The Setting:

First and foremost, Pride feels like a love letter to a neighborhood that is in constant movement, not only because of the people who live there but the people moving there. Zoboi sets the atmosphere by  sprinkling in poems. They feel like homages to people and places. Zuri Benitez’s neighborhood feels alive. And you can feel that in every element of the book.

 

The Characters:

This book lives and breathes through its characters. Pride, like its inspiration Pride and Prejudice, is very character driven. One of the ways that it thrives is through the dynamics of the neighborhood. Zoboi really paints a picture of how tight knit Zuri’s neighborhood is. Zuri is also a very outspoken heroine. She brought life to this story. I do feel that I could have gotten to know Darius a little bit more. Mostly, this book is just too short to accomplish what I wanted it to accomplish, however. Nevertheless, I did feel the connection between Zuri and Darius and rooted for them. I felt that the romance was a little rushed, but again, I think that is the fault of how short this book is (and possibly my  own fault for expecting more from this type of book).

 

Does this work as a Retelling?

Retellings are complicated for me. While I do feel that Pride accomplished a lot and is certainly better than a lot of Pride and Prejudice retellings out there, it worked in some aspects better than others. For one, I should really hamper my expectations for a YA contemporary. I found myself wanting more out of Pride than it was willing to give, mostly because it simply needed more pages. I’m coming off of just reading Pride and Prejudice so I feel that more acutely. I do think Pride was really religious to the core tenants of the story and plotline. Zoboi also put interesting modern day twists to how P&P would play out today. The way she explores gentrification is very interesting in particular.