Debating Darcy
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
This Pride & Prejudice retelling brings New York Times bestselling Sayantani DasGupta’s trademark wit and insight to her bright and funny YA debut!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Leela Bose plays to win.
A life-long speech competitor, Leela loves nothing more than crushing the competition, all while wearing a smile. But when she meets the incorrigible Firoze Darcy, a debater from an elitist private school, Leela can’t stand him. Unfortunately, he’ll be competing in the state league, so their paths are set to collide.
But why attempt to tolerate Firoze when Leela can one-up him? The situation is more complicated than Leela anticipated, though, and her participation in the tournament reveals that she might have tragically misjudged the debaters -- including Firoze Darcy -- and more than just her own winning streak is at stake…her heart is, too.
Debating Darcy is bestselling author Sayantani DasGupta’s reinterpretation of beloved classic Pride and Prejudice -- imaginative, hilarious, thought-provoking, and truly reflective of the complex, diverse world of American high school culture.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An almost scene-for-scene reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, DasGupta's (Force of Fire) YA debut centers two Desi protagonists in the high-stakes world of high school forensics. After encountering Netherfield Academy's debater Firoze Darcy, a senior of Pakistani descent, public school speech phenom and theater nerd Leela Bose finds herself reeling from his dismissal. Standing in for the source material's Bennet family, Leela's multiethnic speech team tackles competitions instead of balls. Leela soon feels an easy kinship with Wickham analog Jishnu Waddedar—a debater and fellow Bengali from military academy Regimental, with whom she shares a cultural upbringing. But when Jishnu betrays Leela, first lying about his relationship to Firoze and then sexually harassing Leela's teammate Lidia, the latter incident provides an opening for the teens to publicly address the misogyny that young women face on the circuit. Studded with references to U.S. and South Asian pop culture as well as Jane Austen–related Easter eggs, DasGupta's astute, buoyant comedy of manners employs witty, rat-a-tat dialogue alongside social commentary about subjects including classism, colorism, and sexism. Ages 12–up.
