The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp by Sarra Manning

Publisher - HarperCollins

Published - out now

Price - £3.99 kindle

eautiful, brilliant, ruthless – nothing can stop Becky Sharp.

Becky Sharp has big dreams and no connections. Determined to swap the gutters of Soho for the glamorous, exclusive world behind the velvet rope, Becky will do anything to achieve fame, riches and status.

Whether it’s seducing society’s most eligible bachelors, or befriending silly debutantes and rich old ladies, Becky Sharp is destined for great things. Because it might be tough at the top but it’s worse at the bottom.

From London to Paris and beyond, Becky Sharp is going places – so get the hell out of her way…

Retelling these days focus more on Greek myths and folktales in fantasy but classic novels too can be reinterpreted. As always it’s the mix of a new angle on a story and how familiar riffs play out. In Sarra Manning’s The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp the social satire of old meets new world concerns of celebrity and I found ultimately a bit flat.

Becky Sharp has played Big Brother to the hilt and hopes she can beat her ‘best friend’ Amelia to the final and the money but sadly she is pipped to the post. But Becky Sharp never lets defeat last long and in a new world of media, celebrity and fame she will stop at nothing to get it all.

Caveating this by saying not really my thing I was hoping for a more subtle satire of the seeking of fame and fortune instead we have a lot of grotesques and very loud satire which for me created an unreality that reading a few years on is also very soon out of date . Flat characters and poor pacing all together means a book I just wasn’t enjoying and don’t recommend and I suspect will not outlast the book it copies.