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A review by angelfish257
Becky by Sarah May
3.0
Becky is meant to be a modern re-telling of Thackeray's Vanity Fair, bringing the story into modern times and based in the 1990s/2000s.
The story keeps a lot of the same names as the original and loosely the same timeline of key events, based in the cut-throat world of tabloid journalism. I found that Becky's working life mirrored the real-life events and journalism scandal involving Rebekah Brooks, although fictional Becky's home life seems to be entirely of the author's invention and is suitably grim to apparently be the catalyst for the character's actions and drive.
Becky is not a likable character, although there are no real 'winners' in this tale of greed, jealousy and corruption. Nobody seems to have any real redeeming qualities and will always look out for themselves alone above all else.
The use of flashbacks does help to build the backstory for Becky, but its not always made clear in the narrative when this happens and as the reader you suddenly find yourself back in another time/flashback. I found this a bit disconcerting, although I managed to get the gist of what the author was trying to do.
The premise of the story is a clever idea, however I don't feel it has been executed particularly well in this instance. As a standalone story in its own right Becky works pretty well, if you haven't read Vanity Fair and aren't familiar with it then this won't detract from it. I felt that the link to Vanity Fair was quite contrived in places and the author had to work hard to make the story 'fit' - it's clearly been inspired by VF but for me personally I don't think it fully works as a true modern re-telling.
Overall I did enjoy the book and found the story quite entertaining, would be good as a beach read.
The story keeps a lot of the same names as the original and loosely the same timeline of key events, based in the cut-throat world of tabloid journalism. I found that Becky's working life mirrored the real-life events and journalism scandal involving Rebekah Brooks, although fictional Becky's home life seems to be entirely of the author's invention and is suitably grim to apparently be the catalyst for the character's actions and drive.
Becky is not a likable character, although there are no real 'winners' in this tale of greed, jealousy and corruption. Nobody seems to have any real redeeming qualities and will always look out for themselves alone above all else.
The use of flashbacks does help to build the backstory for Becky, but its not always made clear in the narrative when this happens and as the reader you suddenly find yourself back in another time/flashback. I found this a bit disconcerting, although I managed to get the gist of what the author was trying to do.
The premise of the story is a clever idea, however I don't feel it has been executed particularly well in this instance. As a standalone story in its own right Becky works pretty well, if you haven't read Vanity Fair and aren't familiar with it then this won't detract from it. I felt that the link to Vanity Fair was quite contrived in places and the author had to work hard to make the story 'fit' - it's clearly been inspired by VF but for me personally I don't think it fully works as a true modern re-telling.
Overall I did enjoy the book and found the story quite entertaining, would be good as a beach read.