sarful's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood to love this like I wanted to.
A PandP Remix. The Bennett Sisters becomes the Benitez Sisters, Afro-Latinas from Brooklyn. Very cool concept. And overall there was a lot to appreciate.
I enjoyed all the nuances of Zuri’s side of Brooklyn. The author describes the neighborhood in loving detail.
However...
the details seemed to be a bit overwhelming at times as to be trying too hard. At least for me. I got it, she’s from the ‘hood and she loves it, got the first time. And if you’re not from the ‘hood, you have no business being around her.
I wanted to like Zuri, but her pride, prejudice and hypocrisy was like being slapped in the face almost every page. She acts like she’s better than everyone throughout the book then melts so quickly when Darius kisses her. I got whiplash. I feel maybe not enough of a connection was made between the two. Darius never felt fleshed out nor do I understand why Zuri lets him get away with never standing up for her really, ever.
And as for Janae and Ainsley, that reunion was awkward and way too quick to be believable. For me.
A PandP Remix. The Bennett Sisters becomes the Benitez Sisters, Afro-Latinas from Brooklyn. Very cool concept. And overall there was a lot to appreciate.
I enjoyed all the nuances of Zuri’s side of Brooklyn. The author describes the neighborhood in loving detail.
However...
the details seemed to be a bit overwhelming at times as to be trying too hard. At least for me. I got it, she’s from the ‘hood and she loves it, got the first time. And if you’re not from the ‘hood, you have no business being around her.
I wanted to like Zuri, but her pride, prejudice and hypocrisy was like being slapped in the face almost every page. She acts like she’s better than everyone throughout the book then melts so quickly when Darius kisses her. I got whiplash. I feel maybe not enough of a connection was made between the two. Darius never felt fleshed out nor do I understand why Zuri lets him get away with never standing up for her really, ever.
And as for Janae and Ainsley, that reunion was awkward and way too quick to be believable. For me.
dlberglund's review against another edition
4.0
Full disclosure and confession: I have never completed a single Jane Austen novel or even a Jane Austen movie. It's not ever been my jam, and I have always been a little embarrassed that I don't love Austen. I've tried other retellings and still not latched onto it. End of confession.
I really really liked Pride by Ibi Zoboi. Other than the first line, and the fact that there are characters with the last name Darcy, I have no idea how much of the original is in Zoboi's version. I can't write an essay comparing the two or analyzing Zoboi's choices. But this book was great. It successfully gives a complex picture of gentrification and the effects on different families. The sisters are close and are still represented as individuals. Zuri, our main character, knows herself and knows how to speak up for her neighborhood and her family. I cared about all of them, and because I had no idea how the book was "supposed" to end, I was invested in everything that happened along the way.
Bonus: Elizabeth Acevedo reads the audiobook, and she is fantastic.
I really really liked Pride by Ibi Zoboi. Other than the first line, and the fact that there are characters with the last name Darcy, I have no idea how much of the original is in Zoboi's version. I can't write an essay comparing the two or analyzing Zoboi's choices. But this book was great. It successfully gives a complex picture of gentrification and the effects on different families. The sisters are close and are still represented as individuals. Zuri, our main character, knows herself and knows how to speak up for her neighborhood and her family. I cared about all of them, and because I had no idea how the book was "supposed" to end, I was invested in everything that happened along the way.
Bonus: Elizabeth Acevedo reads the audiobook, and she is fantastic.
kpeeps111's review
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
pamelina's review against another edition
3.0
3/5
this was cute! it kinda reminded me of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube. twas adorbs
I was really enjoying this book at first and fully expected this to be a 4 or 5 star read. unfortunately I just never really connected with Darius and wasn't able to support him and ZZ together. I was honestly going through the story thinking that ZZ deserved better than Darius
this was cute! it kinda reminded me of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube. twas adorbs
I was really enjoying this book at first and fully expected this to be a 4 or 5 star read. unfortunately I just never really connected with Darius and wasn't able to support him and ZZ together. I was honestly going through the story thinking that ZZ deserved better than Darius
burstnwithbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I quite enjoy Ibi Zoboi’s writing, and I REALLY love Elizabeth Acevedo’s narration. Seriously, I would listen to that woman read her grocery list. Or mine, for that matter. I’ll definitely check out more from both of them.
figurativemango's review
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Loved reading this book! It was insightful and I learned about different cultures and about the East side of the U.S. Very engaging spin on Pride and Prejudice in a more diverse, modern way. Always nice to see representation! Also really liked the couples/leads, was rooting for them since the beginning!
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content
Spoiler
mentions "sexy photoscolin_cox's review against another edition
4.0
Ibi Zoboi's Pride is a contemporary adaptation of Jane Austen's canonical text, Pride and Prejudice. As Linda Hutcheon might suggest, Zoboi "openly announces this relationship" between texts on several occasions. For example, Pride begins with language that certainly borrows from Austen, but what matters more is how it departs from Austen's text by emphasizing the distinct racial dynamics that define the narrative and dramatic tension in Pride. Zoboi writes, "It's a truth universally acknowledged that when rich people move into the hood, where it's a little bit broken and a little bit forgotten, the first thing they want to do is clean it up" (1). Pride and Pride and Prejudice are about change, but by transforming early 19th-century class sensibilities into contemporary anxieties about race and gentrification, Zoboi shows how dynamic and interconnected seemingly disparate texts are. Said another way, the past, like the texts we adapt, haunt us. Hutcheon characterizes this dynamic by suggesting that "Although adaptations are also aesthetic objects in their own right, it is only as inherently double or multi-laminated works that they can be theorized as adaptations" (6). This "doubling" implies the layering effect at play in any adaptation. Austen's Pride and Prejudice is about a young, intelligent white woman who confronts the ways in which her society disproportionately favor individuals of a particular class in possession of a particular amount of money. Pride retains the socio-economics of Pride and Prejudice, but it adds race. This is a critical distinction, and not under any circumstances new, but the joy of Pride appears in those moments when it appropriates a canonical text that is overwhelmingly white and makes it black. This is a process that Hutcheon might describe as "Local particulars become transplanted to new ground" (150). For Pride, this "new ground" is both literal and figurative; white becomes black, the English countryside becomes a gentrified neighborhood in Brooklyn.
Too often, when people think about adaptation, they assume the adaptation inferior even subordinate because it willingly acknowledges its relationship in the marketplace of texts and ideas. At times, this is a fair critique, but this is not the case with Ibi Zoboi's Pride. Unlike some adaptations that seem to collapse under the weight of the adapted text in question, Pride transcends it.
Too often, when people think about adaptation, they assume the adaptation inferior even subordinate because it willingly acknowledges its relationship in the marketplace of texts and ideas. At times, this is a fair critique, but this is not the case with Ibi Zoboi's Pride. Unlike some adaptations that seem to collapse under the weight of the adapted text in question, Pride transcends it.
jadas_pages_'s review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5