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A review by elementarymydear
Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons
1.0
I wanted to enjoy this book, I really, really did, and to start with I did. Aside from a couple of odd metaphors that made me go “huh?” the writing was lyrical and the setting immersive.
I’m actually going to start at the end with this review. At the end of the audiobook there was an interview with the author, and as I listened to it everything started to make sense. Of course this book was written by an adult who read Romeo and Juliet as an adult for the first time, and was scandalised by the violence and hedonistic behaviour of the characters.
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I was coming into this book from a completely different angle. Not only is it entirely possible that my school and teachers taught R&J from a more critical angle, I also spent a fair chunk of the early 2010s on tumblr, which is the best way to get a critical and/or feminist reading of literally any classic text. I’m not saying the author should have in fact done an internet deep dive on what teenagers of a decade ago are saying about Shakespeare, but it’s not exactly a new idea that the play is violent, or that Juliet is incredibly young, or that Romeo falls easily in and out of love.
In this book, all these ideas are turned up to the max. Romeo is a love addict, wooing and discarding women left right and centre. He’s almost sociopathic, the detachment he has to any of these women. He’s so coarse and callous that he is barely believable, as a villain, as a love interest, or even as a person. I actually think a more empathetic version of this character would have been more realistic and, therefore, more chilling.
This is where we get the domino effect. If Romeo is a known villain, why does the Friar marry him and Juliet? Because the Friar is, for reasons never explained, Romeo’s enabler. Why does the Friar set up the scheme of Juliet faking her own death? Because he was going to actually poison her, of course! And what about the countless other women Romeo has ruined? Of course the Friar will quietly get rid of them for him!
Which finally takes us to the titular character, Rosaline. An off-stage character in the original, who Romeo has a crush on, here she has plans to elope with Romeo before he sets eyes on Juliet. I did really like her as a character (although a part of me curled up and cringed every time she and Juliet referred to each other as “cuz”). She was strong-willed, independent, but not without her flaws.
I have a new least-favourite trope, which I’m calling “the time-travelling feminist”. It appears exclusively in historical fiction, and happens when the main character, who is inexplicably well-versed in modern feminism, is the lone figure who can see the injustice around her (such as Lessons in Chemistry, for example). Rosaline is a prime example. Only she can see that Romeo (who’s age is undefined but we’re lead to believe he’s older than he acts) has no business seducing the thirteen-year-old Juliet. Regardless of the fact that Juliet is being primed for marriage to someone else, or the fact that 13 was, at the time, considered young but an acceptable marriage age. Her constant outrage at Juliet’s youth was just another reminder that this is a 400-year-old story seen through modern eyes. That’s not to say that this isn’t a theme worth exploring, but the author’s own shock at the story really shone through here.
You would be mistaken for thinking, given everything I’ve said so far, that all of the women are either fiercely feminist or tragic victims, and that all of the men are villainous misogynists. I was delighted in the depiction of Tybalt – of a slightly lost but ultimately good-hearted best friend and cousin to Rosaline. Their friendship was my favourite thing about this novel. Obviously I knew Tybalt’s fate, but it was ruined much earlier than that when – surprise surprise – he was in love with her! Because, as we all know, boys and girls can’t just be friends, even when they’re cousins.
Credit where it’s due to the narrator, Sheila Atim. An experienced Shakespeare actor, she was a huge part of making the audiobook the absorbing, immersive experience it was, and I take my hat off to her!
I was so excited for this book. I’d been wanting to read it for so long, and I was gutted that it didn’t live up to my expectations.
I received a free copy for an honest review.
I’m actually going to start at the end with this review. At the end of the audiobook there was an interview with the author, and as I listened to it everything started to make sense. Of course this book was written by an adult who read Romeo and Juliet as an adult for the first time, and was scandalised by the violence and hedonistic behaviour of the characters.
📚Blog📖YouTube📖Instagram📚
I was coming into this book from a completely different angle. Not only is it entirely possible that my school and teachers taught R&J from a more critical angle, I also spent a fair chunk of the early 2010s on tumblr, which is the best way to get a critical and/or feminist reading of literally any classic text. I’m not saying the author should have in fact done an internet deep dive on what teenagers of a decade ago are saying about Shakespeare, but it’s not exactly a new idea that the play is violent, or that Juliet is incredibly young, or that Romeo falls easily in and out of love.
In this book, all these ideas are turned up to the max. Romeo is a love addict, wooing and discarding women left right and centre. He’s almost sociopathic, the detachment he has to any of these women. He’s so coarse and callous that he is barely believable, as a villain, as a love interest, or even as a person. I actually think a more empathetic version of this character would have been more realistic and, therefore, more chilling.
This is where we get the domino effect. If Romeo is a known villain, why does the Friar marry him and Juliet? Because the Friar is, for reasons never explained, Romeo’s enabler. Why does the Friar set up the scheme of Juliet faking her own death? Because he was going to actually poison her, of course! And what about the countless other women Romeo has ruined? Of course the Friar will quietly get rid of them for him!
Which finally takes us to the titular character, Rosaline. An off-stage character in the original, who Romeo has a crush on, here she has plans to elope with Romeo before he sets eyes on Juliet. I did really like her as a character (although a part of me curled up and cringed every time she and Juliet referred to each other as “cuz”). She was strong-willed, independent, but not without her flaws.
I have a new least-favourite trope, which I’m calling “the time-travelling feminist”. It appears exclusively in historical fiction, and happens when the main character, who is inexplicably well-versed in modern feminism, is the lone figure who can see the injustice around her (such as Lessons in Chemistry, for example). Rosaline is a prime example. Only she can see that Romeo (who’s age is undefined but we’re lead to believe he’s older than he acts) has no business seducing the thirteen-year-old Juliet. Regardless of the fact that Juliet is being primed for marriage to someone else, or the fact that 13 was, at the time, considered young but an acceptable marriage age. Her constant outrage at Juliet’s youth was just another reminder that this is a 400-year-old story seen through modern eyes. That’s not to say that this isn’t a theme worth exploring, but the author’s own shock at the story really shone through here.
You would be mistaken for thinking, given everything I’ve said so far, that all of the women are either fiercely feminist or tragic victims, and that all of the men are villainous misogynists. I was delighted in the depiction of Tybalt – of a slightly lost but ultimately good-hearted best friend and cousin to Rosaline. Their friendship was my favourite thing about this novel. Obviously I knew Tybalt’s fate, but it was ruined much earlier than that when – surprise surprise – he was in love with her! Because, as we all know, boys and girls can’t just be friends, even when they’re cousins.
Credit where it’s due to the narrator, Sheila Atim. An experienced Shakespeare actor, she was a huge part of making the audiobook the absorbing, immersive experience it was, and I take my hat off to her!
I was so excited for this book. I’d been wanting to read it for so long, and I was gutted that it didn’t live up to my expectations.
I received a free copy for an honest review.