Audiobook Review: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

Eligible (The Austen Project, #4)
by Curtis Sittenfeld
Narrator: Cassandra Campbell
Pages: 13
Published by Random House Audio
Publication Date April 19, 2016
Goodreads

Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
This version of the Bennet family—and Mr. Darcy—is one that you have and haven’t met before: Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help—and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray.
Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master’s degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won’t discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane’s fortieth birthday fast approaches.
Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip’s friend neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . .
And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.

Sadly, at 20% Eligible took a nosedive. It became the most trashy version of The Bachler and strayed so far from Pride and Prejudice that it became unrecognizable. I wanted to follow in Colton’s footsteps and jump over a fence to put as much distance as possible between us.

Eligible put way too much focus on the reality show aspect and not enough on the characters. I slogged through hoping that Lydia’s scandal would somehow redeem the retelling. When Wickham’s indiscretions were revealed I said an audible “What!” and began taking my frustrations out on the audiobook. It didn’t fix the plotholes but it did ease my vexation and caused my boyfriend to point and laugh.

Cassandra Campbell is one of my favorite narrators. She has a soothing quality to her voice and has wonderful control and transition which Eligible so desperately needed. It was the only saving grace to the novel.

Eligible was disappointing, to say the least, and was a trainwreck from beginning to end. It was a book I’d been wanting to read so I’m happy to have done so however, I was relieved to finish the last page.

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