Being Mary Bennet

Locations
Call Number: Teen Fiction / Peterson, J. C., Teen Book / Fiction / General / Peterson, J. C.
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction / Peterson, J. C.	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Fiction / General / Peterson, J. C.	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Determined to reinvent herself, seventeen-year-old Marnie Barnes, with the help of her bubbly roommate, opens herself up to new experiences, new friends, a very cute boy, and a rescue pup, finally learning to embrace who she really is.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

School Library Journal Review
Booklist Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

So Cute! submitted by callmeavni on July 15, 2022, 9:18am I really enjoyed this book. I think this book did a good job making the "unlikable" main character very likable indeed. You were rooting for her to make more friends and get better. I also felt that the book handled the main character's wealth very well, because oftentimes this makes characters stuck up, so I was pleasantly surprised. And the romance itself was very fluffy. In general, very cute and relatable.

Cute Coming-of-Age Story submitted by pjaynes on July 10, 2023, 4:13pm Marnie is an often overlooked middle child who realizes she is the Mary Bennet in her family, so she strives to infuse more main character energy into her life. There is a cute romance in the story, but the best part was seeing Marnie's struggles to find her own place in the world and her family. Her relationships with the "golden child" Lizzie and their dad are especially interesting. Marnie isn't always the most likable character, but she felt very (painfully) relatable and human.

Do not recommend submitted by rshah on August 8, 2023, 11:00pm I was so excited about this book when I first heard about it, but the book ended up being so problematic I hate finished it. On a basic level, the plot alone ended up being not great, but what really frustrated me is the way non-white characters in the book are treated. The tl;dr? This is what happens when an author throws in “diverse” characters because they think they’re supposed to and then don’t use sensitivity reads.

What do I mean? Almost all of the side characters are Asian and they’re all portrayed in stereotypical ways. The Japanese love interest character drinks green tea. A minor South Asian character “bobbles his head.” The main characters Indian Canadian roommate basically only exists to further the MCs story. You get the picture. And none of the characters have any real stories of their own.

And given all the amazing books by and about Asians, we really don’t need or want this kind of terrible, token representation. There are also far better Pride and Prejudice retellings and I would highly recommend reading one of those instead.