Very Late ARC Review – Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi

Posted March 6, 2021 by Lisa Mandina in Review / 2 Comments

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi
Published by Balzer + Bray on September 18, 2018
Genres: YA Contemporary, YA Retelling
Pages: 295
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating: five-stars
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Synopsis:

Pride and Prejudice gets remixed in this smart, funny, gorgeous retelling of the classic, starring all characters of color, from Ibi Zoboi, National Book Award finalist and author of American Street.

Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable.

When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding.

But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.

In a timely update of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, critically acclaimed author Ibi Zoboi skillfully balances cultural identity, class, and gentrification against the heady magic of first love in her vibrant reimagining of this beloved classic.

My Review:

I think that I got this at the ALA convention back in the summer of 2018, but I can’t remember for sure. It has been sitting on my pile of ARCs that I needed to get to, but never got organized enough to fit it in. Now that I’ve started planning out all my ARCs as I get them, I am going back and trying to work in what I can. This one I decided was perfect to read during February – Black History Month. And once again it was a book that once I started reading I was so mad at myself for not picking it up when I first got it.

I do love retellings, and this Pride and Prejudice retelling had so much that not only connected it to the original story, but also had a ton of new and cultural changes as well. It was also fun to read the setting of New YorkCity, especially when I had actually visited at least one of the places talked about in the story.

I liked all the characters and how the author gave them not only the P&P traits, but also ones that were modern and very culturally relevant for this story. There were even some characters that were outside of the original Austen tale, and so that made the story its own unique tale. I loved the landlord of Zuri’s building, she was so interesting. And then their dad was also so very neat. Somewhat like the dad in the Austen tale, but not exactly. He had his own reasons and ways he behaved about his daughters meeting men or what they did with their lives.

And then there was all the different types of food that they talked about for their family traditions. One thing that I love about reading books with cultures I don’t know a lot about necessarily is learning about new foods that I can’t wait to get out and try!

I also have realized that I do NOT have this book in my school library, and I don’t know why not, but it is on my first order list for next school year’s budget money.

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2 responses to “Very Late ARC Review – Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi

    • Lisa Mandina

      It’s one of my blog goals this year. At least to go back to ARCs from the past year or two when I first started trying to make sure I read them all, which was also about the time I started getting them more regularly from publishers! lol.

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