Review: Heartstone, Elle Katharine White
Although Heartstone may be a retelling of Pride & Prejudice, just with mythical creatures and in a slightly different realm, it works quite well as a novel.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pride & Prejudice is a literary titan of love stories. (The popular consciousness generally forgets that the book is also a social satire.) Although Elle Katharine White’s debut novel, Heartstone, leans more towards the love story side of things, she hasn’t quite forgotten about the social criticism, either.
Heartstone takes Elizabeth Bennet, here known as Aliza Bentaine; most of her sisters, with the exclusion of Kitty; Messrs. Darcy, Wickham, and Collins, also all with new names; Lady Catherine de Bourgh; and all the rest, then puts them into a mythical realm. Dragons and dragon riders both exist. Also, Alistair Daired (Mr. Darcy), is, in fact, one of these dragon riders, which is understandably a source of pride for him.
On the whole, Heartstone is a very good retelling of Pride & Prejudice, particularly on the strength of its new setting and the depth of worldbuilding White manages to pack in. I’m happy to give it 4/5 stars. Let’s break that down.
The Good
Someone knows her mythological creatures, and it’s White. Not only does she point out that dragons and wyverns are different — they are, and anyone who tells you differently is lying — she namechecks wyverns, nixies, valkyries, lindworms, and more in the course of the story. Aliza befriends hobgoblins and speaks a bit of their language. In fact, there are multiple languages mentioned within the story, including languages for dragons and wyverns. All of this contributes to the feeling that the kingdom of Arle is not just a fantasy form of England, but that it is an actual world onto itself.
Additionally, Aliza retains the wit and humor of her inspiration, Elizabeth Bennet. White opts for first-person narration. It’s easy to sink in with Aliza to be taken in by Wydrick (Wickham), flustered and embarrassed by Alastair, and so on and so forth. Yours truly definitely had a couple moments of smirking and snickering during certain scenes. One also suspects that White has seen the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride & Prejudice and decided to one-up it during one particular scene. Aliza’s narration shines in those particular chapters. Indeed, it’s also clear to see that White works in some of the social aspects of the original story by not having Aliza be the proper class to ride dragons. I’ll not say more than that.
The novel also benefits from having a fairly solid plot that runs together with the retelling, and using the more fantastic characters to help keep both stories moving. Both Aliza and Alastair have something to do to combat the fantasy threat that looms large over Arle, even if Aliza pointedly doesn’t want to kill. As for the dragons and wyverns, Akarra in particular seems like a great companion for Alastair.
The Not-So-Good
At the same time, though, it was occasionally tough to enjoy Heartstone because I knew where the love story was going. It’s a minor quibble, all things considered. Besides, White takes the time to actually reconfigure events from the source novel slightly differently. Alas, it isn’t necessarily enough to completely disguise what’s going on, but I don’t think that was the point anyway. The text also gets points for not using the iconic opening line, otherwise known as the one I parodied to start this review. (It’s on the back cover instead, and I’m okay with that.)
Furthermore, one bit of the plot just didn’t work for me. White adds in a subplot with Gwyn, the Charlotte Lucas analogue. Though it does get resolved, it feels like it gets a significant portion of the early text, then gets wrapped up somewhat quickly about midway through. As it also happens to be part of the worldbuilding I like so much, I must confess I was slightly disappointed.
The Recommendation
Honestly, pick up and read Heartstone. Even if you don’t much like Pride & Prejudice, this fantasy retelling is accessible, does a very nice job creating a fantasy world, and has a fine analogue Elizabeth Bennet in the form of Aliza Bentaine. My negative points are minor at best.
Next: 12 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2017
You can find Heartstone at the bookseller of your choice.