A review by bickie
Debating Darcy by Sayantani DasGupta

Loved the reworkings of the characters' relationships (embarrassing family => embarrassing speech & debate team, Jay/Bingley, Colin/Tomi) and the transfer to a high school setting. Loved Lidia's agency and the exploration of harassment/predation rather than just having it be a (sexist) plot device. Loved how the characters discussed important issues through their debates - and the discussion about how Bose Electronics is not German but American founded by a Bengali. Loved the Desi rep.

The book would have benefited from a good editor. Many of the insertions of Pride and Prejudice quotes verbatim didn't entirely fit, and some of the private v. public school dynamic seemed a bit heavy-handed at times though often, economic privilege was called out in an organic way (such as, affording to have multiple inhalers everywhere). While I liked Jay's characteristic changes from P&P, the reason why Bingley ghosted him was hard to understand. The wolf analogy was also a little hard to understand, though it did seem on par with a high school junior's work. In addition, some of the other dialog was weird, such as when Jishnu says, "It's my school, I can do whatever I want! Now come here, and let me do whatever I want!"

Definitely a fun read with good rep. Nothing really racy.

Spoiler

Lidia is observed in a room alone with Jishnu (Wickham), who is nearly entirely undressed though she is not. She is rumored to have had sex with him, though that is not the case.