Before I picked up this book I had never heard of Lex Croucher, with reputation being her debut novel, published in 2021, I was more than intrigued. Reputation is a historical fiction novel, but with a modern twist on regency life. I would recommend looking up the trigger warnings before starting.
Georgina Ellers has been forced to move to a new town with her aunt, after being abandoned by her parents. After meeting Frances Campbell at a party, Georgina is thrown into a whole new world, one of sex, money, drugs and parties. But this new reality isn't all it seems to be, as Georgina soon finds out. What will happen if Georgina can't fall in line?
The idea of this book was remarkable, a Jane Austin inspired Downton Abbey cross mean girls story, beautifully created through the settings, dialogue and outrageous actions of our main characters. But there are so many underlying messages in this book, important to even today's society. My favourite of these being the fact Croucher sheds light on how hard it is for teenagers to feel like they fit in. Georgina is uprooted from her life and moved to a completely new city, one she is forced to navigate on her own. Croucher is able to depict how hard it is for young people to find friends in these situations, showing how lonely it can be and how easy it is to fall into the wrong group and succumb to peer pressure. The book touches on so many topics that would not typically be weaved amongst the lighthearted wittiness of romance and friendship, giving the book quite a dark underlying feel. Croucher does not shy away from these tough topics, allowing her characters to be flawed and honest.
At first I found our main character, Georgina rather irritating. There always seemed to be something she had royally messed up, and the fact she was always so desperate to be liked. But getting further on into the book it was clear that Georgina was just like any other teenager, making mistakes and yearning to be liked in her new town, but the thing I loved about Georgina was her willingness to learn from her mistakes, which allowed for the stunning character development we see.
One thing I was rather confused about while reading this book was the fact it was labelled as a romance novel. The relationship between Georgina and Thomas was on the back burner for basically the whole book, leaving me undecided on what the main story of the book actually was. With Reputation sitting at 351 pages, it was by no means a quick read, I feel like there were so many shoot off stories going on at once it could become a bit confusing, preventing me from gravitating towards picking it back up.
I feel like while reading this book I found it rather mediocre, a really good idea but lacked execution. But this was a book that was stuck in my head for a while after, and I think this is where I really began liking it. Without the distraction of the million other characters and storylines, I was able to see the actual messages from this story and how relevant they would be to so many people in today's society. So I would say to read this book, but stick with it and do get overwhelmed by all the small details.
3/5 stars
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