Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Book Review

Summary:

"Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England."

My review:

⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

This has to be one of the most well-written books I've ever read, and if I could write like this I would never stop. I've always thought of classics as slow, dreary, plotless, and having nothing that could make me enjoy them. And though I have stuck to that opinion when it came to most of them, Pride and Prejudice proved to be very enjoyable to read. I always feel highly unqualified to review classics, but here are some of my thoughts anyway.

The characters were such as we can see around us even today- the pompous self-assuming relations, nosy neighbours, and sisters and friends to confide everything in. Elizabeth's relationships with everyone were brought out well, as were her thoughts on any matter. The cause of fixedness or alteration of any of her emotions made sense to the reader. She was the main character, yet not every part of the story was about her, and I liked that the whole family was central to the storyline. Her and Mr. Darcy's story began after almost half the book, though they had met before, and I liked how he was in and out of her thoughts the whole time.

The author always accounted for all the characters, which I liked, since it would have been so easy to just skip over Mary or Catherine, or let some characters fade into the background after their part was over. But she kept the entire society involved in the story, if only when the family received letters or an occasional visit from them. The climax of the book was written nicely, and all loose ends were tied up. I would have liked to read more conversations between Darcy and Elizabeth, like the one written at the end. Though there wasn't much interaction between Jane and Bingley that Elizabeth was a part of, their love for each other was shown well through her observations.

Though I had found the long-winded sentences a chore to read, I ended up really liking them. The author expressed all her thoughts with great clarity, and it was easy to understand exactly what she wanted to say. I had not thought it was possible to put some of those specific feelings into words, but the author managed to make each character speak precisely what was on their mind, and still make it concise. At first, I had started marking the sentences I liked, but soon I felt like I would end up highlighting the whole book.

The part about Lydia and Wickham bored me for as long as it went on. I understand its prominence in the story- to show Lydia's folly that Darcy spoke of, to add the "disadvantageous connection" of Wickham to their family, prove Darcy's love for Elizabeth, and simply as a plot twist- but I couldn't help be impatient for Elizabeth's story to progress. There were pages and pages about Lydia, whose presence or absence I couldn't bring myself to care about, which were perhaps the only part I didn't enjoy.

This book gave a thorough and well-expressed picture of their lives at that time, and I can see why it is called a classic. Though I doubt I will pick up any other one soon, I am glad I decided to give this one a try.

The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine - The Ravenspire #1 : Book Review (No spoilers)

Summary:

"Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.

In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.

But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose."

My review:

⭐⭐⭐

The summary of this book made it sound like the most generic YA fantasy ever, and that's what it delivered. A princess fighting for her kingdom with her ragtag group of supporters, and an enemy King to fall in love with. The story itself wasn't terrible, but the writing was what put me off. The plot and characters felt very cliche, and I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for something unique.

As someone who has tried and failed to write book-length stories, I can appreciate how many sides there are to it. Even if the story is nice, the book can have bad pacing, stunted dialogues, flat characters, or a lack of world-building, and unfortunately, this book had all those problems. The sentences were wordy and confusing, and the dialogue didn't feel realistic. There wasn't an effortlessness to the writing, which also made it an effort to read.

The magical spells were awkwardly worded, with the magic itself being haphazard and unexplained throughout the book. I did not have the patience to read any of those long, slightly Russian-sounding names tossed in with characters named Leo and Gabril. There were shapeshifters and fae casually involved, though overall the land didn't seem to have much magic. It was a fantasy book without the fantasy part adequately connected to the rest of the story. The plot was centered around Lorelai's magic, but the other supernatural elements such as the dragons and their powers were sidelined.

The inconsequential action scenes didn't make much sense and only added to the tediousness of the book. Lorelai kicking off walls and somersaulting through the air hardly led to anything, as ultimately all the battles were fought with her magic. I didn't understand the extent and limits of her powers either, as I always felt she could've just sent an earthquake to the palace and made the earth swallow Irina, instead of creating all this drama. Even when Irina wanted to find out who Gabril was, couldn't she have just instructed Kol to show her? She could command him to go kill a bunch of people but to find out the name of some guy she needed a painter?

The fact that the person's name had to rhyme with the spell was inexplicably funny, because what if someone had a long name that didn't conveniently rhyme with 'scry'? "Mirror mirror I like stew. Also, show me where's Bartholomew"?

The story was sped up in all the wrong places. I don't remember much of the climax or major events, just Lorelai tromping through forests. I hardly understood where she was heading, or what her great aims in life were. The author seemed to have an idea of the basic storyline, but the rest of it was just repetitive scenes of them getting attacked by random things.

I liked that the author came up with her own magic spells. I had thought it was mostly random words, but there was a glossary at the end, which helped the book make more sense. Some of the dialogue was nice, but most of it got hidden by the overly-lengthy sentences. The characters or lands weren't developed much, and the book wasn't very deep or thorough. Ultimately, though I enjoyed the overall plot, I wouldn't necessarily call it a must-read. You aren't missing out on much even if you skip this one.

Thank you for reading my review!