If I Loved You Less (Tamsen Parker)

[el_staplador]

If I say that this is a f/f retelling of Emma set in Hawaii, you really know everything you need to know. Emma becomes Theo(dosia), who works in her father's surf shop; Mr Knightley becomes Kini, who owns a bakery; and so on.

I've read Emma within the last couple of years, and found myself nodding along as the beats came right on cue. Some of the adjustments worked better than others - I thought that Theo's father's obsession with kale and wheatberries and the like made a hilarious equivalent to Mr Woodhouse's enthusiasm for gruel, but was sceptical when Jane Fairfax's pianoforte was replaced by a mass spectrometer. At the same time, the updated setting allows for a significantly greater amount of racial diversity.

Of course, the fact that this is a f/f version means that I can now add the picnic scene to my collection of Terrible Awkward Parties In Queer Lit. (They play the 'Post-It Note On The Head' game. Enough said.)

I found this about the right length for what it was, and it was a quick and enjoyable read for a week in which I had a nasty cold.