I've always adored Jo and Laurie's relationship and dynamic, which is why I always need to turn to fanfiction every time I finish a
Little Women
adaptation. I will forever be bitter at Louisa May Alcott wrenching them apart, periodically making me chase that alternative happy ending to wash out the unpleasant taste of the path she chose for them.
And so, I was very much excited when I discovered
Rejected
, a full-on book dedicated to providing Jo and Laurie that happily ever after so many of us wished for them.
However, it did not live up to my expectations.
As the description makes clear, this wasn't a retelling of
Little Women
, but more of a partial re-imagining in a bit of an alternative universe setting (where the Marches were the St. Claires and lived in England instead of the US), fully focused on Jo and Laurie over a much smaller period of time than the original book.
Rejected
began at Meg's wedding. With Jo being morose about being left behind now that one sister had married, the other was about to leave for continental Europe with their aunt, and the third had already died. Overwhelmed by her dark thoughts, she escaped to the gardens, only to be chased by Laurie, who'd finally reached his breaking point in keeping his feelings hidden and blurted out a confession and marriage proposal. Which got shot down. The book explored the immediate fallout and the next several months of Jo's despondent musings and her sporadic reunions with Laurie while she came to terms with her own feelings.
But here's the issue: while the premise was fine, the execution was terrible.
This book read like little to no planning went into it, like it was stream of thought and penned down as the words came up, which resulted in tangled progression and messy pacing. I often thought a scene or interaction was over, broken by one of Jo's letters to Beth (which were used as an avenue to provide background info and as a way for Jo to externalize and confront her feelings), only for it to pick right back up. I liked the idea of the letters, but a lot of the time, they absolutely broke the flow of the story. Like during Laurie's first confession. That scene was SO long and broken by SO many letters.
But, honestly, all three of the instances when Laurie and Jo fought about how they felt were too long. They talked in circles, with no logical progression to their conversations or consistent attitude. It was beyond frustrating. One would desperately plead while the other was angry, only to switch roles in the next sentence. And back and forth they went.
There needed to be building blocks to their relationship progression. A clear path with stages to conquer, so they could move onto the next one. A thread where a bursting confession not taken seriously became impossible to wave away. Followed by mounting angst, anger, and desperation until an explosive fight, and then a period of regret and reflection, where realization dawned. I wanted to see them come together step by laborious step. Not stumble their way through a snarl of inconsistent behaviors and repetitive arguments.
So, yeah. I appreciated the effort, but
Rejected
ended up being more of a chore to get through than anything else.