Love, Lies and Lizzie by Rosie Rushton

Book Details

Author: Rosie Rushton

Ages: 12+

Rating: 6/10

Number of Pages: 213

Plot: Based on the classic novel by Jane Austen, this modern spin on Pride and Prejudice brings Austen’s iconic love story to the 21^st century. When Mrs Bennet inherits money from a recently deceased relative, she finally has enough money to live the life of luxury that she has always wanted. Moving into the exclusive village of Longbourn Oaks the Bennets are thrown into a life of glamorous parties and extravagant trips. However, Lizzie Bennet and her sisters soon discover that beneath the perfect façade, the lives of their neighbours are full of lies, betrayal and rivalries. Sticking to Austen’s original love story, Rushton manages to successfully introduce the classic tale to a modern day teen audience.

Review: I have always loved the classics so when I discovered this author and her series of novels that looked to modernise Austen’s stories I knew I had to read them. Having read Pride and Prejudice before, I knew the plot pretty well and had a good idea about how Austen portrayed the many different characters within the story. As a result upon reading this book I knew how the plot would develop, but, as it is a modern re-telling, I knew that there would be a significant amount of change to the characters and setting. I was actually surprised at how much Rushton kept to the original story line, for example, Mr Bennet is still presented in a shy and almost reclusive way even if his interests have changed to the more modern idea of sound systems. In fact throughout the whole novel Rushton keeps true to the personalities of the characters that Austen had created just over 200 years ago. I especially liked how Elizabeth, or ‘Lizzie’, remains to be independent whilst James Darcy is presented as being arrogant and a bit of a snob.

“I know it’s crazy, but I just can’t get you out of my head. Ever since that evening at the Bingley’s when you argued like someone possessed, I’ve tried to forget you. And I can’t.” – James Darcy

However, there are aspects of the novel that I found to be a bot boring and, in cases, unrealistic. Firstly, Rushton continually uses emails as a replacement to letters so yes there is a slight modernisation I feel that Rushton could have gone further, maybe using social media or text messaging instead to appeal to the 21^st century audience. As well as this I felt that the character of Katrina De Burgh was not nearly as intimidating as the original Catherine De Burgh depicted in Pride and Prejudice. This was especially apparent during Lizzie’s confrontation with her towards the end of the novel, instead of being face-to-face the encounter is on the phone and makes Katrina appear to be much tamer than I was hoping for. Finally, I found that Rushton’s structure was questionable. Instead of having two parts of equal content, the second part appears rushed and lacks the same density that I was hoping for. The aspect that most disappointed me with the second part was the lack of romance from James Darcy that was so infamous in the original, because of this I found it harder to like Darcy than in Pride and Prejudice.

Despite its shortfalls, Rushton manages to bring the infamous story to a modern day audience by creating realistic characters that have relatable personalities. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has not read the Austen classics but wants an easier introduction into the classic literature piece.