Author: Ibi Zoboi
Genre: Contemporary, Retelling
Source: Balzer + Bray
Goodreads
Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable.Review by Nara
When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding.
But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all.
Pride is a modernised retelling of Pride and Prejudice focusing on Zuri, a character from Bushwick, in Brooklyn.
One thing I do have to say is that Pride is pretty faithful to the original Austen novel in terms of the major plot points. I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice (I didn't dislike it, but just thought it was okay), and one of the main reasons why is because of the development of the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth. Pride is much the same, in that Zuri flip flops between hating and liking Darius with seemingly little development in between to show why this was happening.
On the other hand, the writing itself was pretty engaging, and while I didn't find myself completely sucked into the novel, I did like it enough to race through it relatively quickly. I liked the modern twist that Zoboi brought to the book, with the language being quite casual and (what I assume is) Brooklyn specific.
Overall, I would say that this book is worth a read if you're looking for something a bit different.
Liked it
RatingsOverall: 7/10
Plot: 2.5/5
Romance: 2.5/5
Writing: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 3/5
