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Lex Croucher’s YA look at cliquiness and social mores mixes the modern sensibility of an episode of Bridgerton with the fancy parties and social hobnobbing one expects… from an episode of Bridgerton and throws some Mean Girls in on top. Reputation is definitely not period accurate, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t find it fun, trenchant and compelling.
Naïve Georgiana Ellers is having one heck of a season. Her scholarly parents have gone to the seaside for the summer as a cure for her mother and dumped Georgiana with her dull-as-dry-toast aunt and uncle in the country. She already has a strike against her, being lower-down in the social pecking order, so things are not easy for her socially.
But then George meets the popular, rebellious Frances Campbell and her cadre of friends. Frances admits Georgiana to their world, nicknaming her “George”. Soon they’re dancing the night away, tippling cognac and wine together, attending mixed-gender parties where talk of sex and sex games flows freely, sniffing illicit substances from snuff boxes, and gossiping. George is searching for true love, and may have found it in the form of the handsome and kind Thomas Hawsley, who still mourns his late mother and is wholly unimpressed with George’s wild friends. But George soon finds herself tangled up in a scandal connected to Frances, who, after disappearing upstairs with a man during a party becomes the subject of much gossip. Frances presumes George betrayed her, and their friendship turns into a mess. Can it be saved?
Characters get drunk and take drugs, chaperones do not exist, and rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, racism and homophobia are dealt with in very modern ways. Someone refers to a sex cellar. Do not come to Reputation expecting historical accuracy – you will not get any. But the book deals with all of these subjects in a manner that conveys wit and humor. It’s an easy, smooth ride that yet has a tough, honest way about it. It refuses to ignore the homophobia, sexism, racism and other problems inherent of the period, and it’s brutally honest about it all. The story is well-told, and there’s a lot to love in Croucher’s spry prose. Readers will simply have to accept that this is a very wallpapery historical before buying the book.
Frances and George are interesting, complex people, as are those in their circle (even the seemingly bubble-headed Cecily). They are not always likable, but has any eighteen year old ever been likable 100 percent of the time? The romance between Thomas and George is also really cute.
But I had to downgrade the book for making so many direct pop culture references that pass fond reference and head directly to outright rib-nudging smarminess. I saw those Tina Belcher quotes, author.
Reputation will likely delight older teenagers. Adults, sticklers for history and the under-sixteens should stay away. For everyone else, though, it’s a rib-tickling, outrageous and yet dark read that’s too much fun to be ignored.
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Grade: B
Book Type: Young Adult
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 17/04/22
Publication Date: 04/2022
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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Obviously, I know this book isn’t aimed at me. But I genuinely can’t help wondering why on earth an author writes a book in which:
and sets it in the 19th century. I’m not saying people didn’t get drink or take drugs or have kinky sex back then, it’s more that they’re – “dealt with in very modern ways” – and in that case, why go to the trouble of setting it in a different time period?
The cynic in me thinks, “ah, she set it in the Regency because contemporaries dealing with those issues are ten a penny, and it’s a way of grabbing attention”.
It makes no sense to me. Why go to the trouble of setting your book in a different era if you’re going to completely ignore the social mores and conventions of that era and which differentiate that era from the modern world? SMH.
I feel ya. I pretty much approach any historical I pick up – especially of the YA variety – as an alternate reality read. The writer and their readers want a world with pretty long dresses, balls, and footmen but they don’t want to face what that came with. And if that floats your boat, good on you but it’s definitely not for me. .
It’s very much a book for people who like the 2006 version of “Marie Antoinette” or “A Knight’s Tale” if you go in realizing that that’s what the author intends, you’ll have a good time.
Were they at least using opium instead of something more modern? :) A historically accurate laughing gas party would have been interesting, too — although I would cringe at how unsafe those must have been. (Opium is dangerous, but nitrous oxide can cause asphyxia.)
The interesting thing about “A Knight’s Tale” is that quite a few Medievalists love it because of its inaccuracies. And some feel that while it’s inaccurate, it “gets” the tone of the Medieval era in a way many more serious movies don’t.
https://www.tor.com/2018/11/16/a-knights-tale-is-the-best-medieval-film-no-really/
I ADORE A Knight’s Tale.
They were indeed using snuff/opium.
OK, at least they weren’t taking something that wasn’t invented yet. :)
The substances are 100 percent period-accurate, some of the reactions to the consumption of same are not. It’s fascinating what makes it into the book vis accuracy versus what doesn’t.
I see books like this as alternate universe stories. I’d argue that tons of small town contemporary romance stories do just the same thing–they show a version of today that doesn’t really exist but that a reader can enjoy.
I was recently discussing the critically and reader adored Inspector Gamache books. Three Pines is a tiny hamlet that has endless murders and there’s just no way it’s even dimly believable but who cares. It’s the storytelling that matters, the characterizations. So, if those things are well done, I’m willing to accept them.
I honestly don’t think unrealistic HR is any different than unrealistic contemporary or romantic suspense.
I can see and agree with all that – it’s like Midsomer Murders or Grantchester! But it still doesn’t answer my initial question of “why bother?” If you want to include drink/drug/whatever problems in your historical story, but then don’t treat them in a period-appropriate way – what’s the point?
The clothes, the balls, the manners :-) It’s like Halloween costumes – what’s the point really of spending money on a ridiculous outfit you literally only wear for five or six hours one night? Answer: Make-believe is fun. I think of it like galactic empires in sci-fi movies. A lot of scientists have argued that galactic empires are simply a physical impossibility. The political management of vast quantities of space by one man can’t be done for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that empires are rarely stable and people on the outer-rim would be impossible to control. And yet we have tons of sci-fi that uses this premise and I think it is because something about a plucky band of rebels fighting huge power (think Star Wars or Dune) deeply appeals to the human psyche. Like I said, not my cuppa but I get that it is somebody else’s, and probably as hard/inexplicable for them to justify as my Marvel addiction is for me to justify!
Why not, though? It’s imaginative.
For the heck of it TBH. The book’s very honest about it not being a straight historical telling in the marketing (it markets itself to fans of Mean Girls and Jane Austen), so those more invested in straight-up retellings will not .I’m more annoyed by main-line historicals that pretend to accuracy while trying to bend the rules of how society worked back then.
I really struggle with serious books that don’t do serious research. Or those that don’t understand that being exceptional/different normally requires people to pay heavy prices for stepping outside of society’s expectations. I rarely read historical romance for this very reason – it’s too much a mix of “take me seriously” and “my characters all have 21st-century morals and ideals”. Again, not knocking those who do like those books, it’s just not for me.
I think it sounds great! I like that the book is upfront about its ahistoricity.
Honestly, I’d be upset if the book lied about being straight-up historical retelling, but the publisher is 100 percent honest about what the book is doing and what the author’s aim is.
This conversation also got me thinking about when I very much appreciate ahistory. For much of history, it wasn’t atypical for a teenage girl, sometimes as young as thirteen, to marry a 30-year-old. Needless to say, that’s not something I want to read about. I recently finished a Chinese TV series based on a book where the heroine was a child bride and the hero a general with at least ten years battle experience behind him. The directors/writers/producers (someone in authority) made the very wise choice of a 25 yr. old actress and a 27/28 yr. old actor. It worked a treat for me and the visuals of this couple sizzled with chemistry rather than icking me out like the “accurate” telling would have done.
It depends on the project for me but yeah, that would definitely be a must-do if I were producing the thing.
It’s why people love “Murder She Wrote” even though it’s impossible for Cabot Cove to have had that many serial murders without someone asking some major questions.
See, that’s why BtVS is so great. There was a reason–Hellmouth–for all those murders…..