Virginia Kantra

My loyal readers will know that I'm typically wary of any book that takes an old favorite and attempts to transpose it on the modern-day. However, I trusted Virginia Kantra with Meg & Jo, and was not disappointed, so I opted to take the plunge with her again as she takes on the fruits of L. Frank Baum's imagination.

This time, my own failure to read the publisher's description closely got me into trouble. The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale is not described as a "modern retelling" of anything, but I assume that it was (perhaps not unfairly), and was therefore disappointed that, aside from the fact that Dorothy lived in Kansas with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry, and some cleverly punny character names, there really isn't much relation between this book and either Baum's book, or the movie based on it.

That being the case, I wish Kantra hadn't tied her book to Oz at all. This is an excellent book on it's own, and doesn't need to be propped up by allusions to anyone else's work. Change the names of the characters, and Kantra has given us something original and well-written. Tied to such a cultural touchstone, however, fans are bound to be disappointed.

ps. Oz devotees who haven't read Finding Dorothy must do so, as soon as possible.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.… (meer)

I’m a huge fan of Little Women. I’ve read the book, seen like every movie adaptation, and I’ve seen a play version that was a musical. This is the first time I’ve read a retelling, and I’d say it was pretty decent. I loved Jo and Eric and their storyline. Meg and John annoyed me a bit. I love how the author incorporated parts of the original book except in a modern way, but if you’re a fan of Little Women, you’ll definitely catch those Easter eggs. But I’m looking forward to the sequel because I want to see what Beth and Amy do with their lives.… (meer)

I was delighted to get my copy of Beth and Amy because I’d just loved reading Virginia Kantra’s first book about the March sisters, Meg and Jo. Actually I was looking forward to this sequel pretty much as soon as I’d finished Meg and Jo. These two novels are modernizations of the classic Little Women, but retold more as a present-day what-if with the beloved March sister than a beat-for-beat retelling. The characters maintain their personalities, but the setting is realistically modern, so their choices and situations are quite different.

This one focuses on the two younger sisters, and picks up a little while after the first novel. Towards the end of Meg and Jo, Beth gets a country music gig in Branson, and I thought, well, ok, that’s not very Beth-like, but I’ll reserve judgement until the next book. At the beginning of Beth and Amy, Beth’s on tour, with a successful singing and songwriting career, and the fact none of that sounds very Beth-like leads to a lot of the tension in her story arc. Everything made so much sense for our beloved March sister!

I loved every part of Bethie’s storyline, it was such a successful modernization for this favorite character.



Meanwhile, Laurie and Amy getting married has always been kind a sticky spot in the Little Women storyline, even though Jo doesn’t seem to mind and even considers their surprise marriage a good laugh. But dating her sister’s ex feels kind of yucky, and there’s that unpleasant feeling that Amy wanted the Laurence life more than she wanted Laurie.

In this retelling, Jo still has her special friendship with Trey, without ever changing from childhood or even seeming to notice that he’s a man with romantic feelings for her. Their relationship remains important in her life even when she meets and marries Eric. As an adult reader, I’ve understood more and more what Jo saw in Professor Bhaer, and in this retelling, he remains the stable, affectionate center of impulsive, creative Jo’s life. Over the course of this book, Amy’s feelings develop from a little-girl crush on a boy who’s nice to her, into a woman’s love. The novel really shows two important but very different relationships in Trey’s life, without any overlap, which made the whole thing feel much less icky. Also, Amy is developed more and more, finally moving beyond her role as the pretty baby of the family.

This part is a bit of a spoiler, but one of the major themes is about all the March girls coming home as adults, and I really don’t like North Carolina life. This was in Meg and Jo, too, as Jo and Eric tried to figure out their life together, and I just could not get into that choice. If you have a choice between a creative career in the city or hearing people constantly talking super slowly about college basketball, how is that even a choice? Ugh, especially for Amy, who still had a crowd of mean girls from high school (obviously no one was never going to leave NC or move on) in town. UGH NO. Basically, the narrative is leading to a story homecoming and family, and I know where it’s all going, but I’m still thinking up ways the girls can still escape.

Overall, I enjoyed Beth and Amy so much! It was a great reimagining of some of our favorite literary characters, with growing independence and affectionate sisterhood. And, bonus, if you don’t think that moving to small town NC is giving up on all life and joy and creativity, you’ll probably like this even more than I did.… (meer)