The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch

Taub (Still Star-Crossed) makes her adult debut with a clumsy fantasy remix of Pride and Prejudice. Most of the book is presented as a long letter that Lydia, the youngest and flightiest Bennet daughter, is writing to a purposefully obfuscated correspondent about her life story, including her discovery of her magical powers and subsequent use of them to turn her cat familiar into her human sister Kitty, her unthinking bargain with the demonic dragon Wormenheart, and her “elopement” with Mr. Wickham, who here is reimagined as Wormenheart’s demonic son. Meanwhile, in the frame narrative, Lydia befriends Georgiana Darcy, who, in a bizarre defiance of canon, is at school in Newcastle, where Wickham’s regiment is stationed. Unfortunately, the momentum of this frame plot relies entirely on Mr. Darcy making nonsensical choices, the Austen pastiche is stilted, and Taub favors a flowery style (“Young ladies are met with prognostications of doom for the slightest transgression, and I feel that is unwise”), which creates some dissonance between the narrative voice and the characterization of Lydia. The witchy conceit is fun enough that all this might be forgivable, but the novel’s worst failing is its treatment of the lone character of color, who is transfigured partway through into a magical rock and must be saved by Lydia. Given the proliferation of Austen retellings, readers will be better served elsewhere. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM Partners. (Oct.)