Have you ever read or heard of the book or film Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen? If you liked that book, I have a book called Debating Darcy, a book by awesome author Sayantani DasGupta, the author of The Force of Fire, a book I had reviewed last summer.
I just finished reading Debating Darcy.This book is pretty much a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Leela Bose, a Bengali-American girl in her junior high school. Lela is ambitious and is always up to a challenge. She always puts her best foot forward when it comes to her forensics meets, and she’s really good at debating. Until one day, on one of her debate meets, she meets Firoze Darcy, the president of his debate team from private school. He is the son of the President of Pemberley University, everyone’s dream university in the city. Darcy is very popular among students. But Leela has a different opinion about him.To Leela, Darcy is a snobby and nosy insufferable know it all, that everyone somehow loves. Leela thinks of him as her rival because of several disagreements they seem to have on debate topics. One day during a forensic meet, she meets Jishnu Waddedar, a Bengali high school student from another school who actually knew the Darcys very well. Leela and Jishnu become friends. She trusts him more than Darcy. Leela and Jishnu soon become good friends but then Jishnu soon shows his true colors.But this leads to a whole lot of drama along the way and all through the end. What will happen to Leela and Darcy’s rivalry? Will they ever turn the tables and become allies? What’s the shocking truth behind everything? Read this book to find out.
If you love books about love and friendship , I would highly recommend this book to you. This book is appropriate for ages above 12. This book covers topics of gender discrimination, harassment, diversity, prejudice, rivalry, friendship, classism and colorism.
This school year, I was on the forensics team and really enjoyed it. I was able to contribute some points to boost our team’s score. We won second place in the state and brought good scores home from meets. I could identify myself with Leela’s passion for forensics and public speaking. Leela also talked a lot about feminism and womens rights. My Forensics Topic was Women in Science. Just a reminder, debates aren’t the same as forensics. Debates cover a plan and an argument whereas Forensics is like a track and field event with different events you can choose and you can do some categories in groups.
Three Things I like about this book.
-The easy language filled with humor
-Cultural Diversity. I learnt a lot about Bengali culture.
-Themes covered in this book
If you are interested in reading this book, please order on Amazon or your local public library.