A review by theshiftyshadow
Becky by Sarah May
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
I didn't like this at all.
I read Vanity Fair a few years ago and while I didn't really love it, I came away with the feeling that everyone except Becky was an insufferable idiot. Then I watched the ITV adaptation with Olivia Cooke as Becky and I realised that's the point! Everyone is an insufferable idiot except for Becky!
What works so well about the original story, for me, is the time it's set in has an awful lot of ridiculous society rules and etiquette and Becky feels like quite a modern character in contrast to the others and her presence among them really amplifies how silly they all are. It's a satire, I'm sure. And what the TV adaptation did so well was break the 4th wall occasionally, so we feel like we're in it with Becky, she knows all these people are idiots, and she acknowledges we're smart enough to know it too, and you don't really feel too bad for any of them when she gets what she wants.
The problem then with this retelling, set in 90's era among the tabloid press and upper social classes of London, is that Becky seems like the worst character. She's conniving and cold, and while the writer tries to give her a backstory that explains her character, she tries a bit too hard, and the setting she puts her in, among tabloid journalists and the rich owners of the papers, doesn't provide the same ridiculous background for Becky to scheme her way to the top.
It works in Vanity Fair because the massive class divide present in that story is enough in itself to a) explain Becky's exclusion and thus her motivations, and b) is wide enough to be amped up and ridiculed. Now obviously there's still a class divide at work in 90's London, and in the circle Becky finds herself moving in, but I feel like the writer doesn't really have a grip on that, or the characters that exist in it. Some of the changes she makes to characters and relationships aren't for the better. Amelia, for example, I always felt was kind of silly but mostly harmless, and although Becky takes advantage of her and uses her connections, she at least liked her, enough to want her to be a bit smarter about things, at the very least. Here though Amelia barely exists, and their relationship revolves around their individual relationships with George.
One thing that actually left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth was the missing child plot line, which was presumably based on the Milly Dowler case. I understand that the author wanted to set this retelling in the era of 90s tabloids, and that case, and the subsequent phone hacking inquiry, was a massive part of that era, and probably it's downfall, but I just didn't like how it was included here.
I think there's just too much going on in this book. Do the modern day Vanity Fair retelling, or write about the rise and fall of someone within that 90's tabloid world. Trying to do both just seems like an unnecessary thing, and the book doesn't pull it off.
(while looking for this book to log I noticed there's another modern retelling of Vanity Fair called The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp, where Becky and Amelia meet on Big Brother, which immediately sounds like a more appropriate setting for an update.)
I read Vanity Fair a few years ago and while I didn't really love it, I came away with the feeling that everyone except Becky was an insufferable idiot. Then I watched the ITV adaptation with Olivia Cooke as Becky and I realised that's the point! Everyone is an insufferable idiot except for Becky!
What works so well about the original story, for me, is the time it's set in has an awful lot of ridiculous society rules and etiquette and Becky feels like quite a modern character in contrast to the others and her presence among them really amplifies how silly they all are. It's a satire, I'm sure. And what the TV adaptation did so well was break the 4th wall occasionally, so we feel like we're in it with Becky, she knows all these people are idiots, and she acknowledges we're smart enough to know it too, and you don't really feel too bad for any of them when she gets what she wants.
The problem then with this retelling, set in 90's era among the tabloid press and upper social classes of London, is that Becky seems like the worst character. She's conniving and cold, and while the writer tries to give her a backstory that explains her character, she tries a bit too hard, and the setting she puts her in, among tabloid journalists and the rich owners of the papers, doesn't provide the same ridiculous background for Becky to scheme her way to the top.
It works in Vanity Fair because the massive class divide present in that story is enough in itself to a) explain Becky's exclusion and thus her motivations, and b) is wide enough to be amped up and ridiculed. Now obviously there's still a class divide at work in 90's London, and in the circle Becky finds herself moving in, but I feel like the writer doesn't really have a grip on that, or the characters that exist in it. Some of the changes she makes to characters and relationships aren't for the better. Amelia, for example, I always felt was kind of silly but mostly harmless, and although Becky takes advantage of her and uses her connections, she at least liked her, enough to want her to be a bit smarter about things, at the very least. Here though Amelia barely exists, and their relationship revolves around their individual relationships with George.
One thing that actually left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth was the missing child plot line, which was presumably based on the Milly Dowler case. I understand that the author wanted to set this retelling in the era of 90s tabloids, and that case, and the subsequent phone hacking inquiry, was a massive part of that era, and probably it's downfall, but I just didn't like how it was included here.
I think there's just too much going on in this book. Do the modern day Vanity Fair retelling, or write about the rise and fall of someone within that 90's tabloid world. Trying to do both just seems like an unnecessary thing, and the book doesn't pull it off.
(while looking for this book to log I noticed there's another modern retelling of Vanity Fair called The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp, where Becky and Amelia meet on Big Brother, which immediately sounds like a more appropriate setting for an update.)