaming across the hillsides. Hadlow manages to work plot points from several Austen novels into Mary's saga: she is nearly bullied into becoming a governess, (<i>Emma</i>) flirts delightfully with a young man who understands women' fabrics, (<i>Northanger Abbey</i>) meets another with dangerous ideas about poetry, passion and ignoring social conventions (<i>Sense and Sensibility</i>) and faces down an arrogant woman determined to ruin her happiness (<i>P&P</i>).<br/><br/>Despite a few linguistic anachronisms (I can't believe genteel Mrs Gardiner would exclaim "Lord no!" so often) Hadlow does a terrific job of presenting Mary's unenviable situation in a sympathetic light. As an unmarried woman with no beauty, fortune or marriage prospects, her desperate attempts to distinguish herself seem less ridiculous, and her growth into a serious, thoughtful young woman worthy of love is a tale to gratify the heart."

"I’ve always loved the story of Pride and Prejudice but this was like a sequel in the prospective of the sister Mary. Her story is left untold in the original story but this book goes on to tell what happened in her perspective and I just completely fell in love with this novel! "

"A must read for any Pride and Prejudice fans."

"The first part of the book felt like Pride and Prejudice spark notes condensed down almost solely to Mary's POV. Instead of Jane Austen's range of characters, we had a lot of very tiresome inner monologue. It would have benefited from less P&P copy and paste and more original content. I will say that the author did a good job of giving Mary's actions in the original more purpose and meaning. That's perhaps the only compliment I can give this book... <br/><br/>Though it did improve when we moved past P&P and jumped ahead two years. New characters were introduced and Mary came into her own. However, the tiring inner thoughts were still prevalent. It's the age old show don't tell. In this book there were a lot of telling. This author does not have Jane Austen's ability to set up lively scenes and scenarios that convey the character's thoughts and feelings. Instead, she had to explain them in very boring detail. <br/><br/>My last criticism was with the love interest William. He was alright but nothing special and he never really stood apart from anyone else. There was never anything like Darcy saving Lydia or Mr. Knightly dancing with Harriet to showcase him as a person. Heck even Willoughby saved Marianne. I think the author tried to emulate Mr. Knightly when William left Mary so that another man could make an offer but it fell entirely flat because whereas Mr. Knightly thought Emma in love with Frank, William himself admitted he could tell she was hurt when he pulled away. Instead, the other man was lately very rich which implies William felt Mary was a golddigger... Not a great opinion of someone you supposedly love. Instead of attempting to at least make sure Mary even liked the other guy he ran off like a coward and left Mary in a very awkward position of having to refuse the only offer of marriage she'd ever received on the slight hope he might one day come back. This is not the action of an Austen protagonist. He also suffered when the author, in 21st century revisionist fashion empowered her female protagonist to be the one to confess and lay her feelings bare first. This was the final straw for me. The mistaken notion that women must go completely against convention in order to prove themselves as strong grates on me like nothing else. All of the women Austen wrote about were strong and showed that strength. It also completely destroyed any lingering hope I had that William might redeem himself by finally having an iota of bravery. Nope he was a coward to the end. <br/>There were many ways the author could have shown Mary's growth and strength without completely destroying her male character's own fortitude but she took the easy way out and made the woman of her story undertake the tasks usually done by the men at that time. A common but extremely lazy practice that implies women must become men in order to do anything important. Maybe it seems empowering but really it's just insulting. <br/>If this book didn't live in the shadow of Jane Austen's legacy it might have been more palatable but the author chose to insert herself into the Austen world and therefore the comparisons are inescapable. There's nothing left for me to do but pick up my copy of P&P, or should i say one of my copies for there are several ;) and try to forget this disappointment."

"I now consider this book canon now. Definitely a top 5 of the year for me. Very authentic to Austen."

"I, unfairly, went into this book not expecting to enjoy it, but picked it up anyway to fulfill a prompt on a reading challenge. I distinctly remember making fun of this book with my friend in a barnes and noble in high school, since I thought the premise alone was a nonstarter. I was pleasantly surprised though, and it put Pride and Prejudice in a new light for me. I think this book absolutely delivered with the MC and she had a very well defined path and motivations. However, there were some moments where the plot lines were a little too close to home (P&P) and there were a lot of tongue in cheek quotes from the original work that I wish had been omitted. As much as I love Pride and Prejudice, I think this should have been allowed to be its own story. Then again, maybe I just hate fun or something lol."

"Beautifully written with characters I could identify and relate to."

"My favorite book of 2020!"

"A great, fun read if you love Jane Austen. A pleasure to revisit that world, with thoughtful and satisfying additional insights."