“You think you are about to possess what men have hopelessly yearned for throughout the ages: the soul of an innocent, trusting, dependent child inside the opulent body of a radiantly lovely woman.”

This book has an interesting structure: it’s a book within a book that also contains letters. I was worried about how the author would handle the themes, but I was pleasantly surprised. The main themes were women’s aspirations and autonomy, and the hypocrisy of men wanting to “own” women but pointing fingers at other men for the same. Bella and how she sees the world are fascinating, and she does not let the men around her dictate her life.

It was hard to remain attentive through the letters because it dragged when we got to them, so I switched to the audiobook. There are also a lot of footnotes. In my edition, they were all at the end. I skimmed through them; some deserved to be included in the narration.

I enjoyed the movie but was disappointed at the parts they decided not to adapt. If you want to watch and read it, I recommend watching the movie first!