Usually I love Alcott but this one was just hitting me the wrong way.... maybe I should reread Eight Cousins instead.

 Having been written 150 years ago, you have to go into this understanding that women's options were much more limited than now. Women weren't going to college, and to work instead of getting married pretty much assured that you were going to be a spinster at age 20.

There was a super cringe-y paragraph early on in the book about black people. I wish they'd take that out because it was really just a few lines and entirely unnecessary and racist.

This novel is very dialogue heavy, which is fine, but I didn't really like the dialogue. I thought Alcott wrote much better when she was narrating vs. pages of dialogue.

Our main character Polly stays with Fanny and her family for six weeks when they are young teens. Polly is from the country and simple - not in intelligence but in fashion and manners and those sorts of things. Fanny is obsessed with fashion and money. Polly's character woos this family, and when they experience hardship several years later, they really appreciate Polly's ways.

If you zoom out and generalize the theme that people can cross-pollinate ideas, and you don't have to be "all in" on one side but instead be versatile, be your own thinker, and take what you like from each side, then I think it's a great message. Or even if you want to focus on the exact theme of this book, don't be so vain and obsessed with how others see you, then that's a good message as well. But I can see how many readers would find this story heavy-handed.