The narration was fun! But the story itself was lackluster for someone who is a huge little women's fan. I DNFd.

A cute adaptation of the original.

Thank you Harper Audio for giving me the opportunity to listen to this.

I really liked the narrator for this one, and honestly that's why I stuck with it longer than I would have otherwise. I just wasn't sold immediately like the characters like I was in Little Women (maybe that's the point?), but this one just wasn't for me

My daughter (14yo) who listened to this book with me loved this imagination of a modern variation on Little Women a lot. Since this book is marketed as YA romcom she is more the target audience than I am and I will base my review on her impression. She loved recognizing tropes and ideas from the original "Little Women" and seeing what it had been turned into here. She was engrossed with the story and wanted to keep listening so I would say this is a winner - also definitely fun to listen to across the generational divide since perspectives on decisions made may vary.

I wanted to like this one as I do enjoy Little Women. I liked the new take on it and that it wasn't going to be a verbatim modern retelling. However this book lacked a lot of the positivity of the original. There was little growth and a lot of bickering.

I have always enjoyed the story of "Little Women" and was excited to see another story based around it. In "Belittled Women", the Porter family recreates the setting and the play for guests to visit during the summer. With the arrival of a documentary team, this summer will be one for reflection and drama. I loved the setting of the story and could vividly see all of the pieces of the Little Women location in my mind. I also have always had a fondness for Jo and that continued with the Jo in this story. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is not a retelling of little women. This is about a family that has a Little Women show. The three daughters personalities is like a case study of trauma response. Jo is carrying the weight of responsibility and an adult at a young age, Amy is a people pleaser, and Meg seems to completely disassociate. Their mother isn’t terrible but she’s not great at being an adult. I wish there had been a bit more growth between Jo and her mother. I did find Amy entertaining.

This was an interesting take on a classic theme.
The re-enactment of the play Little women by a family every summer and the teen daughters in modern times, is the main theme of this book. It’s an okay theme, but the snipping, bickering and insulting of one another really was the main theme and not uplifting at all. I feel true fan-fiction would be more positive and a happier read overall!
Thanks for the advanced copy.

Jo Porter knows what it’s like to have to share your story with your sisters. Her mother was a lifelong fan of Louisa May Alcott, and when she had three daughters, she named them Jo, Bethamy, and Meg. And when she gets an inheritance of a house in Kansas with a little land, her mother decides to move her family there and start a sort of Little Women-themed tourist attraction, where they would act out scenes from the book. Jo has been starring in Little Women Live! for years.

But she’s not a little kid anymore. Jo is a junior in high school now, and she’s thinking about her future. She’s getting tired of having to put on the show every year for her classmates, and she’s wanting more for herself and for her time. She loves cross country running, but she can only commit to her team as much as the show’s schedule lets her. Which makes it more difficult for her to think about that sports scholarship that would help her get through college.

Ever since Jo and her mother and sisters moved, she has felt responsible to help keep the house running smoothly. After her parents divorced, she has done what she could to help her mother and try to keep he sisters focused. But in putting herself in that role in the family, she has let some of her own dreams slide away. And then she meets Andrea and Hunter.

Andrea is a journalist who has come to Little Women Live! to write a feature on the family. She is smart and sophisticated, and she talks to Jo like she is genuinely interested in her and her future. And her son Hunter is confident and artistic, a photographer who helps his mother capture the piece she’s working on. He’s the first guy who Jo was interested in for a long time. While they do hire a local teen to be in the show as Laurie, he’s a local football star that Jo has never been attracted to. And the boy next door, David, went out with her older sister Meg, so Jo feels weird about her friendship with him, even though they enjoy running together.

Jo finds herself feeling resentful and trapped in a family business, wanting to chase her own dreams, but wanting her family to be okay with her choices also. Will she find a way to create a future for herself, or will she end up alienating everyone who genuinely cares for her?

Belittled Women is a unique spin-off of the classic novel, with both a love of the story and original characters and an examination of the story and Alcott’s motivations for writing it. I learned a lot more about Alcott and her work by reading Belittled Women, and I have a new appreciation of the layers in the book and the themes that run through it. Having the Porter family mirror the March family and examine the dynamics of both their own family and the March family through the live scenes adds so much to the typical reading of the classic book.

There area lot of things I liked about Belittled Women, but there were parts I struggled with too. I admired Jo and her dedication to her family. But I also wanted more for her. Her snark displayed how frustrated she was with her situation, and that got a little dark at times. However, the way the sisters bickered and the dynamics of the parent-child relationships was clearly off-kilter, and I worried about the welfare of these sisters at times. I admire Jo for taking full responsibility for her issues, but I wanted some of the adults to step up more and be there for her. But even with that, I think that Belittled Women explores important aspects of the classic novel and of modern life for parents and teenagers. And there is a lot of humor, which helps bring some lightness and balance to the lives of these teenagers.

Voice galleys for Belittled Women were provided by Harper Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.

A huge Thank You to The author, The publisher and NetGalley for providing the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
Amazing!

A mother who likes little women so much she names her kids the same as the characters hoping and wishing that their lives will be fulfilled in a fantasy that she alone has and forces these expectations on them.

Not a healthy or fun time.
Then they feel the need to explain to everyone why their names are the same as the story and their mothers reasoning.

Just a boring madness story

This novel is adorable. I enjoy Jo, who seems to behave the way any teenager put upon by their family would behave. She’s worried about college, trying to look good in front of boys, and plotting to escape her small town.

I particularly enjoy the “Little Women” references. I could see this being an excellent modern addition to a unit on early American authors. The witty literary criticism offers a lot of potential for class discussion. The entire concept allows for an investigation of the relevance of authors like Alcott, Thoreau, and their contemporaries today. With its easy accessibility, I could envision assigning this as independent reading during a unit paired with short stories and class discussions during the school day.

My only criticism is that some of the jokes feel…cringy. And perhaps they will feel fine to a teenage audience, but I would anticipate hearing some protest from my students about a bit of the humor. That said, it’s difficult to find anything humorous that doesn’t have a few people rolling their eyes. For the majority of the kids, I think that the witty narration will have them cracking up.

My favorite part about this novel isJo’s realization that Hudson just wants to leave his “hometown” as much as she does, for equally thin reasons. I think many teens develop this feeling as they find their independence, but most don’t realize until much later what it really means to leave the “nest.” It would make a good social-emotional lesson for high school students to discuss leaving home, making practical plans, and defining their goals.

this was hard to listen too. My son (who i downloaded this for) refused to listen to it. I know it was an advanced review. but some times its just too much.

I live and breathe little women, so I am a tough critic. I must say though I enjoyed this so much and it was one of my favorites takes on the book.

I could not listen to more than a few minutes of this, because it was a computer voice. I heard enough to know I wanted to read it or listen to a real audiobook though!

Eh. So much talking and complaining with little action.
I guess the sisters belittle each other?
Not for me.

I really enjoyed this one because it's both a love letter and a very valid critique of Little Women.
Jo Porter lives with her mom and two sisters in a house that's not really a home as it's also the stage for a Little Women reenactment. Jo and her sisters are named after the eponymous characters and their mom lives by the 'teachings' of Marmee March and hopes that her daughters do the same.
But none of the girls is anything like the characters they're named after and only Amy enjoys the dubious limelight of the plays. And that's not even going into how the message of the book is to push down your individuality and make yourself into the perfect little woman to be the best wife and mother, never mind your own desires. And this is coming from someone who has read Little Women more times than I care to admit and still counts it as one of my favorites. It's a fantastic book, but it's not exactly perfect for most modern women.
It was really interesting to see Sellet writing parallels to the Alcott story while still making it incredibly modern. The double standards and misconceptions that play the biggest role in the story are relatable to the point of being cliche, yet the connection to the entire Porter family is set up in a way that easily makes you care about what happens to all of them.
Maybe not a groundbreaking book, but definitely an enjoyable one with a new angle on a classic.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the chance to experience it early!

In middle America, there is a family trying to make a living off of Jane Austin. Four girls and their mother routinely perform Austin-like plays for their audience. Behind the scenes though, there is turmoil. The girls are approaching adulthood and would like to claim their own identity. Each character goes about it differently and some disaster follows. Ultimately, they learn about family.
Opinion
This book is another modern day twist off of a Jane Austin book. Strangely enough, I do not like Jane Austin books but seem to be drawn to the remakes. This book was well done and had me wondering what happens next. I was drawn to the main character Jo as she was trying to find her voice and place in her family. I feel that it will appeal to young adults who are fighting the same battle for own identity.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Amazing reimagining of my favorite book. The story was fresh and inspiring while staying true to the source material. The writing was choppy in places but by the end it really came together beautifully

I love Little Women and consider it one of the greatest American works. I have to admit - I'm not a huge fan of the modern reimaginings and retellings of Austen and Eyre stories, but I'm also not a huge fan of British lit, so I was interested to see how this one landed for me.

The premise is fun - a family led by a Little Women-obsessed mom run a re-eneactment starring her own family and some locals. It's YA, so our Jo inspired protagonist is balancing this life alongside typical teen foibles. The YA, light side of the book was a fun, light enough tale that I probably would have found fine on its own, but I felt like the Little Women inclusion honestly brought the story down.

While there were some moments that I enjoyed, I found that this book lacked the key things that make Little Woman so special. The sister dynamic was so much less developed and downright mean in this book compared the original. And while this book was set in Kansas rather than the New England of the original, it didn't seem like there was any intentional use of time or place, which were so integral to the source material.