Publication Date: October 3, 2023
A “wildly inventive and utterly addictive” (Julia Quinn) witchy reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, told from the perspective of the troublesome and—according to her—much-maligned youngest Bennet sister, Lydia.
In this exuberant retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Lydia Bennet puts pen to paper to relate the real events and aftermath of the classic story. Some facts are well known: Mrs. Bennet suffers from her nerves, Mr. Bennet suffers from Mrs. Bennet, and all five daughters suffer from an estate that is entailed only to male heirs.
But Lydia also suffers from entirely different concerns: her best-loved sister Kitty is really a barn cat; Wickham is every bit as wicked as the world believes him to be, but what else would one expect from a demon? And if Mr. Darcy is uptight about etiquette, that’s nothing compared to his feelings about magic. Most of all, Lydia has yet to learn that for a witch, promises have power . . .
Full of enchantment, intrigue, and boundless magic, The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch, has all the irreverent wit, strength, and romance of Pride and Prejudice—while offering a highly unexpected redemption for the wildest Bennet sister.
Pride and Prejudice has seen its fair share of zombies, ghosts, and various adaptations, but The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub takes the beloved novel by Jane Austen to another level with its witches, demons, covens, and greater powers. An interesting concept . . .
Being the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, Lydia Bennet discovers at an early age that she is a witch. Oh yes, according to this tale, there were two other Bennet girls. We also discover early in the book that Lydia’s sister, Kitty, is actually Lydia’s “familiar” or somewhat of a magical partner. She only looks like a girl but is actually a barn cat. Lydia gains magical training from her Aunt Philips, who is also a witch, and they belong to a coven of witches along with Mary King and a variety of Meryton residents.
And so, the story goes from there, told by Lydia as she writes her version of her memoirs. She puts the events of her life on paper, which she believes is at the request of Maria Lambe, a borrowed character from Jane Austen’s incomplete novel, Sanditon, but is actually a witch-queen. Ms. Lambe plays a prominent role in this story, as does Harriet Forster, Denny, and Georgiana Darcy.
The story weaves back and forth, to and fro, and up and down in a miasma of magic, incantations, spells, roses, and purple with seeds laid throughout the story for Lydia’s possible redemption. And as for Wickham? He is a demon of the magical sort, but there’s also the strong possibility that he’s truly in love with Lydia and is working hard to reform his evil ways. While most of the Pride and Prejudice characters play a small part in the story, the focus is on Lydia and Wickham, Kitty and Denny, Harriet Forster, and Maria Lambe.
From the synopsis and the write-ups provided, I thought this would be a magically fun book with lighthearted spells and incantations while still holding relatively true to Jane Austen’s beloved characters. However, this story strays widely and confusingly. It is a mix of dark magic, fantastical imaginings, and a plot with too many trails to follow and no true conclusion.
The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch, features some of Jane Austen’s beloved characters, but with a plot which features witches, magic, and evil demons, opening up a whole new Pride and Prejudice alter universe.
Melinda Taub is an Emmy and Writers’ Guild Award-winning writer. The former head writer and executive producer of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, she is also the author of Still Star-Crossed, a young adult novel which was adapted for television by Shondaland. (She also wrote that thing about the Baroness in The Sound of Music that your aunt likes.) She lives in Brooklyn.
