Reviews

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

hoshi's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ameserole's review against another edition

5.0

First some background information. New Boy is a retelling of Shakespeare's play Othello. It is set in Washington D.C. around the 70's.

Now onto the good stuff: my review!

New Boy was a really good book (I feel like I keep saying that in my reviews today?). I loved all of the characters, except for the douchebag name Ian. I feel like there has to be someone I don't like in most books, well Ian is that character. Sorry, not sorry.

Besides Ian, there's Osei, Dee, and Casper. Osei is the MC of the book and the only black kid within a white school. Now Osei deals with so much racism that it broke my heart and I had to put the book down. I have no idea how people can look at themselves in the mirror and think they are an amazing person while going out into the world and being a racist twat. I hate racism and I hate people who are still racist to this day.

Well, seeing Osei going through all of this - Dee and Casper come to the rescue. THANK GOD FOR SOME DECENT PEOPLE! I loved their friendship and everything else about them.

Now that's all I'm really going to spoil about this book because honestly it needs to be read. It's such a good book. It will become an addiction.

paulsnelling's review against another edition

3.0

Contemporary retelling of Othello. Interesting but not really convincing. A reminder of how great the play is more than anything else. And the opera - a very happy revisit.

supersteph's review against another edition

4.5

Othello is a tragedy so thi  ends as on as well. I loved that it had me researching the play while I read. Very creative! 

hayleyccc4's review against another edition

4.0

This was a really interesting book! I was really enjoying it and it might have gotten five stars, but I was a bit uncomfortable at times with some of the things the characters said. These things were meant to be uncomfortable, but they did make me enjoy the story less, as I kept being reminded of how young the characters are and how disturbing some of their thoughts and actions were. I can tell you I was angry with every character at one point or another. However, from an analytical point of view the story was extremely interesting and well constructed - and very hard to explain. I would highly recommend you read it if you're at all curious or enjoy odd stories. I personally have not read Othello yet, so I can't comment on how much it draws from the play (though I can infer a lot, and that would explain the more bothersome parts). I think after reading this book, though, I would really like to pick the play up!

literarylover37's review against another edition

4.0

A short but powerful read, New Boy is enjoyable even for those who have never read Othello. The idea of transporting Shakepeare’s play to a single day in the 1960’s is genius. While the casting of 6th graders was unique, I didn’t feel like it was as authentic. Sometimes the characters did things (or had thought processes) that I couldn’t see an 11-year-old doing. I did like that fact that they were young enough to still have an innocence about them but enough age to know the ways of the world. I particularly liked the character of Mimi and how she was used. I liked the rotating points of view and felt like that was done really well and I felt that the setting allowed for a lot of great discussions about race and social dynamics. The asides of the adults in the book were interesting as well and added a lot to the whole tone of the story. I really enjoyed this book, not just as a version of Shakespeare but in its own right.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

jjcbelle's review against another edition

I am finding hard to give this book a rating. It was a quick, fairly enjoyable read, but I came to the ending only to realize that I hated the story. But I feel like Shakespeare is to blame for that, since it is a retelling of Othello - one of Shakespeare's plays that I was not familiar with beforehand. I think I will give it a miss.

melohpa's review against another edition

3.0

Interesting concept to take the adults and their themes of jealousy and betrayal and put them in a 1970's schoolyard.
See my full review at https://topplingbookpile.blogspot.com/2020/05/new-boy-by-tracy-chevalier-in-my-quest.html

akrivos8's review against another edition

5.0

I loved this book. In some ways, it is a simple story--set entirely in one day, it's the story of a young boy's first day at a new school. The boy just happens to be black, and the school just happens to be all-white. The story takes place sometime in the 1970s. It's a compelling story, and one I didn't realize was a retelling of Othello until the very end. I'm not sure if the book would be better if you didn't know this information going in or not. In any case, the story is compelling on its own, and Tracy Chevalier writes it with grace and simplicity.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

nickymaund's review against another edition

4.0

Despite this being set in a school for children on the cusp of middle school (that’s 11yrs old for those not on the know), this is very much a story for adults. This is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project - where well known novelists re-tell a selection of Shakespeare’s plays. This particular offering is a retelling of Othello.

In Chevalier’s retelling set in the 1970s, she brings Osei (known as “O”) as the new boy in the last term of school, he’s also the son of a diplomat from Ghana and his new school is very white. Very, very white. Multiple viewpoints show you how O’s arrival quickly affects the equilibrium of the students and staff, as the ripples of racism, fear, jealousy, friendship, obsession and the relationships for all over the course of one single day.

Whilst I flew through this audiobook (excellently narrated by Onayemi), Chevalier covers many themes, many of which are more of a mature nature. And there’s a vast array of characters who add multi-layered depth to their own responses; the teacher affected by his time serving in the war, the school bully affected by an abusive parent, the newcomer who is wise beyond his years and encounters racism at every turn, the one person that he befriends and starts to like, but the said bully has other ideas.

⚠️TW: references to racism, domestic abuse, bullying and questionable behaviour on the playground ⚠️