1.5 stars

I'm so annoyed right now. I really wanted to like this book. P&P is one of my favorite books of all time, and I am always on the look out for a good adaptation. Sadly, this one missed the mark for me.

I liked the inclusion of poetry into this story. I don't think it was fantastic poetry on its own, but it was the strongest writing in the book, in my opinion.

I liked the concept of setting this story in modern-day Brooklyn in a neighborhood filled mostly with BIPOC characters. I also liked that the main character and her family are Haitian-American. I don't think I've ever read a book featuring a protagonist with Haitian background.
Unfortunately, there were a few reviews I read that said that the Santeria representation wasn't entirely accurate, so I don't feel comfortable commenting on that further than to say that I was intrigued by the character of Madrina and her religious practices.

My biggest problem was that Zuri was such an unlikable person. Darius was no picnic either, but we were stuck in Zuri’s headspace the entire book.
I just couldn’t stand her. Now, for those of you who would say, “But you like Elizabeth Bennett! She’s judgmental too!” I would say that while she does decide early on that Mr. Darcy is a thoroughly disagreeable young man, that comes after she actually has an interaction with him and then hears him insulting her to Mr. Bingley. Zuri hates Darius before she even meets him. She hates him because he has money and a nice house. BEFORE SHE EVEN MEETS HIM.
There are so many instances in the book that showcase her hypocrisy toward him. Here are just a few:
Pg. 74 When her friend says she would be stuck up too if her family had money. “No, I wouldn’t! I wouldn’t think I was better than everybody else. I wouldn’t look down on other people who look like me.” SHE ALREADY DOES THAT WITHOUT MONEY.
Pg. 100 “You can’t walk around here thinking that you’re better than everybody else.” Zuri literally does this through the entire book. She accuses Darius of not being ‘real’ and that he’s not a ‘normal’ black person.
Pg. 172 “Money can’t buy manners.” Says the rudest person in this whole story.
Pg. 181 She criticizes him because he doesn’t know what ‘trap music’ is. She says he should know what it is already, insinuating that he somehow is ‘lesser than’ in her world.
There are at least a dozen more examples, but you get the idea.

I don’t buy their love story. It basically comes out of nowhere. She hates him, and then five minutes later they’re kissing and she can’t stop thinking about him. There is almost no foundation for their relationship. In P&P, the relationship and specifically Lizzie’s feelings toward Darcy are gradual. She isn’t instantly in love with him after he gives her the letter about Wickham and his sister. I don’t feel like these characters earn their love story, if that makes any sense.
I think what it comes down to is that this story and its characters lack depth. It feels like the author had it in her mind that she wanted to hit specific P&P story points and so she just inserted them without really establishing the characters first. Zuri is really the only character we get to know, and I couldn’t stand her. Most of this book is rushed. It lacks the subtlety and nuance of its source material.
As for the writing, I didn’t really care for it. I did appreciate that Zuri had such a distinct voice, but again, I really disliked her character.
There were also many WTF moments I had about the plot. Some of these may be a bit spoilery.

1. I still don’t understand why Darius’ parents would move to Zuri’s neighborhood in the first place. We get a couple of lines about his dad being a real estate investor, but it just doesn’t fit to me that they would choose that neighborhood and only build one house. Maybe I missed something. I would imagine if their fear was the gentrification of the neighborhood, that would entail more than one upscale residence...
2. Zuri spends the entire book glorifying her neighborhood. She continually says she wants to live there forever. Then when they have to move, she laments over it for about two pages and then just gets over it?

This is such a disappointment for me. That being said, I’m sure that there will be many people who enjoy this book, and that’s great. It just wasn’t my favorite.