The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, which is based on the web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, was an absolute delight to read. The novel is a modern-day retelling of Jane Austen's beloved Pride & Prejudice, one which I think does justice to Austen's original characters and story. The star of the book is communications graduate student Lizzie Bennet, whose thesis project involves making video diary entries chronicling her life and that of her family, and posting them on the web with the help of her best friend, Charlotte Lu. Lizzie's path soon crosses with that of William D'Arcy, an arrogant and standoffish businessman who arrives in town when his friend, Bing Lee, rents a home near that of the Bennet's. What follows is a tale familiar show more to any fan of Pride and Prejudice, albeit one told from a 21st century perspective.

I've read a few great retellings of Jane Austen's novels, but The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet has to be my favourite. I love how faithful the authors are to Austen's original story, and how they develop each of the characters to be representative of Austen's yet unique and memorable on their own. I had not watched The Lizzie Bennet Diaries prior to reading this book, but I definitely plan to do so now.

Highly recommended to Jane Austen fans. show less

Despite being the novelisation of a web series based on a book, The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet manages to somehow inject the well-known story of Pride & Prejudice with a whole new layer of interest and meaning.
If you haven't seen the web series that this book is based upon, then a lot of it is going to seem quite confusing. It could also come off as cheesy and a bit odd at times. However, if you have seen it, then this book promises to unveil a load of secrets and unmentioned occurrences. While some come as a total shock and don't seem to correlate with the videos at all, others are the bits that you knew existed and always wondered about. For example, George Wickham's (very weak) walrus joke and the contents William Darcy's letter. show more While most of the key happenings were laid out in the videos, much of the detail and exposition were missing, and is added here. That said, it's possible that some of that was part of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries transmedia storytelling, but I didn't really pay enough attention to it all, so it was new to me.
I enjoy this book more than I expected I would. I really love the web series, and I didn't really think that this novel could live up to that, let alone bring more to play. However, it did. It adds a much more detailed, fleshed-out layer of story about Lizzie's professional life and her, not so much coming-of-age as, realisation-of-age. That experience of coming to terms with the realisation that, not only you, but everyone around you is growing up and moving on with their lives really spoke to me and hit at something very poignant to me at this point in my life. This novel explores a lot more themes around growing up and life choices than the web series did. Don't worry, it still has all the romance. In fact, it may even have more!
For me, it's these themes that makes this novel worthwhile. While I'm sure there are "better" novels out there that explore the same sort of stuff, if you're a fan of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, then you'll get a kick out of this. show less

As a story, as a look behind-the-(fictional)-scenes of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, I really liked this. I liked how it captured the characters, and fleshed out their relationships with Lizzie. Especially with Lizzie's dad, who is mostly absent from the vlogs. It was interesting getting to see Lizzie when she is not performing for the camera. She's less dramatic, more thoughtful and unsure.

I really liked how it filled in the gaps. Why Lizzie's social life only seemed to revolve around Charlotte and her sisters. Why Charlotte seriously considered the job proposal. Why Jane was able to move to cities so suddenly. Why some of the (mis)communication issues occurred. Why Lizzie agreed to go to Pemberley without doing much research about it show more beforehand. And so on.
There were also gaps I didn't know existed, and conversations I hadn't wondered about.

I was convinced by what Lizzie thought and what everyone did. Yes, I thought, I can believe this is the story behind the vlogs.

But I was not convinced that it was a written-as-things-unfold diary. It read like a first person narrative, rather than a diary in its use of past tense and dialogue and the way Lizzie sets the scene before she announces exciting news. (Was the author ever a 24 year old pen-and-paper diary keeper? I am not convinced, oh no.) I would have also found it more realistic had Lizzie made more references to what was going on around her while she was writing and maybe talked a tiny bit more about ordinary student things, like deadlines.

I suspect this would have been easier to overlook had I listened to Ashley Clements read the audiobook.

Do I recommend this? Absolutely! I think it would even work as a modern Pride and Prejudice retelling for someone who hadn't seen the series. But the vlogs are better. show less

Having been a huge fan of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube, and basically recommending the series to EVERYONE, this book is just what I needed to convert me into an even bigger fan.

I loved this book because it added such a layer of depth to what the videos on YouTube where all about.

Why did Lizzie want to start this in the first place? Is she being completely truthful in her videos? What happened when the camera wasn’t on? All these questions get answered!

I really loved this because it captured Lizzie’s voice perfectly. You can still feel her snark, her hopefulness, her contempt; we can feel everything she’s feeling.

It was like I was right in the middle of something amazing happening. While Lizzie’s videos where slowly show more gaining more and more views, I could really feel the book building up to something amazing. I could feel Lizzie’ character growth, as well as experience first-hand Jane’s and Lydia’s parts in Lizzie’s story. I almost felt like I was another Bennet sister witnessing the drama that was their life. I relished every second of it.

I also loved the fact that since this was a diary, we would get some insight as to what Lizzie actually felt. I was transported back to that time in my senior year where all I ever did on my free periods was clutch my phone desperately hoping for a new video to be uploaded in the LBD playlist.

Something that I found odd, yet wonderful, was the fact that I think I fell so quickly for Darcy in this book. Even when he was being a total asshat, I couldn’t help but smile at his awkwardness. Darcy is charming in a way that he never tries to be. I think that was wonderfully executed both on screen and on the page. I am a Darcy lover through and through!

The only complaint that I have is thtat the most pivotal parts of the book where either transcripted from the videos or glossed over. I wanted to see more emotion! More Lizzie and her frantic, disorganised thoughts!

However I really think this book did a wonderful thing; it took one of my all-time favorite books (and one of my all time favorite book adaptations for that matter) and brought it together.

You don’t really need to watch the series to read this book, but it’ll be a much more amazing experience if you watch the series first (or even concurrently with the book!).

Overall, a really well done adaptation that will bring new depth and meaning to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Hats off to Bernie Su & Kate Rorick. They’ve reaffirmed my love for this series in a wonderful way. I’d like to believe that Jane Austen herself would be amazed at the way this series has captured Pride and Prejudice.

Rating: 4.5 stars show less

Having been a huge fan of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube, and basically recommending the series to EVERYONE, this book is just what I needed to convert me into an even bigger fan.

I loved this book because it added such a layer of depth to what the videos on YouTube where all about.

Why did Lizzie want to start this in the first place? Is she being completely truthful in her videos? What happened when the camera wasn’t on? All these questions get answered!

I really loved this because it captured Lizzie’s voice perfectly. You can still feel her snark, her hopefulness, her contempt; we can feel everything she’s feeling.

It was like I was right in the middle of something amazing happening. While Lizzie’s videos where slowly show more gaining more and more views, I could really feel the book building up to something amazing. I could feel Lizzie’ character growth, as well as experience first-hand Jane’s and Lydia’s parts in Lizzie’s story. I almost felt like I was another Bennet sister witnessing the drama that was their life. I relished every second of it.

I also loved the fact that since this was a diary, we would get some insight as to what Lizzie actually felt. I was transported back to that time in my senior year where all I ever did on my free periods was clutch my phone desperately hoping for a new video to be uploaded in the LBD playlist.

Something that I found odd, yet wonderful, was the fact that I think I fell so quickly for Darcy in this book. Even when he was being a total asshat, I couldn’t help but smile at his awkwardness. Darcy is charming in a way that he never tries to be. I think that was wonderfully executed both on screen and on the page. I am a Darcy lover through and through!

The only complaint that I have is thtat the most pivotal parts of the book where either transcripted from the videos or glossed over. I wanted to see more emotion! More Lizzie and her frantic, disorganised thoughts!

However I really think this book did a wonderful thing; it took one of my all-time favorite books (and one of my all time favorite book adaptations for that matter) and brought it together.

You don’t really need to watch the series to read this book, but it’ll be a much more amazing experience if you watch the series first (or even concurrently with the book!).

Overall, a really well done adaptation that will bring new depth and meaning to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Hats off to Bernie Su & Kate Rorick. They’ve reaffirmed my love for this series in a wonderful way. I’d like to believe that Jane Austen herself would be amazed at the way this series has captured Pride and Prejudice. show less

As a standalone book, I do not know how I would rate this. However, as a fan of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries YouTube show (which, in its own right is going to be appealing to fans of Pride and Prejudice who like modernizations), this was a great supplement.

This is one of those books that got better as it went along. The earlier entries followed the videos pretty closely. Later, the text starts giving insights to what was going on behind the scenes that enrich the original. This is not because the book is badly written. Rather, this difference showcases the strengths of the different media. Early in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Lizzie shared rather indiscriminately. However, as the story progressed and she grew, she became more aware of where show more the line between public and private should be. This means that the show, necessarily, failed to show a lot of details about what was going on which the diary captures. (In other words, oh, that is what happened with Jane and Bing. I see.) show less

The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet is the book version of the webseries The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (look it up on YouTube), which is a contemporary 2010s retelling of Pride and Prejudice that uses social media to retell the classic story. As Lizzie's actual diary, this book goes through the same stories as the webseries, with more behind-the-scenes stuff that didn't make it into the YouTube videos. For instance, Lizzie's tour of San Francisco with William and Gigi Darcy is described. It's such a great retelling that left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling, but I suspect someone who's never seen the TSDoLB webseries wouldn't be getting the same story out of it. I still recommend it, though.