Reviews and Comments

I wasn't going to review this but there seem to be a lot of polarized reviews of it, so here are some observations that might determine whether you want to put the time in:

--it isn't any sort of defense of Rowling, in fact it explicitly addresses the issue of how fandom can redeem the HP universe without endorsing her.

--it isn't high-literary whatsoever. It has funny and wry observations, but there's nothing stylistically interesting. The characters are as well drawn as they need to be for a compelling story, but there aren't enormous Insights lurking here, or unforgettable personalities. The teens are ordinary teens with slightly better than real dialogue.

--what I thought it did enormously well was capture the difficulties of late adolescence and how it feels to be fumbling around figuring out identity, and sometimes only knowing what you're against, in a world where there's so much to BE against but the "who are you" answers may be years away. The main character is pretty woke and most of what she/they does with it is to react against their (pretty difficult, somewhat fractured) family. And gradually figure out how to get more joy and less friction in life while working around other people's priorities.

--as a result we have a plot that's pretty static. The narrator is stuck. (I guessed the Big Plot Twist many chapters ahead, but there isn't much motion toward it, just a bunch of quidditch games and friend/family disagreements that don't necessarily move anything along.)

--nevertheless this is cute and its heart is absolutely in the right place and it's not afraid to represent how some really ugly stuff can exist in a family that's more or less functional and loving, how friendships have terrible patches, and yet people go on.

--the team sports angle is surprisingly fun and not overly whimsical despite being, y'know, Quidditch.

If you can't stand Christian redemption or the glorification of self-denial maybe you don't want to spend any time with Charlotte M. Yonge. There's a lot of that. The n-word is also sprinkled in here in a way I haven't noticed in her other works so be aware that's going to happen.

Having read most of her work this is a minor one but it's pretty interesting in addressing:

--living with chronic and acute illness
--poorly considered marriages and how they can be redeemed
--awkward class dynamics created by marrying down
--differences in character: Yonge is always attentive to how people have their own paths based on personality and therefore very different struggles
--the appropriate role of influence in women's friendships
--disability (there's an intellectually disabled minor character and one who's deaf and mute)

If you want the full Yonge experience starting with The Clever Woman of the Family or The Daisy Chain would be preferable, but there's a lot to be interested in here culturally, plus some entertaining Bad Man Drama. She's a very thoughtful novelist, and her characters' dilemmas are always presented very fairly and legitimately, so you can see why they make the choices they do.

I have no idea who told the earlier reviewer that this was like Pride and Prejudice! That's a very weird idea. The plot trajectory is kicked off by an impetuous young man marrying a sixteen-year-old country girl, who gradually becomes a moral influence on everyone around her. Nothing could be less like Austen. I guess you could say Theodora, the sister-in-law, is motivated by pride and learns better but she's hardly Mr. Darcy.