The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennett by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick

Title: The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennett
Authors: Bernie Su and Kate Rorick
Hardcover: 228
Pub Date: July 1, 2014
Publisher: Touchstone
Rating: +++++

Summary from pub:

There is a great deal that goes into making a video blog. Lizzie Bennet should know, having become a YouTube sensation over the course of her year-long video diary project. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries chronicled Lizzie’s life as a twenty-four-year-old grad student, struggling under a mountain of student loans and living at home with her two sisters;beautiful Jane and reckless Lydia. What may have started as her grad student thesis grew into so much more, as the videos came to inform and reflect her life and that of her sisters. When rich, handsome Bing Lee comes to town, along with his stuck-up friend William Darcy, things really start to get interesting for the Bennets’ and for Lizzie’s viewers. Suddenly Lizzie, who always considered herself a fairly normal young woman, was a public figure. But not everything happened on-screen. Luckily for us, Lizzie kept a secret diary.

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet provides more character introspection as only a book can, with revelatory details about the Bennet household, including Lizzie’s special relationship with her father, untold stories from Netherfield, Lizzie’s thoughts and fears about life after grad school and becoming an instant web celebrity.

Review:

Did you watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube? Are you a fan of Pride and Prejudice? Do you love contemporary novels about family, friendship, and love? If you uanswered any of those questions, you need to read the book. And if you haven’t seen the YouTube channel, watch it before, during, or after you read it!

I loved this series on YouTube and the book made me love it even more. It lets you really see inside Lizzie’s head and explains some things that are vague in the videos. It makes everyone more sympathetic too. Except for Wickham. Some people don’t deserve any sympathy.

The story of the Bennet family fits so well as a modern retelling. Lizzie is strong and smart, Jane is kind and sweet, with her own bits of strength, and Lydia is…well, let’s just be glad no one gave her a microphone or she may have turned out a little like Miley Cyrus. Social media makes the drama more dramatic and I only yelled “USE YOUR WORDS” at the book a couple times.

This is one of the best books of the year and has made me want to watch the YouTube series all over again!