Epic Fail
42. Claire LaZebnik, Epic Fail
In this modern YA take on Pride and Prejudice, Elise Benton and her sister Juliana are the new girls at a fancy California prep school. Elise immediately feels isolated from most of the students because of their fixation on money, celebrities and status. But when Juliana starts hanging out with Chase, who is part of the "in" crowd, Elise finds herself unwillingly drawn into the popular group. She soon clashes with Chase's best friend, Derek Edwards, whose parents are major Hollywood movie stars. Derek is handsome and smart, and everybody wants to be his friend, but his rude and standoffish behavior irritates Elise. When she befriends Webster Grant, a cute and charming guy who doesn't get along with Derek, she soon finds even more reasons to dislike Derek. But when Derek actually begins showing interest in her, Elise is shocked to find that her initial judgments of both Derek and Webster might not be entirely accurate.
I have mixed feelings about this book. As a novel in its own right, I think it's nothing particularly special. The plot is predictable, the characters aren't given very much depth, and the dialogue frequently made me cringe. So while this is a moderately entertaining and quick read, it's really just an average book. However, as an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, I was actually very impressed! The basic plot outline is there, along with most of the major characters, but this novel doesn't make the mistake of trying to replicate every single incident from the original book. For example, Elise's mom is the new principal of the high school, and she frequently humiliates her daughters by chatting with their friends at school and wearing bizarre outfits. She doesn't have the same motivations or mannerisms as Mrs. Bennet, but she is still an embarrassing mom. So the reference to P&P is there, but it doesn't overpower the story at hand. All in all, I enjoyed this book as a diehard P&P fan and would recommend it to other Janeites, as long as they don't mind the YA trappings!