Genre: Regency
Audience: Adult
Length: 399
Where I stopped: pg. 83 (23%)
Why I stopped: Biggest reason -- The story felt too much like Pride & Prejudice. The author, who honestly states up front that they are writing as Jane Austen -- basically trying to mirror her style, which I have nothing against, if the story were original. Second reason -- it's just plain confusing. Now, granted, it took me a few chapters to really get into the language of Austen my first time through P&P, but like I've mentioned before: if I'm this confused now, will I still be confused half-way through the book? When I finish?
What did we learn: It's crazy, because it boils down to some advice I literally just read on twitter from an agent doing #tenqueries. "...if you do an homage it needs to be better than the original." Which, you know, Austen -- so that's really hard. Realistically, in my opinion it needs to be pretty darn good and, well, a bit more original.
I think it's hard to be better than the original for a lot of these classics (which have stood the test of time for a reason). That's why I love books that take an original spin on a classic. Not to make a movie reference, but O Brother Where Art Thou was an awesome (imo) and super creative retelling of Homer's Odyssey. If it's just a direct retelling--I'll just go read the original. A fun twist (P&P&Zombies?), then count me in for a read.
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