Modifying Austen is a daunting, but currently common, task. Katherine Chen decides to focus on Mary Bennett, one of the most overlooked characters in literature. This take uses “Pride and Prejudice” as a springboard. That story is conveyed in the first third of the novel. So where does Mary’s story go from there? And is Chen successful in transporting readers back to Austenland?

Well, to answer the first part would be spoilers. As to the second part, the answer is “sometimes”.

The language seems to be right. Sentences contain long phrases with many descriptions but some sharply disguised wit. But the element of satire seems to be absent. Mary has always been the most boring Bennett sister. She has no accomplishments to speak of, and is a plain-looking failure.

But in Chen’s world, plain-looking does not equate to plain-spoken. In this book, Mary is a writer. And a heroine. And a fool (by her own admission). The first two-thirds of the novel are quite entertaining. I found myself reading in small doses to prolong the story. Mary has quite a life. After Darcy and Lizzy’s marriage, Mary spends four months at Pemberley. This is the locale for most of Mary’s maturation, where she realizes there may be a middle ground between Lydia and Kitty’s foolishness and Lizzy and Jane’s innate goodness.

Thematically, this novel couldn’t be more different from Austen. There is no hopefulness here, except the very ending. I understand where Chen was going and she does get there, but I’m not exactly sure I agree with her method. And the characterizations seem drastically off. I did at one point exclaim the word “heresy”!

This book is not for Austen purists in any way. But as an original work of fiction, it is a worthwhile read. I would recommend it to people with only a smattering of Austen knowledge, or none at all. I commend Chen for her bravery in revamping these characters in certain ways, but not all of them worked for me. However, it is always lovely to stroll leisurely through the grounds of Pemberley or peruse the stacks in the library.

I’m afraid I couldn’t quite get past a few of the character alterations. The writing style is compelling enough that I’d be willing to look at something else from this author, but this story was too sour for my taste.

I have to give an honest review and tell you this book suffered immensely from character rewrite. Beloved Jane was acting wretchedly, Mr Collins didn't act like himself at all...and Mary, isn't, interesting like I earlier imagined.

I had hoped finally the story of the overlooked, somewhat, ugly duckling would prevail. But instead I found characters warped beyond recognition...even Darcy and Elizabeth didn't sound right...

The cover was adorable and the title made me immediately want to be hooked into this book...but Mary is basically the Mary Sue of the worlds...she is plain, awkward, unappealing and because Jane Austen never fleshed her out...her backstory suffers.

And the whole novel leaves you rolling your eyes, wishing you hadn't had to read this before in the first place.

I was rooting for you Mary. But now I'm moving on. On another note: the style of writing is true to the era, that is impressive.

An untold story of Pride & Prejudice? More like the most twisted untold (that no one wants to know) story of Pride & Prejudice.

There's an appeal with a book like this, because first, that cover and title snagged my attention hook line and sinker. Mary suffers from the plain, looked over, awkward and shy character she was given by Austen. We all want to see Mary find the dream, because that's what most of us are, ordinary. The book started out encouraging. The writing style is genuine to the era. Even the retelling of certain events from Pride & Prejudice, from Mary's point of view intrigued me. However, it became tedious very very quickly. I could not read more than a few pages at a time. I ended up skim reading pages, and still did not miss any of the plot.

By the second part of this book I wondered what had possessed me to even request this book. Part two goes down a very twisted and terrible path which completely and utterly detaches from everything the Austen fan loves about this famous classic. I won't go into detail but I found myself starting to despise the story. The characters are strangers to me. The language and morality of the cast is alien. By the final part of this book I despised it, hoping that somehow it would be redeemed, and I wondered why the author could not have given Mary something similar to this ending without degenerating Darcy & Lizzy like she did.

This was terrible, I have no idea what possessed the publisher to even take this on. If however you'd like to read a beautiful version of Mary's story, may I suggest 'The Pursuit of Mary Bennet' by Pamela Mingle.

I received a eARC of this book from Netgalley. This is my honest review.

The premise of this book was interesting: to tell the story of the forgotten middle sister Mary from Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice. The first part of the book was engaging--Mary's ill-fated interest in Mr. Collins and misapprehension of his character was well-portrayed. But once the events in the final chapter of the original Pride and Prejudice are reached, that's when things begin to go a bit sideways. In order to make Mary a sympathetic character, the characters of those we hold near and dear (particularly Lizzy and Darcy, but also Colonel FitzWilliam) are altered beyond recognition. On the plus side, I found the writing style compelling and the pacing of the story excellent, but surely it should be possible for Mary to find her own Mr. Darcy without sabotaging the life of the Mr. Darcy who we all know and love?

I loved this book! If you are a die-hard Pride and Prejudice fan tread with caution, it will throw off everything you love about Pride and Prejudice. I loved how beautifully the author captures the nuances of being Mary. The book reveals just the right amount and yet leaves you wanting for more. The book is upsetting, it's happy, it's sad, it's everything you'd expect a novel to be when talking of Mary B.
I loved it!

As a big fan of Pride and Prejudice, I was eager to read this title. It did not disappoint!! I reveled in the time of Jane Austen and thoroughly enjoyed this book. Austen lives on!

It’s almosr an impossible task to attempt any work related to Jane Austen but Katherine Chen has done an admirable job. There are echoes of Austen’s language but the plot is very different and takes some feminist liberties that I much appreciated. The story really takes off after Mary comes to stay at Pemberly. Her adventures and misadventures, and ultimate triumphs, made for a diverting read.

Mary B. - Spoilers
I really wanted to like this book but I ended up really hating it. I suppose I’m too much of a Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice fan though I am assuming that Janeites are the target audience for Mary B. This is the story of Mary Bennet and it takes in her point of view as to the events in Pride and Prejudice and beyond. There were elements of the novel I did enjoy; the thought that perhaps Mary had talent in writing and would become a published writer was clever, the story that she was writing, Leonora, Queen of the Danes, the plot which was sprinkled throughout the book, was also entertaining, the part of the book where Mr. Austen passes away and necessitated that the family needing to leave Longbourn was also a good plot twist. It was needed to see what would happen to Mrs. Austen, Kitty and Mary. In addition, a key component in books that reference Jane Austen’s works is the writing and in this case was fair.

The other important element of Austen spinoffs for this reader is how the authors treat the characters that were created by Jane Austen and this is where the book fails miserably. I never understand why writers feel the need to change the very nature of the characters that Jane Austen created. I like to think that Miss Austen had a very strong opinion about her characters and probably wrote them in just the way she wanted. I’m not saying people cannot change but most individual’s basic character changes little. The changes in these characters were necessary to try to make the book's implausible plot work. To begin with we find that Georgiana Darcy, who wasn’t even in the book, is not a very nice or generous person. Then there is poor Colonel Fitzwilliam who instead of a good steady friend of Darcy’s, we find that he is a narcissistic womanizer. Charlotte Collins (nee Lucas) the practical and decent girl becomes mean-spirited and willing to take advantage of people. The most egregious character assassination is with Lizzy herself who we come to find is more enamored with her clothes and jewelry than she is with her husband and she not only is frightened of child birth but feels having children is a duty instead of wanting to have children because she loves her husband. Who is this person? I will vouch to say that it is not Elizabeth Bennet. Then there is Darcy and Mary Bennet who I will come to later. The heart of Jane Austen novels are her characters so it is unforgivable in my mind that none are what they seem.

The plot also was too much for this reader’s delicate sensibilities. Not one but two men actually fall in love with Mary Bennet one of them being Darcy. Mary Bennet may have her good qualities but this plot invention makes one’s head spin. Darcy is a man who prides himself (pun intended) to always do the right thing so as a married man, even if he had feelings for Mary, he would never make them known to her. It would have been improper to do so and again, it is not who Fitzwilliam Darcy is. As for Mary, she also fell in love and had an affair with Colonel Fitzwilliam. We are talking about Mary Bennet who saw the consequences to her family of Lydia’s indiscretion and less we forget, Mary is the most pious of all the Bennets. It is not something that Mary or any woman of good character would have done. After her affair is over, she finds out about Darcy’s feelings for her and returns those feelings since Darcy is also the one who encourages Mary in her writing and helps get her novel published. We find that Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage is all a sham which is no way to treat two of the most beloved characters in all of English literature.

Seriously, why couldn’t Lizzy be the one who encourages Mary, i.e. have women supporting other women instead of being jealous of one another? I for one am so tired of those stereotypes. How clever would it have been if Mary became a published writer and a favorite aunt of her sister’s children? Now that would have been a tribute to Jane Austen.

This is really 3.5 Stars. I have a like/ dislike relationship with this book. It was extremely difficult for me to get past the first third of it and marginally difficult for me to get through the remaining two-thirds. Mary B. is surrounded by beautiful sisters while she is quite plan. Her Mother and her beautiful sisters never tire of telling her how plain she is. The Bennet sisters are raised to be wives- wives of wealthy landowners specifically. Poor Mary is the only sister that is not expected to fulfill this destiny. This book is the story of Mary’s life. It tends to go on and on in places but somewhere , about the middle of the book, I became very interested in Mary. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review.

A formidable ‘series’ novel to Pride and Prejudice from Mary’s point of view. Chen writes in a similar manner to Austin and I was taken back to Longbourne instantly through Mary’s story.
Interesting point of view through Mary that covers the events of PP while adding her own story thereafter. Well done for fans of Austin!

Does the B stand for Bennett or B***h?

I love Pride & Prejudice and enjoy reading the various spin-offs, sequels, and fanfics in Austen World. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book. It's a depressing, ridiculous tale with characters who bear no resemblance to Jane Austen's originals.

The first third of the book is a well-written, Austen style, re-telling of the events of P&P from Mary’s perspective. The author added some touching depth to Mary’s childhood and even managed to make the obsequious Mr. Collins, if not into hero material, at least more sympathetic. Mary falls in love with Mr. Collins and the two develop a nice friendship.

If you’re an Austen fan, shut the book at the end of Part One and you’ll find it a tolerable book. If you read on, you’ll find a hot mess. There’s also really no way to discuss this book without spoilers so there are some in the following review.

In the second two-thirds of the book, Mary B. turns into Mary Sue of fanfiction fame. Even though she’s mostly an unlikeable, sharp-tempered shrew, not only does drunken lout Col. Fitzwilliam Darcy (almost totally unrecognizable from the affable Colonel Darcy of P&P) but Darcy himself fall head over heels for Mary. **eyeroll** It felt more like a self-insert tween fanfiction than a competent re-telling and extension of the beloved P&P story.

Mary visits Pemberley about 6 months after the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is expecting but struggling with her pregnancy. Mary, bored with the life of the idle rich, starts writing a novel. Darcy befriends and encourages her, reading passages (which we’re also treated to—ugh!) and advising on the plot. During Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Mary and Darcy become close friends.

About midway through her novel writing, Col. Fitzwilliam shows up at Pemberley, drunk and roaring, in the middle of a storm, and mistakes Mary B. for a maidservant. Because an Earl’s son is likely to mistake a lady, dressed as she was, with her accent, in Regency England. **eyeroll**

Mary is utterly bitchy to him (She’s often sharp-tongued and unlikeable) and so begins their hate-to-love (or if not love, at least sex) relationship. After a few brief verbal sparring matches, Mary is totally willing to give up her virtue to the man who calls her his “ugly little thing.” I question, given her sister Lydia’s disastrous match, why she would do this without a second thought. He teaches her to ride, both him and his horse, and they eventually have a secret engagement.

When Mary is called away to London to deal with Lydia’s illness, Col. Fitzwilliam completely ignores his promise to Mary and gets engaged to Miss Caroline Bingley. It’s implied that Darcy knew about their illicit relationship and their secret engagement yet does nothing to make Col. Fitzwilliam honor it. Does that sound like the Darcy of P&P to you? Me neither.

In a fit of pique, Mary takes Col. Fitzwilliam’s beloved horse and goes for a long ride. Even though she admits the horse is tired, she forces it to jump a fence, shattering the horse’s legs. Of course, the horse must be put down, to Col. Fitzwilliam’s devastation. Mary seems to feel no remorse for the animal's death but is soon banished from Pemberley. Not before Darcy can confess that he should never have married Elizabeth but should have chosen someone like Mary instead. **eyeroll**

The Elizabeth of this book is nearly totally unrecognizable from the character we meet in P&P. She suffers a stillbirth about 60% of the way through the book and just decides that she and Darcy will never have sex again because she didn’t want more kids. Also, that he doesn’t love her but just wants a broodmare for Pemberly. I don't know why--it's not really explained much more than "after the tragedy she changed her mind!" The stillbirth was indeed tragic (and I would personally have appreciated a warning as I would never have requested the book had I known about it) but Elizabeth is so altered to be unrecognizable, both before and after the event.

The other characters don’t fare much better. After a brief deathbed chat about how much they both love sex, Lydia dies with Mary at her side. No one much mourns Lydia and Mary seems pretty much satisfied that her sister found the end she deserved. Similarly, with about 10% of the book left, Mr. Bennett perishes of a stroke in the middle of a paragraph. The other characters from P&P scarcely appear so they remain mostly unaltered.

Inexplicably, after her father's death, Mary decides that, instead of moving to Jane’s house (she’s not welcome at Pemberley after the whole emotional affair with Darcy), she’ll stay on and be a servant/governess for the Collins. I have no idea why. It made no sense at all. I think it was so we could discover how Charlotte grew fat after her marriage.

Eventually, Mary publishes her god-awful novel and gets enough money to live in a cottage by herself. And that's it. Roll credits.

Ms. Chen is a gifted writer. If she’d written an original story, without the P&P characters, it might have even worked. But this novel just doesn’t. I hated Mary by the end and I cannot recommend this book.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I just could not get into this book as much as I thought I would. I do like to read Pride and Prejudice stories about the other sisters but this one I just couldn't finish.

Mary B promises to be Pride and Prejudice from Mary Bennet's perspective. Mary is everyone's least-favorite Bennet sister, and her spin-offs range from hilariously awful to just another chance for poor Mary to be overlooked.

The beginning of this story focuses on two questions that everyone who's read Pride and Prejudice has asked: Why doesn't Mr Bennet have more time for the daughter who tries so hard to be sensible? Why didn't Mr. Collins and Mary fall in love, when they would so clearly live happily ever after? Sure, social-climber Collins might be too self-absorbed to notice the Bennet sister who would clearly make him happiest, but why doesn't Mrs. Bennet shove Mary under his nose? I was happy to see the author of Mary B wondering the same things.

After a promising beginning, this novel then pairs Mary with whoever is nearest. Mary and Mr. Collins makes perfect sense, but her next romance, with Col. Fitzwilliam, seemed born from a desire not to add any new characters to the cast, rather than any spark that could be fanned into a flame. There's a strange part where Mary and Col. Fitzwilliam run around Pemberley, boinking each other and encouraging the servants' rumor that the spare rooms are haunted. I guess Mary might be attention-starved enough to take that risk, but wouldn't the example of Lydia's shameful and disastrous marriage be a deterrent? (Especially since in this novel, Lydia dies in poverty, abandoned by Wickham. Which, I mean, Wickham would absolutely do.)

The next part of the book is some super weird Mary Bennett/Mr. Darcy fanfic, and even without the weird machinations to get Lizzie out of the picture, that is just not a pairing that makes any sense. Like, even if one day Lizzie Bennet woke up and decided that actually, she had married Darcy for his money and social connections, and actually they don't have anything in common, there isn't enough between Mary and Darcy to sustain a conversation, let alone a secret romance.

Oh, well, at least it was nice to know that other P&P readers had the same questions about poor Mary in the original.

Mary B, an imagining from the perspective of the middle Bennet daughter from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, gives readers a slice of life at Longbourne (and later Pemberley) before, during, and after the events of the much loved novel. The plot is organized into three parts, each with a specific tone (maudlin?, venturesome?, introspective?) suggestive of Mary’s own levels of self-realization.

As the story begins, the character of Mary is established as a person who has already largely accepted the labels given to her by those of her acquaintance. She feels lonely, short on prospects, and misunderstood even by those close to her - even her attempts to make light of her own flaws are largely misconstrued. The middle of the novel finds Mary at Pemberley, where she finds both an unexpected source of support in a new hobby, but a second chance at love. As the story concludes (and after a little heartache) she is left to make some choices in how to live out the rest of her life. Her final choice, while unconventional, is her own kind of happy ending.

The good stuff: The author clearly has a good ear for Austen’s use of language even if she is a bit dismissive of Regency-era conventions. I enjoyed this nearly as much as any number of other P&P retellings, and was genuinely surprised at a number of turns in the plot. In general, I enjoyed Mary’s rise to self-actualization and the curious conclusion to the book.

The stuff that will likely annoy P&P traditionalists: Some characters (traditional favorites) are portrayed in a less than favorable light. Certain, unlikely choices are presented to our main characters - which suggest a clear departure form the societal norms for the Regency Era. Mary is, in a number of senses, more a “modern woman” of this era rather than her own.

This is not Pride and Prejudice. This is not a predictable love story, nor is it period-perfect. With all that said, read the book. See if it makes you like Mary just a little better.

It is a bold, and perhaps dangerous, mission to "reimagine" a much beloved classic novel like PRIDE & PREJUDICE. Ms. Chen demonstrated courage in taking on this challenge, as well as skill in presenting her story.

Make no mistake, rabid Austenites may be outraged. The characters in Mary B do not conform to Ms. Austen's script and, although I really enjoyed the book, I did not approve of the behavior of most of the characters. Let's just agree that the reader who enjoys the book, as I did, has agreed to suspend their disbelief regarding character and plot issues.

One area that seemed most un-Austenlike was that we seemed veering towards a very unhappy ending. I felt like the characters were more Edith Wharton-like as they veered toward self-destruction and unhappiness. But, as the story reached its conclusion, I changed my mind; the ending was satisfactory and the character of Mary B fulfilled her destiny (as imagined by this author).

NetGalley provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Everyone knows Lizzy and Mr. Darcy fell in love and lived happily ever after. What this book presupposes is... maybe they didn't?

It take cohones to revisit one of English literature's most beloved heroines, and I'm not sure it was done exactly right here. Lizzy Bennet seen through the eyes of her sister Mary is shallow, spiteful, and a bit silly. Then there's the rest of the crew: Colonel Fitzwilliam, another previously genial enough character, reveals his surprisingly dark side. Georgiana turns out to be a bitch? A few of the Bennets have depressing ends. And Darcy is... soft. None of those developments felt true to the characters we've known and loved for generations.

But hearing from Mary for once? Now that is an interesting thought experiment. The author manages to plumb previously hidden depths in her dead-on impersonation of Jane Austen. And the ending feels meaty and satisfying.

Happily ever after is fun and all, but maybe it's time we heard from the frog for once.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! Free stuff doesn't color my opinion, honest.

I enjoyed it. I hated it. Katherine Chen's way with words is beautiful and noteworthy. The angst of Mary and the abuse she suffers is painful. The rejection of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is profound. To me there was no triumph in this rejection of a well-loved 200 year-old story. I felt Mary's story could have been told without decimating the original. I'm going to go watch my A&E version of 'Pride and Prejudice' and try to erase the memory of the conclusions in 'Mary B: A Novel.'

To out-right compare a true classic with any modern novel, is to immediately cast the new work into the shadow of an all time great. Could any measure up? IMO, no. But when an author chooses to use a classic as a stepping stool to the Top Shelf they should have their ducks in a row and facts in line. They owe these basics to the original, to readers, and to themselves.

I opened Mary B: a novel by Katherine J. Chen with an open mind, hoping for a fresh perspective from the author. What I found read like Chen, herself was not at all familiar with the P&P characters, their mannuerisms, period proper manners, phrasing, appearance, etc., etc., etc.

The star of Chen's story is the over-looked, over-shadowed middle sister Mary. Chen takes middle child syndrome and bumps it to a state of over-reaching. This attempt to make her more sympathetic did not always work for me. One minute I felt bad for Mary. . .the next, I found her cynical and irritating. Easily recognized, popular characters are kindred spirits with hallowed ground. While I applaud Katherine Chen's bravery in taking on The Bennet's she should've done her homework. Changing accepted facts and missteps with characters defined over 200 years ago left me feeling a genuine classic had been used for name recognition.

Chen has a well versed writing style. I feel sure when she pens a new novel, unrelated to any previously published work, readers will see her individual style and enjoy her unique voice. I am anxious to give her next novel a read and see.

*To Serious, devoted Austenites - scroll on by this one.

I saw this book in NetGalley and was so excited for another bit of Austen-esque escape. What I hoped to be an extension of one of my most favorite books, was a dark, twisted, totally non-Austen tale. No way would what have happened in this book have happened to the characters that the real Jane developed. Would definitely not recommend and have already deleted from my kindle library.