- Virgin - Prelude to the Throne
- The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn
- The Queen's Bastard: A Novel
- The Wild Irish
- To the Tower Born
Juliet and Romeo both adore the work of Dante, and this forms a great part of their falling in love. They enjoy quoting poems to each other and they clearly share an adoration of the written word. In fact, Juliet is represented as quite the poetess; a quality Romeo admires.
The famous feud between the two families was expertly told and unfolded in a logical and relatable way, although different to the original.
O, Juliet is heavy on the romance and the character's longing for each other - which isn't usually my thing - but is generally what you expect from such a classic tale. This is the only reason I didn't enjoy O, Juliet as much as her other novels, and is the problem of the reader, not the author.
I definitely recommend O, Juliet for fans of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, or those who would like to get to know the family members surrounding the famous couple in a more intimate manner.
My rating = ***
Romeo and Juliet bug me - the stupidity of teenagers! - though I love some of the dialogue given to other characters ("Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?)
ReplyDeleteI do like modern retellings of Shakespeare though, the BBC's "Taming of the Shrew" in particular (which is a dvd, not book, but I can't help but recommend it - it really is brilliant!)
Ooh, I haven't seen 'Taming of the Screw' but there's a new 'Romeo & Juliet' movie coming out in October this year that I'm looking forward to.
ReplyDelete