In The Other Bennet Sister, Hadlow builds an immersive and engaging new version of a familiar world; her approach feels at once true to the source material and to life ... in Hadlow’s Mary we recognise a more familiar figure: self-sabotaging, low on self-esteem, struggling to get through the day while others seem to sail effortlessly by. Hadlow’s great achievement is to shift our sympathies so completely that when happiness becomes a possibility for Mary, it’s difficult not to race through those final pages, desperate to know if she will, after all, be allowed—will allow herself—a happy ending.
Hadlow gives us a book that is satisfyingly evocative of the earlier novel and yet strikingly contemporary ... this time we see everything through Mary’s eyes. Hadlow paints her as a far more sympathetic and understandable character ... As her book diverges from the original, Hadlow grafts a contemporary coming-of-age story onto a literary masterpiece and she does it in a manner that is not only faithful to the original, but also respectful. She builds upon what Austen had achieved—writing boldly and honestly about women’s lives ... Hadlow captures Austen’s voice ... The Other Bennet Sister stands on its own as a literary work. One needn’t be familiar with Austen’s novels to appreciate the book, but it helps ... It meanders at a pace reminiscent of the earlier era, giving readers license to settle in and get lost in a story that might be about characters from another century but, like all enduring classics, offers truths just as relevant today.
As a Jane Austen tribute novel, this book has plenty to recommend it. Hadlow is excellent in capturing the social nuances of the time. She shows the reality of middle-class women’s lives: the endless tedium and the economic and social necessity to find a suitable husband. I liked the characterisation of Mary but must confess to some dismay at the unsympathetic portrayal of Mrs Bennet ... as a historical novel I don’t think the book works so well. It is very light on historical detail: apart from the occasional description of clothes or fabrics, there is little to allow the reader to form a picture of the daily life of the times ... That criticism aside, if you read it as social commentary, and to find out what happened to Mary Bennet, then this is a most enjoyable novel.
Her Mary is a sensitive, well-meaning young woman, who strives for the affection of her remote, sardonic father and beloved older sister, Lizzie. Hadlow invents for Mary an inner life that Austen denied her, complete with romantic yearnings that she tries to dampen. The difficulty with trying to rewrite one of the best-loved novels in the English language is that the original is always there as the gold standard. So it is in the second part of the novel ... The Other Bennet Sister reads as an enjoyable kind of fanfic and if it feels a little pedestrian by comparison, the fact that the appeal of these characters endures in hands less deft than their original creator’s is testament to how vividly they were first drawn and the place they have established in readers’ affections.
Her Mary is a psychologically rich and astute creation ... her knowledge and research is displayed with a deft touch, capturing the essence of the period and making the voice feel accurate rather than pastiche ... Even so, it’s bit of a slow start. Slow start aside however, The Other Bennet Sister is definitely one of the better Pride and Prejudice continuations/spinoffs. A very well written debut, for both fans of Jane Austen and Historical fiction in general, that will get you to look at a famous Austen character in a way that you might not have seen her before.
This is a charming and enchanting story featuring one of the overlooked characters of a beloved classic. While the cast feels very much as remembered from the original, Mary comes into her own ... Readers with fond but not necessarily exhaustive memories of Pride and Prejudice will love this story, as will historical fiction readers looking for intelligent heroines with agency and heart who belong to their time and place without quite fitting in.
Hadlow smartly skips over the bulk of Austen’s plot, though devotees of the original will be intrigued by Mary’s time with the Darcys, the Bingleys, and the Collinses The writing is dense, but captures the esprit de Austen, immersing the reader in Mary’s internal world as she keenly (though, at first, awkwardly) observes those around her, and the result is a page-turning coming-of-age story of an overlooked woman slowly accepting her zest for life.
... spectacular ... Writing in prose with the crisp liveliness of Austen’s own, Hadlow remains true to the characterizations in Pride and Prejudice without letting them limit her. Mary’s emergence from priggish insecurity is beautifully imagined; Austen’s smarmy Mr. Collins gets a surprising but convincing rehabilitation, the Gardiners are joyously fleshed out, and London, never visited in the Austen canon, comes vividly to life. Equal to the best Austen spin-offs...this will delight Janeites as well as lovers of nuanced female coming-of-age tales.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary ... sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished. Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
