A review by tanya_tate
Pride by Ibi Zoboi

5.0

Bring my review back up since it's out today!
Review

You can also read it on my blog!

Expected Pub Date: September 18th 2018 

I received a copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Five Stars!! 

Before I finally write this review of this wonderful book before it comes out ( while juggling my memory since it's been four months since I read it while being sick)I have a confession to make. 

Confession : I have never read Pride and Prejudice. I have been meaning too cause I have like this nice annoted paperback version of it that my sister bough for me in high school for my Lit class but we never did. We just ending up watching the Keira Knightley version which I told my whole class what was going on.  I mean when you have a sister who loves Jane Austen   and was exposed to other versions early. lol  

Before you grab your bonnets and your pearls, I have watched a lot of adaptions of P&P that I did follow along with this perfectly. 

I have watched 

The Collin Firth Version

The Keira Knightley Version 

Lizzie Bennet Daries 

Bride and Prejudice ( How the fuck I missed that one!)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 

I just thought about it! I did read a version of P&P but it was in manga form. Haha! 

So Pride, as you can tell from my confession is a retelling or as Ms. Zoboi is calling it, a remix of Pride and Prejudice in the Streets of Brooklyn following the Bentiez family.  Zuri Bentiez ,( aka our Elizabeth) the second oldest Bentiez sister is a 17-year-old Afro Latina girl who has pride in her roots and trying to navigate the streets of her home as much she trying to navigate her life.  She loves her older sister,Jaene ( our Jane) who has been off to college but is home for the summer to death. She has two younger sisters who she loves but sometimes want to strangle. Also dealing with her loving Mom who loves to cook as much she's trying to hook her two oldest daughters up. ( Mrs. Bennet in the flesh)  She aspires to be a poet and wants to go to college so she can spread her  wings. Things started to change when her neighborhood got new wealthy neighbors, the Darcy family. A wealthy up to do family who fixed an old collapsed in apartment building and turned into a mansion. The Darcy's have two sons, Ainsley (Bingley)and Darius ( Our darling Fritzwilliam Darcy) ( Yeah they are brothers in this version which I'm going to talk about later). While Anisley who is very charming and easy-going around others and to her sister,Daruis  is a very uptight 17-year-old who thinks everyone doesn't have good intentions and doesn't think very highly of people. In other words,he's a straight asshole but have a reason why he's like that which Zuri doesn't know.  Zuri first thinks she hates him and thinks she know what exactly what he is but as she get to know him and see what he truly is ( which is not really an asshole) she start to question her pride and her feelings as well. While learning that the boy she thought she knew cause he grew up on her hood, Warren ( aka our Wickham) is not the person he's all cracked up to be.  Also while also dealing with the perceptive of maybe leaving her neighborhood sooner than she thought she would. 

So here's the main reason why I put my confession down and give it a five-star. Even though I haven't read P&P, I had enough information from watching  some adaptations to follow the plot. I think even a person who wasn't familiar with P& P would be able to understand cause Ms. Zoboi's does an amazing job taking the original material and making it her own. She modernization this great piece of literature for the next generation. I can't give two much spoilers but I love her spin on the proposal scene and her take on Darcy Letter to Lizzie about the truth about Wickham. Those are two iconic scenes in the books and the adaptations and she take them to another level.

One thing I didn't like was the fact she made her Darcy and Bringley brothers instead of just friends in this book cause it changes the dynamics of the two characters. It should be for the better but it certain things that happen between two characters which is the reason why Darcy the way he is to a certain character ( who names starts with a W) is the reason why I say this.I think them being cousins would have been better cause it could have been under the guise of " Well Anisley is not near the Darcy's home as much so maybe that's why he doesn't know about a particular situation" Them being brothers is like " Well he should know about what this character done to another character who supposed to be close to him so why he's acting nice towards them unlike his brother who really want to beat the shit out them." ( If you read P& P you probably figure out what I'm talking about) That's the only major gripe I have with this book.  

All and All this book was the first book in a long time that I finish it in like two days  while I was sick like hell battling with Bronchitis. I just hate it took me so long to write this review. Well Life Happens. lol 

Also
I forgot to show this.

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I tweeted Ms. Zoboi after I finished the book in April and she tweeted me back!! I totally didn't fangirl. lol