Caytee

by Susanna Kanto

Jane Austen meets YA in this modern retelling of Northanger Abbey.

Eighteen-year-old Caytee Moore is invited to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle in the small town of Dark Forrest. Her imagination fueled by the Young Adult books she has devoured, she’s convinced she knows exactly what to expect from a place so aptly named for encountering paranormal creatures. When she meets Henry Tilney, a pale and eccentric medical student, she’s certain she’s found the vampire of her dreams. But soon, her determination to expose the secrets of his mysterious family throws her into an adventure she never could have imagined.

What Caytee doesn’t realize is that as she gets closer to uncovering the truth, her chances of a relationship with Henry slip further away.

205 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2023

About the author

Susanna Kanto loves telling stories as much as her characters love hearing them. Whenever her nose is not buried in a book, she enjoys learning languages from French to ancient Greek. She lives in Helsinki, Finland, with her ever-growing book collection. Caytee is her first novel.

Reviews

[Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.25-4.5

[V. V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caytee captures the spirit of Jane Austen's writing in a modern day setting...with that one twist.

[Georgiana 1792 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uno dei migliori retelling in chiave moderna che ho letto negli ultimi mesi. Il romanzo è definito uno Young Adult, anche se, in effetti, tutti i romanzi di Jane Austen sono degli YA, se si considerano nel significato positivo del genere, perché sono romanzi con protagoniste adolescenti o poco più, che possono essere letti tranquillamente dai tredici anni in su. Chiarisco perché, oggi come oggi, molti considerano Young Adult solo Twilight et similia, considerandoli negativamente, ed è infatti questo genere di romanzi che la protagonista Caytee Moore predilige, l'equivalente della letteratura gotica tanto cara a Jane Austen e alla sua eroina Catherine Morland.
Purtroppo, anche in questo caso la trama non è particolarmente originale rispetto al romanzo di Jane Austen, cosicché, anche se fin dal principio sono rimasta ben impressionata dalla conoscenza che Kanto ha della scrittrice e di quest'opera a me tanto cara, dopo la metà ho cominciato un po' ad annoiarmi, per riprendermi un po' sul finale, che è stato un twist davvero inaspettato e molto, molto intelligente. In effetti, anch'io sono spesso stata un po' indignata da certe dichiarazioni di Henry Tilney e, dopotutto, in un retelling moderno, dove è impensabile che due protagonisti così giovani si sposino, non è necessario neanche che debbano per forza finire insieme.
Così, quando Caytee ragiona sulla natura del sentimento che ha spinto Henry a raggiungerla e a chiederle di essere la sua girlfriend, decide che non è disposta ad accontentarsi, lei vuole di più:
A hero, not in love with the heroine but merely flattered by her crush and led by his vanity to seek the heroine as a girlfriend. It was a circumstance Caytee had never encountered in her novels, but she wouldn’t let this mishap ruin her life.
[...] Maybe she could have handled their conversation in a more mature way, but in the end, she deserved someone better. After all, it wasn’t very likely that her first major crush was the, or even a, love of her life.
(Un protagonista non innamorato dall'eroina, ma semplicemente lusingato dalla cotta che lei ha nei suoi confronti e spinto dalla sua stessa vanità ad andare a chiedere all'eroina di diventare la sua ragazza, era una situazione che Caytee non aveva mai letto nei suoi romanzi, ma non avrebbe permesso che quel contrattempo le rovinasse la vita [...] Forse avrebbe potuto gestire la conversazione con lui in maniera più matura ma, alla fin fine, meritava qualcosa di meglio. Dopotutto non era molto probabile che la sua prima cotta più importante sarebbe diventata l'unico o anche solo uno degli amori della sua vita.)

[Rrshively · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author did an excellent job of turning Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey into a modern tale. Instead of reading gothic romances, Caytee reads YA books and is especially taken with the Twilight series, so when her aunt and uncle invite her to travel with them to a town called Dark Forest, she's ready to go. There her aunt runs into an old friend, Mrs. Thorne, who has a daughter whom Caytee is much taken with and a son, Mr. Thorne. If I were a literature teacher in a university teaching Jane Austen, one of my assignments would be to turn Mr. Thorpe's obsession with his carriage and horses into a modern story about an obsession with a car. Ms. Kanto would have received an A from me. Then Caytee meets Henry Tilney who is very, very pale. His sister doesn't like to be in the sun. Surely, they are good vampires. Caytee soon crushes on Henry and accepts an invite from his father to their mansion. You can imagine the story from there. However, the ending is very much 21st Century.
The reason this book got only three stars is that it was poorly edited. Since I own the book, I penned in several corrections that I caught. Another reason is that the author was in a hurry to tell the narrative, and the story wasn't as rich and professional as it could have been.
Otherwise, happy reading and enjoy!

[Heather Barksdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Caytee” is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Kate “Caytee” Moore has just graduated high school and is eager for adventure. When her Aunt & Uncle invite her along on a trip to a movie festival, she jumps at the chance.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. The author breaks the fourth wall throughout the tale, giving it a fresh and interesting twist to the romance genre. I found this aspect really entertaining and that it pushed forward the story, keeping the plot moving along nicely. Caytee as a protagonist is somewhere between endearing and annoying on the likability scale. She’s innocent, but with a naivety that gets in her way. She is optimistic and looks only at what she wants to see. This makes things complicated when it comes to new best friends, love interests, and unrequited love interests. Find the full blog post review at heatherlbarksdale.com

I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.

[Shirley E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I am far more familiar with Jane Austen's novels than with YA books, this retelling of Northanger Abbey clarified the nuances of impropriety in Jane Austen's day that readers today might have missed. Since manners and evidences of bad behavior in Georgian England were distinctly different than they are in the present, the author of Caytee cleverly spelled out all the misconduct for the reader---making the characters' flaws and inappropriateness impossible to miss. Well done and enjoyable to read!

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Not the book to read right before the JA festival.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a beautiful, vivid setting.

The characters are very well created, and many of them unlikable (in a good way).

The plot was enjoyable, especially thanks to the quirky, fun narration.

I haven’t read the Jane Austen book that this book is a retelling of, but I’m sure that would change the reading experience quite a bit.