BOOK REVIEW: YOLO Juliet by William Shakespeare and Brett Wright

Stephanie O'Connell | 2 November 2015 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: YOLO Juliet by William Shakespeare and Brett Wright

Random House
November 2015
Paperback, $19.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell

6.5/10

Romeo and Juliet, one of the greatest love stories ever told… in texts?!
Imagine: What if those star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet had smartphones? A classic is reborn in this fun and funny adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays!
Two families at war.
A boy and a girl in love.
A secret marriage gone oh-so-wrong.
and h8. The classics just got a whole lot more interesting. 😉

Ok, now hold on a second, don’t rage quit this review.

Yes, this is the Shakespeare story we’ve all grown up with and most of us studied at school, and yes, this version of it happens to be told in a text message format… BUT once you get into it, and if you remind yourself not to take it too seriously, this can actually be a good bit of fun.

Romeo:
What the duck, Juliet!
The duck.
Ugh! Autocorrect.

Juliet:
heehee. quack, quack.

There are a few reasons you might enjoy this book:

If you’re a collector of Shakespeare, or are looking for a present for a collector of Shakespeare, this is merely a different kind of “translation” of the text.
If you’re struggling to understand what they’re saying in the original work, and you want to have a clearer picture of what’s going on, this will give you a general idea so future reads of the play should be easier.
If you’re a fan of books like Damn You Autocorrect, or The History of the World According to Facebook, you should find this entertaining.

This is a quick read, and once you get used to the format you’ll find it hard to put down.

While sometimes a little over the top in terms of trying to be funny, and the texts in this book contained WAY more emojis than I, personally, am used to, this was an overall fun read, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for more titles in this range.