A review by amelia990
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

4.75

While Pride and Prejudice will always be my "I had a bad day and just need to be happy" escape book, this has become hands down my second favorite of Austen's stories.  I'd been told it was a parody of a gothic novel and that it is about a girl who lets her imagination run away with her.  Neither of those is accurate.  Instead, it's a "modernized" gothic novel for the time period.  The tropes are played straight; they are merely presented with more realism.  While the girl in question doesn't have the life experience to recognize what she's witnessing is

a parent emotionally abusing his children

, she does recognize his behavior as similar to that of the villains she's read about.  And, despite being a realistic (and often comedic) take on gothic romance, it has the proposal every girl dreams of - complete with a hero riding miles on his horse to declare his love.  The end is a bit rushed, which is a bummer, but overall the book is fantastic and I admit to rereading it since finishing it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse

The main character's friends

Eleanor and Henry have spent their lives being emotionally abused by their father. While she doesn't have experience with what emotional abuse looks like, she does witness its effects on her friends, and readers who have experienced emotional abuse will be well aware of what is occurring.