Sylvia Barry Reads: April 2025
The Bennet Women by Eden Appiah-Kubi — 5 awwrrgh awwrrughs out of 5
Sylvia Barry read this book as part of her feminist sealion bookclub, which gave it the above rating, and Sylvia wholeheartedly agrees. Sylvia’s human handlers have always been suckers for Pride and Prejudice retellings and this one did not dissapoint!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single young Black woman in pursuit of a lucrative engineering career, must be in want of a distraction. A distraction known as Will Darcy. EJ and her friends Jamie and Tess live in the prestigious women-only Bennet House at Longbourn University, and while all three girls are focused on their studies, romance contra dances its way into their lives. All the best aspects of P&P are present and accounted for — Jamie and Lee (Jane and Bingley) are both sweet, beautiful, and a bit dumb, EJ and Will (Lizzie and Darcy) absolutely hate each other at first but then the chemistry crackles, and Jordan (Wickahm) is as wicked as they come.
The Bennet Women also follows the tradition of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in that it takes on questions of class, gender, social hierarchy, and the interpersonal navigation of all of these in an inherently unbalanced romance. Jamie struggles with an overbearing mother who is a little too excited about Jamie’s recent transition and seems to be overcompensating, while EJ deals with having to give up her dreams of being a dancer in order to focus on a more respectable —and reliable— career in engineering. Meanwhile, Lee is a himbo who is slowly becoming self aware, and Will is a stuck up former child actor learning to show vulnerability. Obviously Jordan is just a predator doing predator things.
Comforting and familiar while providing a fresh, 21st century take on a timeless enemy-to-lovers story. The romance is warm and cozy, and upholds the most fundamental aspect of all P&P restellings, which is: Girls don’t want love, girls want real estate.
