It wasn't as engaging as I expected from the synopsis, and includes perhaps the most extreme example of passive-aggressive nonsense I've ever heard of.
Anne is visiting her friend Mrs. Smith, who congratulates her on her anticipated marriage to Mr. Elliot and how happy she will be. Anne tells Mrs. Smith she will not marry Mr. Elliot, no way, no how. Mrs. Smith then admits of how Mr. Elliot isn't as gentlemanly as he seems and how he did her a great wrong in the past.
And she would have let her innocent friend marry this jerk? 'If she doesn't know, I'm not going to tell her?' I know Mrs. Smith is the opposite of other characters in the book who are a bit too free with the advice, but that's craaaazy.
What I admire are writers who can craft an interesting plot and intriguing characters without clubbing us over the head with trauma. Take a book like Mairelon the Magician, a modern work of Regency fantasy. Mairelon is on good terms with his parents, who are still living. He doesn't get on with his brother, but it's not a big deal. He was in the war, but doesn't suffer PTSD. He's something of a spy, but he's not out to avenge a dead girlfriend or good buddy. And yet, I would never describe the story as boring.
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