Not as tedious as Mansfield Park and not as heart fluttering as Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen's middle ground.

An enjoyable little story about Catherine, our heroine, who is ~not like other girls~. She grows up in a family of moderate wealth, one of ten children, and she is allowed the opportunity to live her tomboy fantasy until she grows into "womanhood" and becomes interested in society proper at the ripe age of 17. I loved Catherine for her difference from other Austen heroines. She is simple, likeable, and doesn't display any polarizing character traits. She has not yet learned to trust her gut instincts and often defers to what others think about any given person or situation. She takes a "but what do I know?" sort of attitude about life, for better or worse, and this may be a good thing given her her propensity for presuming the gothic answer in lieu of a more logical explanation. We can thank her love of mystery novels for this.

I really enjoyed watching her naivety as she makes her debut in Bath. Seeing a heroine who was not groomed to be a proper lady from the second they cut the cord was a refreshing change of pace for a novel of this time period. I loved the Mrs. Allen, who will not shut up about her damn dresses, and Isabella who is the OG "pick me girl". Then we have Henry who, in my opinion, isn't much to write home about, but Catherine is immediately taken with him upon their first encounter in the streets of Bath. Austen's love interests are often predictable, but no less intriguing for it.

Austen's cast of characters were the kind you love to hate and hate to love. This wasn't my favorite of her novels, but I did love the fourth wall break, which was an interesting and entertaining literary device especially given the time period in which the story is written. I wasn't overly invested in Catherine and Henry's story, and given this book's reputation for having "gothic themes", I was hoping for more mystery and intrigue. I loved Austen's defense of novels through her characters (though some may think it a tad self-serving, Jane) and every reader can relate to a fellow reader in some capacity or other.

The ending is ultimately what killed the rating for me. If we had continued down this gothic, somewhat humorous path I would've been there all the way, but the ending we received instead felt rushed and out of left field. Eleanor getting married to a character we never met, the General and Mr. Thorpe having all of these background conversations off-page resulted in what felt to be a very anti-climactic finale. That being said, I still would recommend this to anyone who is interested in trying an Austen novel without the 500+ pages, and it stays solidly in the 3-star realm for me!