Review: An Uncommon Education

An Uncommon Education

Author: Elizabeth Percer
Pages: 352
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Source: Publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
For fans of "Prep," "Dead Poets Society," and "Special Topics in Calamity Physics "comes an elegant and remarkably insightful coming-of-age debut, in which a young woman's serendipitous discovery of her college's underground Shakespeare Society leads to an unforgettable series of transformations. When Naomi finds herself among "the Shakes" at Wellesley, she finally lets herself embrace the passionate inner self she's always kept locked away. But when a sudden scandal unfolds, she will be forced to learn the limits of the relationships that have sustained her. An intimate and enthralling narrative, Elizabeth Percer's debut novel "An Uncommon Education "marks the emergence of a stunning new literary talent.

First Sentence: "On the day after my mother's death, I returned to 83 Beals Street for the first time in fifteen years."

Review:

For once, I actually think the books they make comparisons to in the blurb are right on the money. Of the three, An Uncommon Education had the least in common with prep, and quite a lot in common with Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Also, I like An Uncommon Education best of all of these things. This book moves at a slow, sort of drifting pace, but the slow parts were worth it to enjoy the skilled prose and clever observations about life.

Readers who like books with a fast pace are not likely to be well-pleased with Percer's debut. I do not mind a slow pace, so long as a story has other things to recommend it, especially if I can take my time with it, rather than trying to rush through for a deadline. Percer's writing is intricate and well-worth savoring slowly.

What kept me from really connecting with this book is its lack of direction combined with its pretentiousness. Taking the former, the novel does not have a cohesive plot. There's nothing really propelling the reader forward. It's just a woman looking back at her life, though primarily just her childhood and college years, in the period after her mother's death.

Naomi learns about the tenuousness of life and the dangerousness of love during her childhood. Her father has a heart attack and nearly dies in front of her right at the beginning of her story. Later on, just as she's starting on puberty and falling in love for the first time with her neighbor Teddy, his father dies, and Teddy's mom moves them away. From this point on, she avoids real close connections, a habit she cannot truly shake at college. Naomi also keeps an emotional wall up between herself and the reader, which prevented me from forming an attachment. There does come a change suddenly towards the end, and I would actually like to have seen more development of her character, so that I could wholly buy into her changed mindset.

I suppose I knew the book would be one of those intended to highlight the mighty intellect of the author, but not to this degree. As with Special Topics in Calamity Physics, the main character becomes involved in a time-eating, addictive society, one which leads to a degradation in her classwork and some out-of-character decisions. The club, while not secret, has some seriously unsavory practices, like the parties after their performances of Shakespeare plays where the girls hook up with others, some of whom are masked to preserve their identities.

While there's nothing wrong with a drifting plot or showing off, I just feel like some of the pieces of the novel were not entirely necessary. Some scenes seem to exist solely for exposition that reveals the vast swaths of knowledge of the author. Others seem to serve merely to add drama to the otherwise staid narration, like the revelation as to what exactly happened at one of those masked parties.

That all comes across rather on the negative side, but I did enjoy the book and I would read something else by Elizabeth Percer, because I do like her writing. If you like Special Topics in Calamity Physics or books that make you feel cleverer for having read them, I suspect An Uncommon Education will be right up your alley.

Rating: 3/5

Favorite Quote: "'You're just not used to your own brightness.' He scooted closer to me so that our hips were touching. 'This is how I see you,' he explained, staring down at the paper. 'Your face isn't really beautiful,' he once admitted,' but it is wonderful. More wonderful than beautiful.' I remember staring down at that paper, seeing a girl with a big, uneven smile looking out at me. I had never considered that someone might see me that way—bursting with light and wonderful."

Review: All Men of Genius

All Men of Genius

Author: Lev A.C. Rosen
Pages: 464
Publisher: Tor Books
Source: Publisher for review

Description from Goodreads:
Inspired by two of the most beloved works by literary masters, "All Men of Genius "takes place in an alternate Steampunk Victorian London, where science makes the impossible possible.

Violet Adams wants to attend Illyria College, a widely renowned school for the most brilliant up-and-coming scientific minds, founded by the late Duke Illyria, the greatest scientist of the Victorian Age. The school is run by his son, Ernest, who has held to his father's policy that the small, exclusive college remain male-only. Violet sees her opportunity when her father departs for America. She disguises herself as her twin brother, Ashton, and gains entry.

But keeping the secret of her sex won't be easy, not with her friend Jack's constant habit of pulling pranks, and especially not when the duke's young ward, Cecily, starts to develop feelings for Violet's alter ego, "Ashton." Not to mention blackmail, mysterious killer automata, and the way Violet's pulse quickens whenever the young duke, Ernest (who has a secret past of his own), speaks to her. She soon realizes that it's not just keeping her secret until the end of the year faire she has to worry about: it's surviving that long.

First Sentence: "The two men sat silently in the carriage."

Review:

How did this book not end up on my radar until now? Seriously, how did I miss this? A book inspired by two of my favorite works of literature, Twelfth Night, my very favorite Shakespeare play, and The Importance of Being Earnest? On top of that, add some steampunky goodness, and you have a book that was obviously just made for me.

Now, when I say inspired by those plays, I don't mean that All Men of Genius is a retelling. It's not. For the most part, Rosen uses those two plays for character names, some assistance with characterization, and the basic shenanigans of a crossdressing plot. There's a stronger correlation to Twelfth Night, obviously, but Rosen has very much created his own story and characters. If you are as much of a fan of these two works as I happen to be, you will probably giggle with delight at the way he weaves quotes and references to them together in brilliant ways. If you haven't read them, I see no reason why All Men of Genius cannot be greatly appreciated on its own merits; there should be no confusion for not having read his inspiration materials, though I do greatly recommend that you do so for your own well-being.

Rosen has created a rather large cast of characters, and done so quite deftly. In some novels, an author attempts to trace a number of story lines and characters, with the end result that all of the characters feel rather flat. Rosen, on the other hand, has created a loveable group of genius misfits, giving depth even to those with smaller parts, like Mrs. Wilks, Violet and Ashton's housekeeper. I really appreciate authors that take the time to care even about more minor characters. There are a few instances where he would have been better off leaving some of the detail out, as with a few of the professors, since we track them for such a brief time and don't accomplish much of anything, but, for the most part, I approve wholeheartedly of how he constructed this.

A handful of the characters are directly comparable to their counterparts in either Twelfth Night or The Importance of Being Earnest, while others come largely from Rosen's own brain or have been tweaked ever so delightfully. Cecily Worthington, for example, has the same sweet, naive spirit of the character of the same name in Wilde's play, as evidenced in her poor choice in a crush and her toy rabbit Shakespeare, which she still takes everywhere with her at sixteen. In All Men of Genius, she also happens to be a genius, rather than a bit of a ditz. Others who hearken strongly to their inspirations are Toby Belch, Miriam (Maria of Twelfth Night), and Malcolm Volio, although in most every case, perhaps with the exception of Volio, they have additional complexities.

As with Cecily, Violet has much more intelligence than Viola, her counterpart in Twelfth Night. While she goes through the same ordeals, she has a much more powerful idea of what women are capable of, while also figuring out that she does want to be a woman, rather than wishing to have been born a man. Her transition throughout the novel had a lot of power to it, allowing her to truly feel that women really are just as powerful as men. Rosen did a good job navigating the dangerous waters of the gender divide. In some cases, as with Ernest Worthington and Jack Feste, Rosen has borrowed the name, but largely built the character from scratch. Whether the characters really served as references or not, I found that I greatly delighted in nearly every single one of them.

Obviously, All Men of Genius is rather lengthy. Much as I enjoyed it, plowing through it did take some time. There's quite a lot of discussion of the various sciences, but kept at a reasonable level that even I, who have always been atrocious at science, could understand. For those who delight in steampunk, Rosen has created a swath of wonderful inventions. Personally, I would love to get my hands on Toby's hangover cure.

My favorite aspects of the novel have to be some of the clever references that Rosen threw into the book. For example, in All Men of Genius, a big change from Twelfth Night is that Violet's brother is gay, whereas in Shakespeare's play he gets to hook up with the woman who falls for his sister disguised as a man. In Rosen's novel, Ashton falls instead for Antony, which every reader of Twelfth Night can probably admit would have been the ending were Shakespeare honest. Rosen also does something quite clever and hilarious with Bunburry. Seriously, if you love those plays, you MUST read this.

As I conclude my review, I've just checked Goodreads to see if Rosen had any more books for me, and found that he doesn't have any other books out yet. He should get on that, because I want more. Witty literary references, well-drawn characters, and good writing to boot? This is my kind of author.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite Quote: "'Ah, but those genius women, they are the most difficult of all womankind.'"

Guest Post: Bardaptation by Lev AC Rosen

Fellow readers of fictions, I am pleased to introduce you today to Lev AC Rosen, the author of All Men of Genius, which just came out in paperback, meaning that you can obtain a copy of this delightful novel for less money in my favorite format (trade paperback). You can also check out my review later today. I asked Lev to write about some of his favorite Shakespeare-inspired things, as his own book includes many wonderful nod's to Twelfth Night, and let him run with that rather broad topic. Without further ado, here's the incredibly stylish Lev, along with some GIFs which are my (scholarly) contribution.

Bardaptation: My Favorite Shakespeare Transformations 
by Lev AC Rosen

When Christina first shot me the idea of writing about my favorite Shakespeare adaptations I was immediately thrilled – no one had come up with that idea for me before, and it sounded like so much fun. But when I took a beat to consider it, I wondered what exactly she meant. What is an adaptation of Shakespeare? Is it something like Macbeth set word for word in a present day mafia, or Hamlet in NYC? Or is it something merely inspired by a Shakespeare plot, like The Lion King? What about making slight changes to play, like the most recent film of The Tempest, where Helen Mirren plays Prospero, now Prospera? Or how about the amazing production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream where the forest is all umbrellas and doorways?

I knew I was going to have to narrow this down or else write a book on the matter, so I turned to the book I’d already written. All Men of Genius is only inspired by Twelfth Night (and Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest). I throw in quotes now and then, but of the 462 pages, I’m guessing about 460 of them are all my own words. So that’s what I want to talk about; my top adaptations that were inspired by Shakespeare plays. Enough that they would actually say so on their packaging. Now I haven’t seen them all (I still haven’t seen Scotland, PA, though I very much want to) and there are some, like The Lion King, which I enjoyed but just weren’t amazing enough for me to include. So if you don’t see your favorite, don’t get mad; just make a case for it in the comments. If I haven’t seen it, I’ll be sure to put it in the Netflix queue.

So, counting down, my top 5 adaptations are…

5) The Boys from Syracuse, by Rodgers and Hart. This is a seldom performed and fairly unknown musical from the 30s, inspired by Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. It takes place in ancient Greece (though the music is swing-inspired), and involves multiple sets of twins separated at birth, singing ladies of the night, and one of those happy endings where it turns out everyone is related except the people who’ve fallen in love. It has some great musical numbers, including some of my go- tos in the shower, like “Sing for Your Supper,” and “Falling in Love with Love.” I’ve only seen one performance, but it was exceedingly funny, in the ridiculous cartoony way you’d expect a musical inspired by one of Shakespeare’s silliest comedies to be. It hovers fairly close to the source material at first, though it ends up veering somewhat wildly by the end. It’s also one of my mother’s favorite shows, and so has a special place in my heart.

4) Shakespeare ReTold: The Taming of the Shrew. The Shakespeare ReTold series was a BBC series from 2005. Essentially, they took 4 plays (The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth and Much Ado About Nothing) and used them as inspiration for modern day stories: Macbeth is a celebrity chef, Beatrice and Benedick (played by Homeland’s Damian Lewis) are warring news anchors, and the players of Midsummer are visiting a theme park. As a group, there are some lows (Midsummer is something of a disappointment) and highs. I think the best of them is their version of The Taming of the Shrew. In it, Kate (played by Shirley Henderson, Harry Potter’s Moaning Myrtle) is a British politician about to be nominated as The Leader of the Opposition (think of it as the leader of the party which the Prime Minister is not a member of), but she has a bit of a PR problem – she’s seen as a bitch, and as she’s unmarried, she’s seen as not being pro-family. So, to solve this problem, she decides to get married. She finds the broke, but titled Petruchio (Rufus Sewell) to be at first very charming, and leaps into matrimony with him, but soon finds he causes more problems than he solves. The Taming of the Shrew is an interesting one to adapt, because ideally Kate’s transformation isn’t from bitch to docile, but from closed off to loving, while remaining powerful, and ideally Petruchio’s change is from chauvinist schmuck to someone can genuinely respect this woman. I feel as though this adaptation just about manages this. It’s not perfect, but Shirley Henderson’s insane rage and constant screaming, though they should be awful and annoying, are somehow carried off in such a way that she’s both hilarious and human.

I approve of adaptations where Kate doesn't become docile.

3) 10 Things I Hate About You. I know, I know, some people will say this belongs on top. And I won’t deny that Heath Ledger singing “You’re Just to Good to be True” makes me swoon a bit. I love me a good high school Shakespeare movie, too. If you aren’t familiar with it, 10 Things is based on The Taming of the Shrew, and most 80s and 90s high school movies. In it, Kat (Julia Stiles) is an ultra-feminist man-hater, but her kid sister Bianca is both popular and boy-crazy, and forbidden to date until her elder sister does likewise. So, some of the boys who are into Bianca pay the new badboy in town (Ledger) to date Kat. Of course, he genuinely falls for her, but then she uncovers the plot, etc. etc. One might make the case that nearly all movies that take place in high school are inspired by Shakespeare. Stiles and Ledger are great together, and the silliness of high school and the people around them are played up delightfully. But really, it’s all about that scene where Heath Ledger sings to her.

It is about this. And so much more.

2) She’s the Man. And this is the one where everyone groans and tells me this shouldn’t be on the list at all. But let me make my case for my undying love for She’s the Man. First, it’s based on Twelfth Night, like my book, so it has a special place in my heart. Secondly, it is completely and totally ridiculous. Which I love. It’s not the usual sort of silly, it’s outright unbelievable. Amanda Bynes as Viola as Sebastian is completely unbelievable as a man, and the fact that everyone around her accepts her as a guy (and a guy the same age as Channing Tatum, at that), sort of sets the tone of complete and total absurdity. Plus the gender bending! It’s sort of unabashedly feminist and at one point, a gay man is instructing women (via earbud, which apparently these people just have lying around) on how to behave as though they’re in love with their friend Viola, who is dressed as Sebastian, so as to convince the other straight men around them that Viola-as-Sebastian is a ladies man. Yes, one could make the argument for chauvinism there, with men controlling women to appease men, but I see it as just a reiteration of the idea that gender is all about performance – to be a cool guy, you just have to be good with women, and you can do that by getting women to pretend… anyway. It’s ridiculous, this movie. Completely ridiculous. And I love every moment of it.

Crossdressing Amanda Bynes looks shockingly like AMoG's cover.

1) This has to be a tie. West Side Story has to be here, but Kiss Me Kate does too. It depends, really. If you’re watching the movies, West Side Story, the musical based on Romeo and Juliet (set in 1950s NYC, where warring families are replaced by warring gangs) is one of the greatest musical movies of all time, and one of the greatest musicals of all time, period. It’s Bernstein and Sondheim and Laurents, and the movie has Natalie Wood, and it’s amazing. Hands down. But… my heart says Kiss Me Kate. The movie isn’t as good, but Kiss Me Kate has some of Cole Porter’s best music: “Another Openin’, Another Show,” “Brush up Your Shakespeare,” “It’s Too Darn Hot,” and another of my shower go-tos, “Always True to You Darlin’ (In My Fashion)”. It’s also based on The Taming of the Shrew, and in this case goes meta, as it’s about a troupe of players putting on a musical adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew, but the show’s two stars are exes who now hate each other. I saw the revival with Marin Mazzie and Brian Stokes Mitchell and it remains one of my top Broadway experiences of all time. And the show is twisted enough that it feels fun and original; the mob is involved (and sings!), and the actual Shakespeare inspiration goes beyond the show they’re performing and into their lives. It’s smart and funny in unexpected ways, and a big show, in the best possible way.

Snaps for this list. I approve.

So those are my top 5 (okay, 6). There are so many more great ones out there, though. And plenty of awful ones, too. What are some of your favorite and least favorite adaptations? Your favorite productions? Share in the comments; if I don’t know about one, I’d love to hear about it.

Review: Juliet Immortal

Juliet Immortal
Juliet Immortal, Book 1

Author: Stacey Jay
Pages: 306
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: Own

Description from Goodreads:
Fans of Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver and Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush will relish this intense paranormal love story featuring Romeo and Juliet, literary history's most tragic couple, who meet again, not as true lovers, but truly as enemies.

The most tragic love story in history . . .

Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love.

"These violent delights have violent ends 
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, 
Which as they kiss consume." 
—Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

First Sentence: "Tonight, he could have come through the door—the castello is quiet, even the servants asleep in their beds, and Nurse would have let him in—but he chooses the window, climbing through the tangle of night flowers, carrying petals in on his clothes."

Review:
In all honesty, I really didn't expect to like this. Romeo and Juliet was not my favorite play to begin with, and, because of its ubiquitousness, I've grown rather to loathe it. While I general hunt down retellings like Jaws hunts down the people of Amity, I make an exception for Romeo and Juliet most of the time. To my pleasant surprise though, I really, really was impressed with Juliet Immortal and am thrilled that I have a copy of the sequel Romeo Redeemed ready to go.

Stacey Jay made Romeo and Juliet palatable characters by completely changing things up. In this version, it turns out Romeo is totally willing to turn homicidal on Juliet in exchange for eternal life, given him by forces of evil known as the Mercenaries. Juliet, thanks to last minute intervention from Nurse, gets eternal life as well, signing on to work for the Ambassadors, the forces of light. I acknowledge that this all sounds patently ridiculous, but it's fantasy, so just take my word for it that, by and large, this paranormal plot line worked quite well for me.

Most of the narration (minus three chapters/intermezzos) is Juliet's first person perspective. Her work for the Ambassadors entails taking over another person's body, chosen seemingly at random. From this vantage point, her goal is to find a pair of lovers and make sure they reach true love, rather than one of them being recruited into the evil/eternal life scheme as happened with Romeo. While in another person's body, Juliet must avoid changing their life over much, but does try to improve things, which reminded me rather strongly of Mercy by Rebecca Lim.

This time, Juliet manifests in the body of a deeply depressed, lonely girl named April. Unfortunately, Romeo, who takes over dead bodies, restoring them to life and not the zombie-looking kind, appears in the same car with her, since April and Dylan had just been in a major car crash. Basically, Dylan had a bet that he could sleep with April, she found out, he tried to force her, and she crashed the car, killing him. In other words, Dylan sucks. Guess what, though! Romeo's WAY creepier. Call me morbid, but I got serious enjoyment out of watching the 'true lovers' end up such a hot mess.

Jay's writing and concept were phenomenal, and I was never bored. However, I did have some problems with the book. The main one is Juliet's gullibility. She's depicted as this strong, determined character, who has wised up from all of the horrible things Romeo has put her through. Though she supposedly works in pursuit of true love, she doesn't really believe in it anymore, and really just hopes for a chance to revenge herself on Romeo. All of that = fantastic.

Unfortunately, Juliet, it seems, hasn't learned much of anything. She immediately instaloves with someone else, Ben, the guy who saves her from Romeo that first night. Good lord, girl! Didn't you learn the first time that it doesn't hurt to take some time and not rush into things? It's hard to believe she's got her emotional walls up, if she instaloves so easily. She doesn't even fight it very hard. Heck, the true lovers she's sent to help fight their love more than she does, for all her wordy protestations.

I just wish she had been that way in all of her life, been a bit more questioning of love the second time around. That's just not who she is, though, I guess. On an unrelated note, can we stop with the whole "I'm writing a retelling of this play set in high school, so I'll totally have the school perform this play!" thing. Yes, that was once a clever gambit, but that ship has sailed, dear authors. It has been done enough; try something new. Note: SHS doesn't actually perform Romeo and Juliet; they perform West Side Story, which is almost worse.

The ending, too, seemed a bit overly convenient. I didn't really feel like everyone could emerge from this tale quite so happily. Of course, there's always the next book, which might be slightly different. I am eminently curious to see what angle Jay takes in the next book.

Rating: 3.5/5

Favorite Quote: "There is school and the misery of being a person unseen, the jealousy that I can't be wild and beautiful like Gemma, that I am always an audience, never a player."

Orsino's Horsemen/The Disguise - Shaun Davey

Manga Shakespeare: Twelfth Night

Adaptor: Richard Appignanesi
Illustrator: Nana Li
Pages: 207
Publisher: Amulet Books

Usually, I give manga versions of classics a wide berth. Though I love classics and manga, I find that the combination does not generally flatter either. However, Twelfth Night is my favorite play and the cover art looked promising, so I decided to give it a go. I am so glad I did! It is completely silly and entirely delightful.

This version of the play has a steampunk feel to it, which just takes something awesome and makes it better. Orsino has a car, Antonio wears a pirate's eye-patch and the clothing is completely wild. Most of the men go about either shirtless (with an open coat of course) or with tufts of chest hair coming out the top of their low cut tops. Malvolio, when cross-gartered, looks like some sort of crazy S&M guy. Olivia wears a dress that goes down only to her knees.

So yeah, it's kind of ridiculous, but so is the play really. I mean, there is crossdressing, cases of mistaken identity, absurd sword fights, tempests and sudden declarations of love (despite supposedly having been deeply in love with others). Actually, all of these ridiculous, but hugely delightful plots, are what make this play such perfect fodder for manga. If you've ever read manga, you know what I'm talking about.

Nana Li did a great job with the illustrations. I especially loved Orsino with his emo haircut. Too perfect! Maria, one of my favorites, has been drawn in such a manner that her spunk is entirely evident. Shakespeare fans, this is incredibly nerdy and hugely amusing!

Malvolio Rampant - Shaun Davey

The Fool's Girl

Author: Celia Rees
Genre: young adult, historical fiction, books about books (or in this case, plays)
Pages: 297

Brief Summary:
Celia Rees picks up where Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night (my personal favorite) left off. The main character of The Fool's Girl is Viola's daughter, Violetta, who travels with Feste. After a coup in her home country of Illyria, Violetta and Feste escape to England, where they actually encounter Shakespeare. Violetta tells him her mother's story and her own in an effort to enlist his help to regain her rightful place in Illyria. Romance and drama abound in this sequel to Twelfth Night.

Review:
While I do not necessarily agree with all of the decisions Rees made in her composition of this novel, I do think her interpretation was incredibly interesting. Her analysis of the hasty marriages between Viola & Orsino and Olivia & Stephano at the end of the play certainly seems spot on to me. Her use of Malvolio and Sir Andrew Agueface as harsh villains I have more trouble accepting. As I know the play so well, I have trouble picturing Malvolio without cross-gartered with yellow stockings and Sir Andrew as capable of using a sword.

Rees does a good job creating some of the atmosphere of the play and its characters (Feste in particular is spot on). The book is definitely less comedic though, so do not expect it to be just the same. Rees conveys the spirit of the time fairly accurately in most instances, although sometimes I wish she had not; I have trouble escaping my silly modern sensibilities, which feel that first cousins should in no instance have a romantic relationship (Oh wait, they're not silly: hemophilia). Cousins aside, this book is a great choice for any Shakespeare fans. I think Rees tackles of writing a sequel to the bard without being overly silly or overly pedantic. Check this one out, thou of good taste!