Book review of "The Other Bennet Sister"
With reflections on what makes great "fan service" in fan fiction
🚨By the way, the BBC has commissioned this story to be made into a TV series, so stay tuned for that! (And this post will be full of spoilers, so if you’re going to read the book, then bookmark this post and go read it first. THEN you can tell me what you agree and/or disagree with.)
Psst…I’ve also written a book review of “Pride and Prejudice” (in Lizzy’s Roast Vision). That book is one of the greatest rom-coms of all time.
However, this book I’m discussing here on “The Other Bennet Sister” about Mary’s story is not what I’d call a comedy. This book is more on the angsty drama side with bits of humor sprinkled throughout.
Fan service & what makes it work in a novel that continues a series…
When I think of fan service in a series, it’s essentially “giving the people what they want.” It requires you to know what all of the audience’s favorite moments were, and indulging them in more of that. It’s also throwing in those little splashes of pairing up that one couple that so many people were shipping (except they hadn’t quite got together in the original story).
When writing a story set in a universe that another author created, it’s hard to both match their style enough to captivate their fans plus give them something else new and interesting along with it. But I’m happy to say that this book accomplishes both. (Look, I’ve tried to read other Pride and Prejudice fan fiction that I couldn't not finish, so I do not compliment works like this lightly. P&P is a book I’ve read and re-read countless times, so yes, I’ll always have high standards here 😉.)
Fan service via complimentary story structure
If you look at the beats of the original Pride and Prejudice, the emotional highs and lows often occur right next to each other. Here’s an example from The Story Grid website analyzing Pride and Prejudice (note the red line at the bottom that tracks the joys and sufferings, with the greatest moment of happiness being the end where the red line shoots all the way to the top right of the whole graph:)
I point this out because it’s a beautiful visual representation of how the biggest emotional highs and lows are all spread out fairly evenly throughout the novel, which helps maintain the pacing. Plus, the weight of those very heavy emotional blows are precisely what set up the biggest emotional highs at the end so well. If the story was simply about girls whose lives were gradually getting a little bit better every day, then the climb to success feels boring to read. But when catapulted off of the back of a tragedy, it carries bigger emotional impact.
Structural mirroring:
How “The Other Bennet Sister” reflects fan favorite moments
These are the key moments I found reflected well in this new novel:
Lizzy’s rejection by Darcy 🪞➡️ Mary’s rejection by society
In Act 1 of the original P&P, most of Lizzy’s behavior toward Darcy throughout the book is a result of the fact that she has labelled him an enemy after he insulted her at the Meryton Assembly. It fuels a great deal of spite against him for most of the book.
Similarly, we see Mary going to the Meryton Assembly and trying to fit in, despite her vision not being great, so she secretly has a pair of spectacles to put on only when she gets desperate about not being able to see so well. Mary has saved up all her allowance for a dress and really tries to make an effort to enjoy herself as the housekeeper Mrs. Hill suggests (despite all the teasing and emotional harassment of her sisters and mother). Though terribly shy, Mary has a few happy moments when the apprentice who made her spectacles asks her to dance with him. She is adorably happy, and he loves books just like her, and it’s all going so well…and then she is warned that her mother is watching and doesn’t approve. Suddenly Mary’s reputation is on the line because she is pushing the rules of society and dancing with someone “beneath her” in society. Poor Mary isn’t allowed to be with any “shopkeeper” because her mother will only tolerate her marrying a gentleman. As her mother says on page 74:
‘Lydia told me you have been dancing – with the oculist’s son! With the boy who made your glasses! I said it couldn’t be true –that even you, Mary, would have more consideration than to subject me to such an embarrassment. His father keeps a shop, you know. With a bell on the door!”
Thus Mary is shamed by her Mother and caves into the peer pressure to stop dancing with him, and then suffers the torment of “how dare she dance with him” accusations all the way home, and as a result, shuts herself up from ever trying to “be pretty” and seek a man’s affections ever again. Throughout the book, she continues to belittle herself to try and avoid that public embarrassment again and to avoid hurting the feelings of anyone else (because the boy actually did like her, and she could basically never speak to him again). 🥹
The pain of this moment actually cuts deeper than the original P&P because there is nothing comical about it, and Mary doesn’t try to “rise above it” like Lizzy did to combat Darcy’s insult. Mary doesn’t have the support that Lizzy did from her father, nor the approval from her mother of having good looks. Mary uses silence and study as her weapons to try and retreat from future pain.
Here is where she really tried to use her voice, failed, and then silenced herself thoroughly.
She decides to never draw any attention to herself ever again in protest, but also as a way of protecting herself from more public shame.
SIDE NOTE:
There’s an alternate fandom of Mary saying the Mary represents the silent Goth girls of her generation, and honestly, I am COMPLETELY here for that interpretation (even if this retelling didn’t totally go that way).
Lizzy’s rejection of Mr. Collins 🪞➡️ Mary’s interaction & then rejection of Mr. Collins (and Mr. Ryder later)
Yes, we get ANOTHER rejection of Mr. Collins 😂
I loved seeing how Mary had considered that she’d be a good match for Mr. Collins back when she was younger and more eager to please her parents and try to “do the right thing” by marrying him to keep their home property in the family. It’s typical that her mother would initially dismiss the idea and obsess about Lizzy marrying him…until Charlotte steps in and reels Mr. Collins in to be her husband first.
But then to see how married life with Charlotte and Mr. Collins would actually play out after Mary’s father suddenly does die and forces Mrs. Bennet and Mary to move out from Longbourne was even more intriguing.
A few years later, after Mr. Collins finally realizes that Charlotte really has become “vacant” in their marriage, there is Mary visiting them and sitting in her father’s library, loving nothing more than to read and study all day…just like him. (Things Charlotte wasn’t ever fond of).
Mr. Collins’ loneliness comes out very strongly at last after he’d started teaching Mary how to read the Greek alphabet to study classical literature…and suddenly Mr. Collins and Mary share something that brings them together in ways Charlotte never had with him.
On page 282, Mr. Collins confesses:
“I did not see what was right before my eyes. If I had not been so thoughtless or so hasty, I might have chosen someone who, in time, could perhaps have learned to love me. I might have chosen you.'
Mary could not speak. Two emotions rose up in her, with such power that she closed her eyes, waiting for them to abate a little so that she could control herself again. The first was pity. It moved her very much to see Mr Collins expose his secret self to her, to confess his loneliness and despair. She was no stranger to such sensations, and they provoked in her the strongest response of fellow feeling. But at the same time, she found herself consumed with rage, with a fury so intense that she wanted to hammer her fists at him, to shout and scream.
Why were you so blind? Why didn't you see me, when I did all I could to make you notice? Why did you not understand that of all of them I was the only one, the only one, who might have suited you? Why didn't you ask me? Then I would be here and settled and secure and content - and we would have lived better together than you do now, because I would have been more grateful, kinder than she is - but she took a few deep breaths and looked up, certain of what had to be said.
“I am very touched, Mr. Collins, by your words. You speak so warmly that I cannot fail to be moved. Like you, I have not been used to much affection and, for those reasons, will always think fondly of what you have said. But I think you understand as well as I do that nothing can come of it.’
And Mary instead, encourages him to speak to his wife Charlotte more often and withdraws, isolating herself yet again until she can find an opportunity to leave Longbourne again.
Then there was a bonus cringe proposal!
Except unlike that of Lizzy rejecting Mr. Collins in the original “Pride and Prejudice,” here we have a guy who really only liked Mary because his best friend liked Mary, which made her seem more appealing.
Mary has also been persuaded to wear nicer dresses by now, and she’s unpretentious (which apparently is a huge rarity in London at those times, especially when compared to women like Caroline Bingley, still prowling about in search of a husband.)…so Mary appears special to him.
This new character, Mr. Ryder, had been encouraged by Mrs. Bennet in every way possible to propose, (even though by this time Mary was already in love with another man) and when this scene on page 590 opened with:
The next morning, promptly at eleven o'clock, Mr Ryder rang the bell. Mary was alone; her mother had gone to see Dr Simmons, and her aunt had taken the children for their morning walk. Mr Ryder looked pleased to discover this. He appeared smarter than ever, in a coat Mary had not seen before, his hair neatly brushed. He strolled into the drawing room with the greatest ease and, when invited to sit down, took up his position in what had become his accustomed chair.
...I knew.
Anytime the heroine is caught alone suddenly and the man turns up looking “different,” all us Austen loyalist readers just know, a proposal storm is brewing 😂
And the whole time while reading it, I thought “Please, don’t do it. Mr. Ryder. Just don’t. She doesn’t love you. Your purpose in the plot should be to send a message to your friend, whom she really loves…just shut your mouth before you say something you’ll regret…”
But no. He does it. But worse than proposing, he asks her to elope with him without even “putting a label” on it. (Translation: Be my mistress, and maybe if you’re lucky, I might marry you eventually and/or at least put you up in a house and give you an allowance like a well-kept private whore. Sure you won’t be able to mingle in “polite society” and will disgrace your whole family, but hey, it’ll be fun. 😉)
Like I said, CRINGE proposal.
It should be said though that most of Mary’s transformations in the book were best supported by the Gardiners. I was so happy to see more scenes of the Gardiners, for I always thought they were the best little pair of matchmakers in bringing Lizzy and Darcy together in the original P&P:
(not an actual quote but a clear summary ➡️) “Come, Lizzy! We must tour the house of the man whose proposal you so ruthlessly rejected!” 😂 Perhaps the grounds of Pemberley might change your mind about him?”
It’s because Mary can live with the Gardiner family that she has a place to stay in London where she can blossom into an adult without her mother’s constant emotional terrorism.
When she finally finds her voice
Now I had the quotes lined up, but I can’t give away every little thing.
So, suffice it to say that when at last Mary is alone with the man she really wants, she summons the strength to profess her love to him instead of just sitting there and waiting like she has with everyone else because that’s what society insisted she must do.
At last, here she really used her voice and expressed herself thoroughly, and was rewarded for doing so at last! That’s what made the ending so satisfying. Thematically, I felt like this was what the whole book was truly about.
It was a wonderful read, and I highly recommend it!
P.S. On my Intergalactizen’s Guide to Taming Earthlings Tale…
The finale of Season 2 for my Sci-Fi Comedy is still under construction. Next weekend looks promising for that release, so stay tuned! Meanwhile, you can catch up on any episodes you missed by browsing through the episode index here:
Thanks for reading!