This was the first 'chick lit' book I've ever read, being miles away from my usual reads, and I only picked it up because I enjoy Giovanna Fletcher's YouTube channel. I have to say I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, although not enough to encourage me to read more in the same genre. It was a nice, light-hearted read that served as a good break between my usual epic fantasy adventures. The characters were mostly pretty two-dimensional and formulaic, but it was hard not to get swept up in the story.

For what it is, it's very good, exceeding my expectations spectacularly, but it did leave wanting in characters, plot and actual writing. Nevertheless, it was fun to read.

Emily St. John Mandel manages to tell several, heart-breakingly real human stories, against the backdrop of a scarily realistic, scarily close dystopian world. I think that what makes this book so incredible is just how close it is to our modern-day reality; the characters are normal people, with varying lives, who are thrust into this horrific nightmare of a world, but manage to make something of it. It is an incredible story of how humans act, how they cope, and what they need. I would recommend this to literally anyone; despite at first glance being similar to lots of not-so-great books, it takes those themes and turns them into something incredible.

This book was very enjoyable once I got into it. I think a big part of that was that I was expecting (and it was billed as) a retelling of Pride and Prejudice but from a different point of view. The actual book was very different; it was a story about a set of almost completely original characters, set against the backdrop of Pride and Prejudice. While pivotal moments of the two books of course coincide, the story rarely touches on the antics of the Bennet sisters; the P&P characters that have the most significance, I felt, were Wickham and Mr Bennet, which lead to some very good plot twists!

I would highly recommend this to any Pride and Prejudice fan or any fan of historical fiction; just don't expect too much of Mr Darcy!