Review Detail

If I could describe this book in one word it would be... lackluster.

I was SO excited to see this book on NetGalley. I love retellings of SHakespeare's plays. One of my all time favorites is Ophelia by Lisa Klein. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my hopes. Actually, it was really disappointing. I finished it just because I hate to abandon books, but it was a chore.

The first sign that I wasn't going to fall head over heels in love with this book was the characters. I never made a connection with them. None of them. Miri was a little boring and self-absorbed for my liking. She constantly droned on and on about being in love and wanting to play Juliet. It got old really fast. She was also too wishy-washy. If you read the book, you'll know what I mean. There were other characters, but I don't feel like they're worth mentioning. They were just there, interacting, but not really contributing anything of significance. You never get the sense of any character development. They were very flat and one sided.

My major issue with the book was the plot. It was so rushed! Too much happened in a short amount of time. I never bought into the chain of events. It was like the pieces just magically made themselves fit into some puzzle and I was supposed to believe it all. I realize that this is fiction, but you have to at least give me a reason to suspend my reality. Sell me on the story, please! Along with being rushed, it felt choppy in places. Parts of the story lagged considerably. There were pages of time-traveling hoopla that didn't seem to flow with the rest of the story. I understand the purpose of the time-travel-- after all, that's how Shakespeare and his brother arrive in the 21st century, but it still didn't fully fit. I skipped many of those pages because it read like a physics textbook. Very boring.

Overall, I really didn't "feel" this book. I had high hopes that fell flat. I won't be buying this one for my classroom.