I can't believe this novel was so highly rated. I felt like the writing was terrible, the main character was so whiny and spiteful, and there were way too many pointless sections.

In regards to the pointless sections, there were many mini scenes that I felt were so pointless - and so short (I'm pretty sure there was at least one one paragraph scene) - and so many parts where Sarah focuses on using her senses to feel things around her (or notices something about her or the things around her) that really added nothing to the story.

Sarah really was a terrible character. She was so spiteful about her job (it didn't seem like the daughters gave her as much trouble as she cursed them for) and John, and she was so foolishly in love with Ptolemy for barely any reason (and she didn't even end up with him), that she really lacked any likeable aspects.

The part of the book where we learn about Mrs. Hill's secret and John's past almost made the book decent in the way things intersected and started to make sense, but again it didn't add much to the story - especially when John ran away, like usual, and Sarah ended up finding him (neither of them really learning anything or having fought for their happy ending).

I felt the family's life was terribly interwoven into the story - they might as well not have even been in it. They just felt so separate and flat that I couldn't care less about whatever was happening with them, either.

For all the hype and recommendations, this book really fell flat. I'm not familiar with Austen's work so I can't compare it to the original, but as a standalone it was just dreadful. I didn't find it well written, the characters were bland, the plot and subplots were boring, and I just couldn't enjoy it at all.