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aiyam's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
First off: Massive TW for biphobia. This is a constant throughout the book, from straight people and queer people alike.
Okay I loved this book so much. The format of the book is just stunning, the characters are enthralling, and I was obsessed from the second I picked it up.
The story is a queer YA retelling of Julius Caesar, and if that isn't enough to convince you to pick it up I don't know what you could need. Bronwyn - Brutus, Cass - Cassius, Porter - Portia, and Jude Cuthbert - Julius Caesar are the main characters that you will come to know and somewhat despise. Do not despise Porter though, I am a Porter stan until I die okay, I will defend this man until my dying breath. He is me and I am okay with that because I love him. Possibly my favorite thing that Whalen did was make me truly dislike some of these characters despite not wanting to. The mark of a good author is the ability to evoke emotion, and I felt many negative ones when reading about these characters and their behavior.
The betrayal and backstabbing is just so well done. The nasty exclusionary high school behavior was so realistic I got chills. There are a couple of bullying incidents from Jude that as I was reading, I could picture who I know that would do the same thing without even thinking about it. Every part of the story unfolds with a crystal clear motive, and it is disgusting what they are doing but I was on the edge of my seat. The impact of all of this being told after the fact is just so powerful and such an amazing literary choice.
Honestly I think everyone should read this (provided you check the laundry list of trigger warnings first). I guarantee this will be a hit with the queer Shakespeare obsessed teenagers (mostly because it was a hit with me) and I hope that a massive audience can read this and take it for all it is.
Okay I loved this book so much. The format of the book is just stunning, the characters are enthralling, and I was obsessed from the second I picked it up.
The story is a queer YA retelling of Julius Caesar, and if that isn't enough to convince you to pick it up I don't know what you could need. Bronwyn - Brutus, Cass - Cassius, Porter - Portia, and Jude Cuthbert - Julius Caesar are the main characters that you will come to know and somewhat despise. Do not despise Porter though, I am a Porter stan until I die okay, I will defend this man until my dying breath. He is me and I am okay with that because I love him. Possibly my favorite thing that Whalen did was make me truly dislike some of these characters despite not wanting to. The mark of a good author is the ability to evoke emotion, and I felt many negative ones when reading about these characters and their behavior.
The betrayal and backstabbing is just so well done. The nasty exclusionary high school behavior was so realistic I got chills. There are a couple of bullying incidents from Jude that as I was reading, I could picture who I know that would do the same thing without even thinking about it. Every part of the story unfolds with a crystal clear motive, and it is disgusting what they are doing but I was on the edge of my seat. The impact of all of this being told after the fact is just so powerful and such an amazing literary choice.
Honestly I think everyone should read this (provided you check the laundry list of trigger warnings first). I guarantee this will be a hit with the queer Shakespeare obsessed teenagers (mostly because it was a hit with me) and I hope that a massive audience can read this and take it for all it is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Biphobia, Sexual assault, and Bullying
beforeviolets's review against another edition
DNF at 42%
Thank you to Bold Stokes Books and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Before I get into my review, the reason why I DNF'd: an entire chapter was essentially dedicated to referencing Harry Potter. It didn't even add anything relevant to the story. Instant pass.
This book was one of my most anticipated of the year. A sapphic Julius Caesar retelling? I mean, sign me up! Especially since I really enjoyed the author's previous Shakespeare retelling, Two Winters (A Winter's Tale).
But this book was just a complete and utter failure. The story was set during the Trump election era, yet was set at a school reminiscent of the school in Faking It - where it is shameful to not be gay, trans, etc. - which confused the atmosphere. It leaned so heavily on both the Trump era and this school culture to reason out every single plot point, but their competing qualities just completely cancelled out the stakes. Like we're supposed to believe that you were scared to go to school after the Trump election when your school is mostly queer and non-men? As a queer and Jewish person who went to school in the Christian South that day, I could just not get behind this. Yet despite this school's so-called "progressive" culture, it was wildly biphobic, lesbophobic, and generally toxic. The setting felt specially designed to be as oppressive to bisexual characters, which is appalling considering the dedication is to the bisexual readers.
The JC character is a lesbian who bullies the Brutus character for "cheating on her identity" when she dates a boy. Yet the JC character isn't even a lesbian herself, apparently having had crushes on boys, and so the Brutus character decides to try to out her as bisexual by catfishing her as a boy. This book also contains a lot of rhetoric that seems to imply that young people nowadays don't use the word "lesbian," which felt a little too close to some TERF rhetoric I've seen on the internet for comfort.
The writing seemed to be INCREDIBLY hesitant and insecure. Plot points and backstories were reiterated time and time again, almost as if in fear that the audience had already forgotten everything that had happened. It caused the story to drag, the already non-existent stakes to drop, and the characters to feel exhaustive.
I can't emphasize how disappointed I was by this read, especially because it was something I had genuinely been looking forward to for quite some time. Julius Caesar deserves better. Queer people deserve better.
CWs so far: mental health, anxiety, biphobia, bullying, sexual content (implied), f-slur (used to refer to oneself), alcoholism (mention), drug use (mention), underage drinking (brief), parental abandonment, potential outing, takes place during Trump era and discussed often.
Thank you to Bold Stokes Books and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Before I get into my review, the reason why I DNF'd: an entire chapter was essentially dedicated to referencing Harry Potter. It didn't even add anything relevant to the story. Instant pass.
This book was one of my most anticipated of the year. A sapphic Julius Caesar retelling? I mean, sign me up! Especially since I really enjoyed the author's previous Shakespeare retelling, Two Winters (A Winter's Tale).
But this book was just a complete and utter failure. The story was set during the Trump election era, yet was set at a school reminiscent of the school in Faking It - where it is shameful to not be gay, trans, etc. - which confused the atmosphere. It leaned so heavily on both the Trump era and this school culture to reason out every single plot point, but their competing qualities just completely cancelled out the stakes. Like we're supposed to believe that you were scared to go to school after the Trump election when your school is mostly queer and non-men? As a queer and Jewish person who went to school in the Christian South that day, I could just not get behind this. Yet despite this school's so-called "progressive" culture, it was wildly biphobic, lesbophobic, and generally toxic. The setting felt specially designed to be as oppressive to bisexual characters, which is appalling considering the dedication is to the bisexual readers.
The JC character is a lesbian who bullies the Brutus character for "cheating on her identity" when she dates a boy. Yet the JC character isn't even a lesbian herself, apparently having had crushes on boys, and so the Brutus character decides to try to out her as bisexual by catfishing her as a boy. This book also contains a lot of rhetoric that seems to imply that young people nowadays don't use the word "lesbian," which felt a little too close to some TERF rhetoric I've seen on the internet for comfort.
The writing seemed to be INCREDIBLY hesitant and insecure. Plot points and backstories were reiterated time and time again, almost as if in fear that the audience had already forgotten everything that had happened. It caused the story to drag, the already non-existent stakes to drop, and the characters to feel exhaustive.
I can't emphasize how disappointed I was by this read, especially because it was something I had genuinely been looking forward to for quite some time. Julius Caesar deserves better. Queer people deserve better.
CWs so far: mental health, anxiety, biphobia, bullying, sexual content (implied), f-slur (used to refer to oneself), alcoholism (mention), drug use (mention), underage drinking (brief), parental abandonment, potential outing, takes place during Trump era and discussed often.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Lesbophobia, and Bullying
Moderate: Outing, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, and Sexual content
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