book makes me want to read Shakespeare, . . The author has a very clever and interesting way of retelling a classic in modern terms, I couldn't put it down and having never read the original I was blown away by it all.
I would defiantly recommend this Author and book to everyone,
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC Okay, so I have to admit: I never read Shakespeares Othello.
. . aaaand I will admit that the thought of reading the original is pretty intimidating, Which is why when I snooped out this retelling I was relieved to find a premise I could actually relate to.
This version made the story of Othello so easy for me to understandit really put the plot into perspective without me having to struggle through the language and references in the original.
Transplanting the plot right into a high school setting Well done, I say!
But with that said, the dialogue was a little stiff for me.
It was easy for me to follow along with, yes, but it didnt flow like normal conversation would.
It was stilted enough that I was bothered by it,
And MAN, was it full of drama! My word, theres so much manipulation and suspicion and deceit! I feel like I need to see this performed, because I think it would be infinitely more amazing to see it played out as was its original purpose.
All in all it did the job that I was looking forI followed the story line and understood everything that was happening, but I felt like the dialogue needed to slide along smoother than it did.
/stars.Stars, rounding up to
This version of Othello is a retelling set in a high school.
Since Othello is one of the books that I didn't study Confession time, I've only studied Merchant of Venice, King Lear and Julius Caesar.
At least, these are the three that I feel fairly confident about, I can't really make any comments on whether this is a faithful reinterpretation.
So, I'll just judge the book on its own merits and throw in a few "I wonder if Shakespeare did this too" thoughts now and then.
Orion Othello is dating Devony Desmonda, the mayor's daughter, After six months of sneaking around, they're finally publicly a couple Ok, so they were outed by 'friends', but same effect.
Unfortunately for Devony, Archer Iago hates Orion for not making him VicePresident of the student council and so is plotting and manipulating everyone to get his revenge.
Even more unfortunately, Archer succeeds and a lot of people die that cannot be a spoiler, the entire plot of Othello is on Wikipedia after all.
Just now, I wrote "Unfortunately for Devony" and no, I did not leave out Orion by mistake.
The character I felt the most sympathy for was Devony and she basically only has a victim role.
She never does anything to anyone and she's just collateral damage,
There is where, I feel, the book falls short, The characters are all very onesided, Now, from what I can see, Shakespeare is supposed to have portrayed Othello very progressively for this day, but unfortunately, like the portrayal of Sherlock, these are characters that cannot triumph.
The author was probably working with limitations like these not to mention plot constraints so we have: Archer Evil genius who can manipulate almost anyone and yet somehow didn't win the election Orion way too gullible for his own good and with a terrible temper and too obsessive about Devony Devony Basically good and so on.
I think the most wasted part is the portrayal of Orion, Like I said, Shakespeare is supposed to have been progressive, but Orion here is just a onesided figure.
He's almost unlikable. As unlikable as Archer even, He does not listen to reason or anyone except Devony, And since he goes from allround good guy to crazy murderer in what feels like overnight but is supposed to be just a few short weeks, the transition felt a bit unnatural.
Shakespeare had his audience, who probably believed all that about Othello from the start, but I have problems believing that Orion is that base.
Where this book does shine, however, is in its readability, The book is easy to read and hard to put down, Even though the plot was already decided in advance, if the prose was clunky, I would still have had a hard time reading it.
To end, I'll just note that Othello was originally a play, That alone means it's visual and auditory, while a book is expected to be deeper, to reveal more hard to do unless characters constantly break into monologue, and even that can feel unconvincing.
So I suppose the limitations of the play has somehow affected the book itself, I did find it an interesting read, and more importantly, it piqued my interest in the original play.
Disclaimer: I got this book as part of Oops! I Read a Book Again blog tours in exchange for a free and honest review.
This review was first posted at sitelinkInside the mind of a Bibliophile I am always eager to read new adaptations of Shakespeare, so I had high hopes for CE Wilson's modernization of Othello.
Wilson's version takes place among teens in a high school, This helps readers to connect with the setting since it's more familiar,
I felt there was a lot of exposition in the writing remember that rule from creative writing.
. . to show, not tell, if possible Well, this version has a lot of "telling," which reduces the sophistication of the adaptation.
Part
of the problem is that this is a prose version of a play, so to translate lines of dialogue meant for the stage into descriptions and modern dialogue, while also developing the characters is not an easy feat.
Also, the names are changed, which adds another set of details to keep in mind when reading and comparing to Shakespeare's version.
Overall, this novel could be used as an introduction to the original Othello, or excerpts could be used as part of a comparative media study.
Note that there is swearing, Shakespeares work features some of the most memorable stories and characters ever created, yet for too many curious readers the combination of ultradense dialogue and unfamiliar historical settings make tackling the Bards work something between a tedious chore and a confusing mess of birdbolts and quondam carpetmongers.
While its nearly impossible to replicate or improve on these works, it is thanks to their timeless nature possible to make them more accessible to a wider audience.
In this Young Adult retelling of one of William Shakespeares most memorable plays, join C, E. Wilson as she breathes new life into Othello, the second book in her series Shakespeare for Everyone Else.
When Archer decides that hes had enough of Orion and Devony running what he thought was going to be his school he takes desperate measures to ruin everything.
Through lies and betrayal, deceit and deception, Archer will stop at nothing to get what he wants, and he doesnt care whose lives he has to destroy in the process.
Can anyone stop one of William Shakespeares most villainous characters in this YA retelling of the epic tragedy of Othello A clever and unique Young Adult interpretation of one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies.
A brilliant, suspenseful read. Full review will be posted on my blog on theth March on my stop on the 'Othello' Blog Tour.
sitelink oldvictorianquill. wordpres
edit.
Any author who rewrites any well known classic to make it more relatable to people today, has a huge feat ahead of them, none more so than authors who rewrite Shakespeare.
C. E. Wilson took on an incredibly difficult challenge, and not only succeeded, but also wrote the story so well, that the emotions that are more difficult to experience whilst reading Othello in script form, just flew off the page and I really connected with the characters and storyline.
Being a huge Shakespeare fan, I have read all of his known plays, and Othello is one of the more difficult ones to read and understand.
C. E. Wilson did a fantastic job in brining Shakespeares characters alive in thest century, and made their motives, feelings and struggles seem very much relatable to real problems that young people face today.
I liked how it was set in a school, which made an excellent way for all the characters to know each other, and have jealousy issues related to school related drama.
I particularly loved how the characters were introduced to us, I really felt the connection between Orion Othello and Dev Desdemona and I could see the love that they had for each other so clearly that it broke my heart to see Orions descent into jealousy.
The pacing of the story was also perfectly in line with the way that Shakespeares original work was paced.
Whilst many may feel the ending is very sudden and not much closure is given, I loved how C.
E. Wilson tackled this tragic ending, as it was very much in line with how Shakespeares plays do end very abruptly after the final dramatic scene, with less prominent characters speaking the final lines.
I gave this bookstars, as there were a few moments in the book where I felt the dialogue was a bit stilted, almost as though it were written for a play and not for a novel, but in the grand scheme of how wellthought out and produced this book was, this was really only a little thing.
This is one of the best Shakespeare retellings I have read, it is incredibly wellthought out and was extremely relatable to young adults, and I feel that this sort of book would have helped a lot of my classmates when I was studying Shakespeare at school.
A clever, unique and intriguing young adult adaption of Shakespeares Othello,
Stars! There are some really good parts in this, . And others I didn't like
I was wondering if Wilson is going to be able pull of this rendition set in a contemporary high school.
I had many doubts but frankly she somehow did manage to transfer the classic tale
Though I do have some issues with it, I also was positively impressed
At first I was surprised at the name changes Wilson did.
Well, not so much most of the changes mostly Archer, I found it an interesting and simultaneously odd choice, And I was worried that I would mixup the names and characters, with my terrible name memory that would be a given.
But I didn't, Wilson build the characters well enough for me to immediately get who is who in comparison to Shakespeare.
Though Orion on some level was a bit too good and Archer too mischievous teenager for me at the beginning, I think Wilson did nail that part quite well.
The retelling in a high school setting had me super worried, but again Wilson did a pretty good job with that.
So while I do thing that Wilson did a really good retelling when it comes to plot and character building, I gotta say it doesn't replace Shakespeare if you struggle with his english get a modern version.
I think this is great for young people interested in his works, Maybe an introductions to the epic english author, but it does not carry his weight or even come close to his use of language.
I guess on some level that was clear, And I did honestly factor in this in my rating, cause frankly if I didn't I would have rounded it down toStars, rather than up to.
Because my biggest issue was the prose, Wilson went from teen slang to stoic dialogs, some of this felt very wooden and honestly her writing style missed the beautiful flowing prose that Shakespeare uses.
And that's my biggest issue, set aside the fact, that I expected more beautiful prose, I am not sure how I feel about Wilson's prose in general, I can't say if this is because Wilson tried to incorporate some of Shakespeare's dialogues and somewhat failed or if simply her writing style is not to my taste.
The amazing thing though and I have to say, Wilson made me realize this, this tale of jealousy, racism, love and betrayal is still extremely current.
While I was aware that Shakespeare's work is still of great value but Wilson with her work has highlighted how important and current it still is!
So it's,Stars rounded up to.
Thank you to the author for the review copy,
In this Young Adult retelling of one of William Shakespeares most memorable plays, join C, E. Wilson as she breathes new life into Othello, the second book in her series Shakespeare for Everyone Else.
When Archer decides that hes had enough of Orion and Devony running what he thought was going to be his school he takes desperate measures to ruin everything.
Through lies and betrayal, deceit and deception, Archer will stop at nothing to get what he wants, and he doesnt care whose lives he has to destroy in the process.
So a great idea this, the author takes Othello, brings it bang up to date, gives it a thoroughly modern twist but keeps all the heart of the original right on in there.
A difficult one to pull off but done in a great way here,
Im actually a big fan of Shakespeares stories but I do struggle with the language, beautiful as it is and I love what the author has done here given it a whole new twist and still giving the nuances and discussion points that make Shakespeare such a great teaching tool.
Add to that its fun! A good story well told for the Young Adult audience, I imagine that a great thing to do would be to read the original and then read this in fact it did encourage me to revisit the base material.
I know that there are more in this series available already and coming soon personally I want to see what happens to Romeo And Juliet.
All in all a terrific read, a great Sunday Afternoon spent and I will definitely read more.
Recommended.
Happy Reading Folks!,