Play Book Tag discussion

Admission time- I've never read Pride and Prejudice. I've never seen the movie, or the BBC shows or anything like that. I did see it done as a play back in college, so I vaguely remembered the plotlines, who ends up with who, and the storyline. With that being said- there is so much to love about these characters, there is a lot of risk in changing things. Some I loved, some I didn't, some I'm sure I didn't even realize since I'm not a diehard fan. This retelling was fun, fluffy, a beachy read- however it had some major flaws in my opinion on how it handled some of the "riskier" changes. (view spoiler)[Basically the transgender Ham plot line. Very poorly done, with Darcy likening being trans to a medical condition like a clef pallete? I know Mrs. Bennett is terrible, but it seemed most the characters were enabling and Jane googling LBTQ buzzwords doesn't make up for it. (hide spoiler)]

This read so quickly, the audio as good. I did feel for Liz being such a strong character, her voice was too sickly sweet. Some things translated so well for a modern retelling- I loved how present the modern day pressure to marry is, this is not of olden times. Pressure from mom to have "marry rich" still exists greatly now, if not even more so sometimes. The "Eligible" Bachelor show gimmick was fun to read about. However, I felt there was a lot of assumed knowledge/love for the characters that the author had, and since I hadn't read the original- I didn't. Are we giving Chip Bingley a pass for literally being on a sexist trashy reality show, because we're supposed to like him, and because he is sensitive? I wasn't buying it.

I definitely need to go read P&P now, as I have a few questions about the original.
Mainly- are the Bennett parents really that TERRIBLE!?
Also Mary- basically no redeeming qualities?
I don't recall a 'Jasper' character in the original? Was this made up for the retelling?

I really enjoyed this book, even without remembering a whole lot of pride and prejudice.

Definitely no Jasper :)

This book frustrated me, but I’d probably have enjoyed it a lot more if I wasn’t such a P&P fan. (I was similarly ‘meh’ about Alexander McCall Smith’s retelling of Emma, which is the only other Austen Project book that I’ve read so far). However I adored the web series ‘The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’ - it was a much better retelling and genuinely funny.