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.
