The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY PICK FOR 2023
A "witty, magical, romantic and altogether brilliant" (Lev Grossman) reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, told from the perspective of the troublesome and—according to her—much-maligned youngest Bennet sister, Lydia.
In this exuberant retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Lydia Bennet puts pen to paper to relate the real events and aftermath of the classic story. Some facts are well known: Mrs. Bennet suffers from her nerves, Mr. Bennet suffers from Mrs. Bennet, and all five daughters suffer from an estate that is entailed only to male heirs.
But Lydia also suffers from entirely different concerns: her best-loved sister Kitty is really a barn cat; Wickham is every bit as wicked as the world believes him to be, but what else would one expect from a demon? And if Mr. Darcy is uptight about etiquette, that’s nothing compared to his feelings about magic. Most of all, Lydia has yet to learn that for a witch, promises have power . . .
Full of enchantment, intrigue, and boundless magic, The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch, has all the irreverent wit, strength, and romance of Pride and Prejudice—while offering a highly unexpected redemption for the wildest Bennet sister.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Taub (Still Star-Crossed) makes her adult debut with a clumsy fantasy remix of Pride and Prejudice. Most of the book is presented as a long letter that Lydia, the youngest and flightiest Bennet daughter, is writing to a purposefully obfuscated correspondent about her life story, including her discovery of her magical powers and subsequent use of them to turn her cat familiar into her human sister Kitty, her unthinking bargain with the demonic dragon Wormenheart, and her "elopement" with Mr. Wickham, who here is reimagined as Wormenheart's demonic son. Meanwhile, in the frame narrative, Lydia befriends Georgiana Darcy, who, in a bizarre defiance of canon, is at school in Newcastle, where Wickham's regiment is stationed. Unfortunately, the momentum of this frame plot relies entirely on Mr. Darcy making nonsensical choices, the Austen pastiche is stilted, and Taub favors a flowery style ("Young ladies are met with prognostications of doom for the slightest transgression, and I feel that is unwise"), which creates some dissonance between the narrative voice and the characterization of Lydia. The witchy conceit is fun enough that all this might be forgivable, but the novel's worst failing is its treatment of the lone character of color, who is transfigured partway through into a magical rock and must be saved by Lydia. Given the proliferation of Austen retellings, readers will be better served elsewhere.
