BOOK REVIEW: Pride by Ibi Zoboi

2.5/5⭐

Buddy read with @wanderring.pages._ ❤️

“It’s a truth universally acknowledged that when rich people move into the hood, where it’s a little bit broken and a little bit forgotten, the first thing they want to do is clean it up.”

I really loved the *idea* of a Pride and Prejudice retelling set in Brooklyn, New York. I find classics intimidating, so I thought this would be a great intro to the story, before I decide to take on the original.

Instead of the Bennets, we follow the Haitian-Dominican Benitez family with their 5 daughters. My favourite part of the book was the culture of the families in Bushwick and also getting to explore Brooklyn – I felt like I was truly immersed into their culture and their neighbourhood.

Zuri Benitez, our main protagonist, shares a bedroom with her 4 sisters in a small apartment with her Mama and Papi. They have lived here all of their lives. Things in their neighbourhood start to change when more and more rich people move in, pushing up the property taxes and changing the sense of community. Then the Darcy family from Manhattan with their two sons rebuild and move into the house across the road from the Benitez apartment.

The house goes from falling apart to being a mini mansion that stands out from everything else on the block. And so does the Darcy family. They're not like anyone else living on the block where residents have block parties & sit together outside on the stoops. Zuri’s sisters are all intrigued by the handsome Darcy brothers, while Zuri has her reservations, especially about the younger brother, Darius, as she feels he thinks that he is better than them.

As much as I loved the location & rich culture, the story itself fell flat for me. I didn’t really enjoy any of the characters & most of them truly annoyed me to be honest.

I also felt like the romance was empty; there was no build up to it at all - it almost feels like the reader needed to be convinced that the romance is real and at times I found the story & the dialogue between the characters to be quite cringe-worthy & like there was no depth to it.

I went into this really hoping to love it as much as other readers. 💖