Inspired by the character of Becky Sharpe in Vanity Fair this is an interesting take on the original character based on present day. It's quite surprising to see how little has changed for women and their aims, and ambitions between the original novel and today. Really enjoyed this, a good read.

An enjoyable story but with a fair amount of "waffle" surrounding it making it hard to get into the story to begin with. Worth persevering with however

Aww I felt like this read had so much potential but just didn't quite meet the mark. I think it might have worked better without trying to pull Vanity Fair into this as there's a particular expectation with that, which just doesn't quite work.

A good start, but got a bit lost in the middle for me.

Interesting concept and subject matter.

Becky Sharp is determined. Determined to get away from the dead-end town where she grew up, determined to make a place for herself in high society and determined to reach the top of the career ladder. And she doesn’t care how many lives she ruins in the process.

This Becky Sharp is a hungry young journalist with a flexible arrangement with the truth. She is hugely ambitious and determined to climb the ladder to the top whatever the cost. She is a character that you will either love, hate or have admiration for.

Such good writing, despite being confusing at times. I loved this retelling of Vanity Fair.

I felt this book was a little slow to get going and the initial part of the story was a little drawn out however once it got going and the story started to pan out, it became a really enjoyable novel.

Becky grows up being raised by her single mother and quickly develops a talent for becoming another person, telling intricate lies about her life growing up all in a dogged pursuit of her goals.

It is clear as the novel progresses the extent to which Becky is prepared to go in order to achieve her dreams with nothing getting in her way. Having grown up around these years, the story definitely resonated with me and I am sure it will with others of my age (not telling!).

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan, Picador for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Taking inspiration from the classic 'Vanity Fair', Sarah May reinvents Thackery's Rebecca Sharpe into 'Becky'. Not a bad starting point at all, an what May has done very well is to transplant the character - with all the Vanity Fair character traits - into a contemporary setting. To make this even more 'real' by today's standards, the inclusion of an obsession with the media, and the connection with Princess Diana is used to hook the reader, which it does. Personally, I liked the way in which May used the real events of 2011's phone-hacking case, placing the fictional Becky into the real-life court case whilst at the same time, using flashbacks to Becky's childhood to develop her character and for readers to gather the reasons she grows up as she does.

I notice a few reviews here commenting on how they couldn't sympathise with the character here, but I think that's exactly what May intended. Thackery's Becky is also a troubled character, but you don't have to like a character to enjoy the narrative. In fact, that readers say they have a strong enough feeling about her to actively dislike her is a clever narrative trick. What I think May has done here is altogether quite clever: taking the idea from a classic novel, and placing the character into a well-known media scandal is playing with all sorts of threads. I like the basis of this, but perhaps there is a little too much reliance on pace and plot at the expense of narrative quality in places.

Definitely worth a read, and my grateful thanks go to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC.

Becky did not have a good childhood being brought up by her mother who had her own problems. Eventually Becky moves away to try and follow her ambitions as a journalist, working for Mercury. Sarah has written the novel going from Becky’s past to the present which I found hard to keep up with at times.

I’d describe this book as realistic fiction. The author has done an amazing job of creating imaginary characters and situations that depict the world and society. The characters focus on themes of growing, self-discovery and confronting personal and social problems. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book.

3.5/5.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for this ARC.

An engaging and fresh retelling of Vanity Fair set in the 1990s.

I enjoyed this much more than the original as it was the interesting plot and mostly ghastly parade of characters without the stuffy prose.

Propelling Becky Sharp into the ruthless world of tabloid journalism was an inspired move and wholly believable for someone of her manipulative charm and chameleon like facade. Amelia also received a welcome upgrade to being slightly less meek and naive than in the original story. As per the original, the male characters left a lot to be desired even poor Dobbin whose only character trait was trailing after Amelia.

The book was littered with allusions to real life events throughout the 90s and onwards - the most obvious being the affairs and subsequent death of Princess Diana and the phone hacking scandal. The book makes you question what responsibility the press should take for the consequences of publishing a scoop and the ensuing chain reaction of events especially by showing us Becky's reaction vs everyone around her.

I'm not sure if it helps that I was alive when these things happened in the real world but this added a real believability to the story and an extra layer to Becky's sociopathic personality. She shows no remorse for any of her actions nor does she show any interest in engaging with anyone who does not serve a purpose to her even her own child.

I also liked the anecdotes of Becky's real life that were dotted throughout the book to show the stark contrast with the past she invents for others. An entertaining rewrite of a classic with a cheeky nod to the original author at the end, thoroughly recommend.

Becky hasn't had an easy start in life but through sheer determination she makes a name for herself in the fast-paced, cut-throat world of '90s tabloid journalism. Climbing through the ranks, Becky brings in the biggest scoops and scandals until she is editor-in-chief of the Mercury. But can Becky stay at the top when the newspaper is accused of illegal phone hacking?

I have never read Vanity Fair by William Thackeray, the classic novel on which 'Becky' is based so I was glad to have Sarah May's introduction to explain who Rebecca Sharp is and where she has come from (in a literary sense!). Vanity Fair/Becky is a rags-to-riches and back to rags again tale about a young woman who is determined to do things her way and succeed at all costs.

The drama that Becky gets involved in keeps the story ticking along nicely. I particularly enjoyed how May weaves real events into the narrative, e.g. the absolute obsession that the media had (has?!) with Princess Diana, as that gave a strong sense of the time period that we are placed in.

The ultimate scandal echoes that of 2011's phone-hacking case against The News of the World, with Becky a representation of Rebekah Brooks (who was editor-in-chief from 2000-2003, when the offences took place). British readers will likely recall that the most horrifying revelation that emerged was that NOTW journalists hacked the voicemail of abducted and murdered teenager, Milly Dowler (Ms Brooks was acquitted in 2014). The tension in Becky taking us from the arrest through to court was tense and kept me turning the pages to see how it would turn out!

The narrative goes back and forth from present day to Becky's childhood/early teenage years with her mother, a young single-parent who is lonely and looking for love in the wrong places. This format enables May to show us how Becky learns to cope and where she gets her "self-preservation at all costs" mentality from.

On some levels this does make the reader more sympathetic towards Becky and understanding her motives for certain things she does, however ultimately, I didn't really like her as a character. I found her too cold and calculating to ever really be on her side and rooting for her - the decades long affair with a childhood friend/work colleague when she professes to love her husband completely just didn't click. Perhaps this is a deliberate decision by May to create a divisive character? I have read Gone With the Wind a couple of times and whilst Scarlett O'Hara is one of those characters you love to hate (stealing her sister's beau, trampling all over Rhett Butler's heart!), there's something about her that makes you want her to succeed - and I just don't feel the same about Becky.

There's a lot to like here and I think has a lot of potential as a TV drama, but it just doesn't quite hit the mark for me.

Thanks to Netgalley, Picador Books and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is billed as a modern work of fiction based on the framework of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. As legal fig-leaves go this is a trifle voile, but voile can be very enticing!

It is a fictionalised reworking of the past three decades-odd of tabloid history seen through the eyes of Becky Sharp, the orphaned daughter of a single mother who rises to be the campaigning editor of The Mercury newspaper and then CEO of its parent company, at which point the establishment (and her husband) decide that she is too powerful and she is taken down. (In astronomical terms, Mercury is the nearest object to the Sun.)

The narrative treads carefully at a safe distance around some of the real stories that inspire it, such as the Milly Dowler case, whilst quite cheerfully clipping the kerb on others. A sentence about the son of a prime minister and property fraud will probably stay out of court only by the author’s judicious use of the word “eldest”.

The heroine, Becky Sharp, pursues her career and her agenda very adroitly but also ruthlessly, upsetting and frightening the rich and powerful as she goes. But her downfall is engineered by those rich and powerful people around a case where she is genuinely doing her best to protect the most vulnerable and expose the way the establishment protects sexual predators, more than a few of whom are key establishment figures (as it turns out, Becky knew this from her own personal childhood experience). Her paper closes and Becky narrowly avoids jail, because of actions taken by employees and peers that she didn’t know about. There are obvious echoes, there, of real-life events.

But the idea that Becky’s downfall suits an establishment that habitually turns a blind eye to much worse things also has quite genuine roots in the real world. The News of the World closed because of a phone hacking scandal, but the BBC DID NOT close its doors (nor were ANY criminal charges even contemplated) when one of its reporters used forged documents and a false narrative to not only persuade “a princess” to grant him a career-defining interview, but to also shape and manipulate what she thought and thereby what she said in that interview. Nor did the BBC close when one of its much more respectable broadcasters wrote to three Appeal Court Judges instructing them to uphold the conviction of a mentally-vulnerable man for a very high-profile crime, apparently because if it wasn’t committed by him, it must have been committed by someone like him! Which neatly encapsulates the way many establishment figures view us peasants and all our rights!

The rich and powerful in Britain hold SO MUCH power that their behaviour, in both their personal and official lives, can only be kept in check by a Becky Sharp or someone like her, willing and able to actually take them down when they transgress. And if all the Becky Sharps are abolished, then the behaviour of the rich and powerful will inevitably get worse and worse with every year that passes, till London becomes like Brussels, then like Moscow and then like Sodom.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book. I apologise for the delay in writing my review.
I have not read Vanity Fair nor know much about that story, but don't feel that was an obstacle to reading Becky. Becky is a single woman who has experienced hardships from a very young age and is determined to succeed in life. She develops various cover stories, some with an element of truth others less so as she works hard to achieve her goals. There are mishaps along the way as well as big gains. I found this book an intriguing read, but perhaps a little to long as I lost interest towards the end. However I'm sure that many will enjoy it.

Thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a lovely way to start the new week! Begs to be read in one sitting…

In the author’s note, at the start of Becky, Sarah May states that her book is inspired by William Thackeray’s character from Vanity Fair. I admit to not having read Vanity Fair, so can’t speak for readers who have. So this review will be purely based on Becky, and not in any way comparing Becky to Vanity Fair, or Becky Sharp herself.

Becky is a contemporary of mine, so much of life and the news events surrounding her, are very familiar to me. It was easy to spot who was the inspiration for many of the characters, making the story really come to life for me.

Our eponymous character has an extremely hard start in life, which galvanises her determination to forge a better future, to be “someone”.
Readers will have very different views of Becky. Some will find her character understandable, if not likeable, due to her upbringing that led to her unflinching, driven determination. Others will find her beyond their comprehension, detestable. Many will be in the middle ground, with their feelings changing from chapter to chapter.
In the past, I have found it tricky to enjoy books, with highly unlikeable central characters, but I found quite the opposite with Becky. I was very drawn into the story, wondering where the car crash of Becky, Amelia, Rawdon, George, and Dobbin’s lives would culminate.

I highly recommend this gripping book, even though it’s not in my usual crime/thriller genre. I enjoyed the story so much, that I have added Vanity Fair to my towering tbr pile; which is a credit to Sarah May’s re imagining of Becky Sharp. I loved the naming of the QC, a quiet nod of thanks for the inspiration. 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.

Bit of a mixed bag for me. There were brilliantly funny, spot-on parts that echoed events in the late 20th century and had a girl from bad roots rising in a ruthless manner most unbecoming for a lady. And there was also some rambling and time shifts that didn’t work for me. Loved Becky’s energy and guts and the VF references, definitely one to talk about.

This novel is a sort of modern retelling of Vanity Fair and the life of Becky Sharp. It covers the period from 1980 to 2012 and melds fact and fiction as we are in the world of the tabloids. Becky's childhood was not easy. Her father was absent and her mother was a cleaner who earned her money so that she could have a good time at weekends. Becky watches the girls in the elite school, sees their lives, and makes up her mind that her present life is not for her. From a job at a local newspaper, she starts climbing the ladder to success, regardless of who she tramples on the way. She is a strong character, she's powerful and ruthless but did I like her? Not really. The other characters, Rawdon, George, Amelia are all names from the original Vanity Fair and some are developed better than others -I preferred Rawdon to George. What I like about this was the way that events from that period are incorporated into this without actually naming names. As someone old enough to have lived these events, each one caused a little 'ping' of recognition. Very cleverly done.
Overall, I found Becky to be a fascinating character even if I didn't actually have any real liking for her. A book that kept me going.

Oh wow. I was rooting for Becky the whole way through. Having never read Vanity Fair before hand I went into this blind, but Sarah May added so much to Becky that I read it and enjoyed it as a standalone story.

I loved how I could pinpoint the retelling of Milly Dowler’s story and that if I Diana Spencer.

All in all a fantastic book. With huge thanks and unending gratitude to the publisher and author for the chance to read this before its publication.
#Becky
#Netgalley

A great retelling of vanity fair and it took me back to my childhood as I remember a majority of these storylines coming out and these events unfolding and how the world reacted.

I have to confess that I have never read Vanity Fair, but I did watch the 2018 BBC adaptation and enjoyed it very much. Becky by Sarah May uses William Makepeace Thackery's story of Becky Sharpe and has modernised it in a fresh and engaging way.
The story felt very familiar to 50 something me, not just because of Vanity Fair, but also due to my memories of the 1990s and 2000s in the UK. From.Princess Diana, to high profile child abductions, and phone hacking, this gives an insight into the role of the big newspaper corporations at the time. I recognised a lot of prominent (and dodgy) newspaper personalities like Rebecca Brooks and Andy Colson in the reinvented Vanity Fair characters and as the story revealed itself.. A really clever take.
I would definitely recommend this book, even to those who don't remember the times and who are new to Vanity Fair, as while the updating is very clever, it stands alone really well. It certainly made me think a lot about ambition, business and family. Five stars from me.

This was a good read, as a retelling of Vanity Fair, but also just on its own. It's about the importance of where we come from, how our background can define who we become. You may not like the heroine of this novel, but you can certainly understand her.She is smart and driven and has many qualities that are not appreciated in a woman. If you see it from her point of view, you understand that her only way is up until society won't tolerate it anymore. The story draws you in from the beginning but it really is only loosely based on the classic, just enough to be recognisable for those who read it.