It’s no easy task setting a beloved 19th century classic in the modern age, but Sayantani Gupta does it with style in her young-adult rom-com, Debating Darcy. Rather than country houses and ballrooms, this Pride and Prejudice remake takes place in the world of high school debate team competitions. Leela Bose is the spirited, musical-loving, modern-day Elizabeth Bennet who clashes with the privileged and uptight Firoze Darcy, a student from the prestigious Netherfield Academy. Leela sees Darcy as nothing more than a representation of all the elitist private school students who make fun of her rag-tag band of forensicators from their public school, Longbourn. Seeing him always seems to get her riled up, especially after she blames him for ruining her best friend’s new relationship and getting his own childhood friend, Jishnu Waddedar, kicked out of Netherfield. But is Darcy really as condescending and cruel as he appears to be? When new information about Jishnu’s expulsion comes to light, suddenly, Leela isn’t so sure she has Darcy all figured out.
It was fun seeing all the places in Pride and Prejudice reimagined as high schools and colleges and all of Jane Austen’s beloved characters incarnated as modern day characters. The high school debate setting works very well for this classic enemies-to-lovers story, and I enjoyed all the pop culture references that the author was able to include, such as quotes from The Princess Bride and the musical Hamilton. I also liked that the author wrote from her own experience and culture by making the main characters of Desi heritage, even going so far as to highlight the cultural and religious differences that exist between various Desi subgroups such as Bengali and Pakistani. I learned some new things about Desi culture and gained more appreciation for them.
Overall, I found this story to be humorous and delightful and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys modern-day Pride and Prejudice retellings and young-adult romantic comedies in general.
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