Barnes and Noble on the Best Jane Austen retellings

In the wake of the release of Austenland (a movie based on the book by Shannon Hale), the Barnes & Noble blog covered their favorite Jane Austen updates, including one by yours truly.

Four years ago, Elliott North rejected the proposal of Kai, the man she loves, to join him in going off to seek his fortune. Now, he’s returned to her estate, successful beyond her wildest imagining and holding a serious grudge. Sound familiar? Peterfreund has taken Persuasion and retold it as a dystopic YA romance, in which Elliott North (Austen’s Anne Elliott) is part of an elitist clan of Luddites, the anti-technology class that rose to power in the wake of a societal collapse spurred on by an overreliance on genetic manipulation. That crisis led to the offspring of all modified people to become mentally “reduced,” unable to fend for themselves without the help of Luddites. Kai is what’s called a “Post,” the healthy offspring of Reduced grandparents, and he seeks a future of equality with the Luddites. Peterfreund’s wildly inventive premise is fully realized, and it’s fun to watch the way her story follows or alters the lines of Austen’s timeless original.

Read the whole article for their other recommendations, including one I’ll be all over come October!

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