I swear I could never get tired of reading retellings of Emma. I read two of these last year both equally enjoyable. In this version Emmett is a high school student who decides to match make his hookup with another man after having success in matchmaking one of his friends. All the best elements of the story are here and the posh high school setting is fabulous. There is the overbearing father and it makes me laugh to see the modern retellings express the dad as a total wellness fanatic. The love interest Miles and the tumultuous dynamic between him and Emmett while Emmett carries on causing all of the drama is done brilliantly too. There are so many fun scenes in this book and many moments that made me smile and even laugh out loud. While there are some more serious themes of grief for Emmett having lost his mum the overwhelming feeling this book gave me was joy. If you haven’t read Jane Austen’s Emma do yourself a favour and read it, if you have then I think you’ll love this story. The author clearly had a lot of fun writing this and it translates into the book

Emmett is a refreshing, queer YA retelling of Jane Austen's Emma that stays true to its classic roots while adding a modern twist.

I am a huge Jane Austen fan and will read any modern retelling I can possibly find. Although Emma isn't my favourite Austen novel, I adored reading a queer YA retelling of it. I loved that Emmett featured a lot of parallels between this adaptation and the classic. It made it an engaging tale of a challenging protagonist navigating life, love, and personal growth while circumventing societal expectations of what is 'perfect'. It also stayed true to its original premise with Emmett's involvement in his friend's love life, under the guise of avoiding his own romantic entanglements. Similar to the Austen version, it added a humorous and endearing element to the story.

In saying that, one notable deviation in this adaptation is the recent loss of Emmett's mother, which significantly impacts his outlook on love and relationships. Emmett's decision to avoid serious dating until he's 25, based on a belief that his brain will be fully developed and better equipped to handle heartbreak, is a unique spin. While this particular narrative point became somewhat repetitive, it adds a layer of complexity to Emmett's character.

My one wish was for more interactions between the main characters, not just in a romantic context but also as friends. The story focuses heavily on Emmett's personal journey, and in that regard, it succeeds brilliantly. While the romance is essential, the true essence of the novel is Emmett's evolution, which is beautifully and thoughtfully executed.

All in all, I really enjoyed Emmett and would definitely read it for Austen enthusiasts or lovers of queer YA.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Allen & Unwin for a copy of this novel. ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

Emmett is an enjoyable, queer, modern, YA adaptation that does stick to the plot relatively faithfully.

Somewhat to the detriment of my personal enjoyment, I spent a lot of my reading time placing characters and plotlines from the original novel. I suspect that most readers won't suffer from this at all and will rather enjoy it as a fun story where a somewhat difficult protagonist learns some important lessons and falls in love.

And it's a nice journey. To me the main plot difference here is that Emmett lost his mother only 4 years before the start of this story, rather than as a small child. He struggles to face the possibility of falling in love and being hurt by a loss like that again and has convinced himself that he won't date until he's 25 when, per his mother, the brain stops growing and he won't have to withstand an eventual breakup. In the meantime though, he has a no strings hookup buddy, but when the poor guy catches feelings, Emmett decides it's his duty to find the man a boyfriend.

I enjoyed the premise overall though I found the references to the 25-year-old-brain business a bit tedious by the end. Likewise, though I did like the messages around queer community and family, environment and colonialism, to me it seemed pretty heavy-handed. That said, I did think the art commentary was actually very interesting and I'm also not really the target audience for this so perhaps the more explicit messaging is actually well suited to the genre.

I do wish the MCs had spent more time together, even just as friends. It follows the expected format, the romance is of course important, but really the story is about Emmett's growth and in that I found it quite successful!

Thank you NetGalley, Allen & Unwin and L. C. Rosen, for providing an eARC of Emmett for review.

⭐⭐⭐💫 - Rounded up - Available 7 November 2023

I was very interested in this book after reading Lion Legacy by L. C. Rosen. I still haven't gotten to Camp but that book is also spoken highly of. I think in the end my issues from Lion Legacy come up again - mainly around how attractive the main character is as a 17-year-old high schooler.

I need to give it credit though, the book is wonderfully written and engaging. If you just read this completely at face value for the fun of it then I am sure you will enjoy it for its YA RomCom appeal.

There is also so much emotional potential in the Emmett character that could be explored but we just don't go deep enough to see it here.

Instead, we are stuck at a typical YA main character level of being completely self-centred whilst possessing zero self-awareness. This kid has layers to scratch away at but again, we don't see that in this story.

TL;DR - fun read just don't think too hard about it.