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katykelly's review
5.0
So many students I know say "but what's Shakespeare got to do with us, Miss? It's old and boring and nothing to do with me."
Like the author of this YA novel, I'm a school librarian. And I was made to study Shakespeare. As are they. I learned to see the beauty of his language, as well as the timelessness of his themes.
Over the last few decades we've seen 'West Side Story' show gang warfare in a contemporary setting, '10 Things I Hate about You' marvellously updated the Bard's comic misogynistic work, the film 'O' set Othello in the basketball courts of another high school. Shakespeare IS teenage life, teenage agony and teenage love.
Much Ado About Nothing is my favourite Shakespeare comedy (first brought to life for me through Kenneth Branagh's sun-drenched film). To see it cast with teenagers fits beautifully, I think, with the themes of lust, rivalry, witty duels and deception as seen in the original play.
Anderson, a debut novelist, has worked hard to populate her retelling with characters that contain the essence of the play's, whilst also being true to the contemporary world.
'The Only Thing' is told purely from Trixie's (Beatrice's) point of view. She and her friends all attend a school for advanced learners, which explains their skill with words as well as other talents. Ben (Benedick), her rival since he injured her as a child by accident, is her constant antagonist.
Anderson takes the whole cast and transforms them into the population of this high-achieving academy. One where the Rankings form the all-important core of their identities and strivings. Every student wants to be ranked at the top of their class. Trixie's friends, and Trixie herself, form the top few layers of the academic elite. But it seems that someone is cheating, or making it look like students are cheating...
I was enamoured from the very start. From Trixie's first dig at Ben's new moustache, I knew I was going to love watching these two spit out hate.
To give a flavour:
"Seriously, West. The mustache? You look like Mario. You just need a plunger and a self-fertilizing hermaphroditic dinosaur."
If you are not familiar with the play, you will still love this - my point of course is that Shakespeare's stories really are timeless ones that fit into a 21st century setting as easily as into an Elizabethan one. If you know the play, you'll fully enjoy seeing how Anderson has used almost every character you know and given them a contemporary flavour.
Trixie and Ben are book comic book/sci-fi aficionados ("Oh my God! Oh my Superman, Sandman, and Thor!"). We see conversations between Trixie and her friend over messaging services, they have in-jokes about modern TV shows. Students today will feel right at home:
"I've had time to plan with all of the good TV being on hiatus. Without Game of Thrones, I get weird."
And yet the entire story follows Shakespeare's (with one tweak at the end that I wasn't expecting but liked), though I did miss an overt Dogsbody character (the comic relief of Shakespeare, here the closest we get is a Freshman who plays middleman to the warring seniors). We get some great (think Juno-like cool and hip) parents - realistic, caring and not overly hysterical - too.
A wonderful, wonderful teenage comedy/love story - Trixie and Ben, we KNOW are possibly compatible. Do they know this? Because it's all first-person from Trixie's eyes, we do also miss a favourite scene of mine from the play, when Benedick is fooled by his friends into seeing Beatrice with new eyes. Here we have it second-hand. But it still works, and readers unfamiliar with Shakespeare won't miss it.
Oh, Lily, I'm so jealous! A great choice of setting and lead characters (Beatrice and Benedick are the most fleshed-out and sympathetic), wonderful updating, loved the witty repartee and the whole mystery of the Ranking scandal.
It's going to become as good a film as '10 Things', and I really hope students can read this and see that Shakespeare is as relevant to their lives as it was 400 years ago. Oh - just read it!
Review of a Netgalley advance copy.
Like the author of this YA novel, I'm a school librarian. And I was made to study Shakespeare. As are they. I learned to see the beauty of his language, as well as the timelessness of his themes.
Over the last few decades we've seen 'West Side Story' show gang warfare in a contemporary setting, '10 Things I Hate about You' marvellously updated the Bard's comic misogynistic work, the film 'O' set Othello in the basketball courts of another high school. Shakespeare IS teenage life, teenage agony and teenage love.
Much Ado About Nothing is my favourite Shakespeare comedy (first brought to life for me through Kenneth Branagh's sun-drenched film). To see it cast with teenagers fits beautifully, I think, with the themes of lust, rivalry, witty duels and deception as seen in the original play.
Anderson, a debut novelist, has worked hard to populate her retelling with characters that contain the essence of the play's, whilst also being true to the contemporary world.
'The Only Thing' is told purely from Trixie's (Beatrice's) point of view. She and her friends all attend a school for advanced learners, which explains their skill with words as well as other talents. Ben (Benedick), her rival since he injured her as a child by accident, is her constant antagonist.
Anderson takes the whole cast and transforms them into the population of this high-achieving academy. One where the Rankings form the all-important core of their identities and strivings. Every student wants to be ranked at the top of their class. Trixie's friends, and Trixie herself, form the top few layers of the academic elite. But it seems that someone is cheating, or making it look like students are cheating...
I was enamoured from the very start. From Trixie's first dig at Ben's new moustache, I knew I was going to love watching these two spit out hate.
To give a flavour:
"Seriously, West. The mustache? You look like Mario. You just need a plunger and a self-fertilizing hermaphroditic dinosaur."
If you are not familiar with the play, you will still love this - my point of course is that Shakespeare's stories really are timeless ones that fit into a 21st century setting as easily as into an Elizabethan one. If you know the play, you'll fully enjoy seeing how Anderson has used almost every character you know and given them a contemporary flavour.
Trixie and Ben are book comic book/sci-fi aficionados ("Oh my God! Oh my Superman, Sandman, and Thor!"). We see conversations between Trixie and her friend over messaging services, they have in-jokes about modern TV shows. Students today will feel right at home:
"I've had time to plan with all of the good TV being on hiatus. Without Game of Thrones, I get weird."
And yet the entire story follows Shakespeare's (with one tweak at the end that I wasn't expecting but liked), though I did miss an overt Dogsbody character (the comic relief of Shakespeare, here the closest we get is a Freshman who plays middleman to the warring seniors). We get some great (think Juno-like cool and hip) parents - realistic, caring and not overly hysterical - too.
A wonderful, wonderful teenage comedy/love story - Trixie and Ben, we KNOW are possibly compatible. Do they know this? Because it's all first-person from Trixie's eyes, we do also miss a favourite scene of mine from the play, when Benedick is fooled by his friends into seeing Beatrice with new eyes. Here we have it second-hand. But it still works, and readers unfamiliar with Shakespeare won't miss it.
Oh, Lily, I'm so jealous! A great choice of setting and lead characters (Beatrice and Benedick are the most fleshed-out and sympathetic), wonderful updating, loved the witty repartee and the whole mystery of the Ranking scandal.
It's going to become as good a film as '10 Things', and I really hope students can read this and see that Shakespeare is as relevant to their lives as it was 400 years ago. Oh - just read it!
Review of a Netgalley advance copy.
silver_anchor4's review
2.0
I have issues with this book and I didn't really like the characters, but it was so damn fun that I couldn't stop reading. An amazing book to get you out of the reading slump.
rlstrayer1's review
5.0
4.5 stars
My little fangirl heart is soooo happy =) Numerous mentions of Doctor Who, Firefly, Joss Whedon, numerous superheroes....the nerd in me is squealing =D
An added bonus...this is a Much Ado About Nothing retelling.
If you are a fan of any of the above, you will love this.
------------
The description mentioned Firefly and Doctor Who
And this is a Much Ado About Nothing retelling
SOLD
My little fangirl heart is soooo happy =) Numerous mentions of Doctor Who, Firefly, Joss Whedon, numerous superheroes....the nerd in me is squealing =D
An added bonus...this is a Much Ado About Nothing retelling.
If you are a fan of any of the above, you will love this.
------------
The description mentioned Firefly and Doctor Who
And this is a Much Ado About Nothing retelling
SOLD
g_occasionally_reads's review against another edition
4.0
I was expecting a cliche' ya romance, and somehow it is, but it is also not.
May I interest you in:
May I interest you in:
alboyer6's review
2.0
It was an OK book though I expected to enjoy this title more than I did. Taking place in a school for gifted students, Trixie has some serious issues with Ben. In the first part of the book she is down right mean to him and her motivations don't seem to justify the amount of antagonism has towards him. So I never really came to like Trixie. There were a lot of fun pop culture references that ring true with the characters but I ended up being uninterested in the central mystery in the book centered around students being falsely accused of cheating and suspended and/or expelled. It was an ok book that I had difficulty connecting with.
ARC courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher.
ARC courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher.
ktozz's review
4.0
3.5 - I randomly picked this book up in the bookstore because I liked the cover and was pleasantly surprised when I read the description and reviews on the back because it seemed like something I would really enjoy. I had a hard time getting into it because Trixie is just plain mean - which I can be - so I think I related a little too much to her and the way she behaves around her friends and people she likes. The cheating storyline seemed too forced and somewhat unbelievable. I did love the Game of Thrones, Marvel, DC, and Supernatural shoutouts in the book however. Yet the book is somewhat limited to a specific audience - one that is invested in fandom culture. Like I wouldn't recommend it to people who aren't into those fandoms just because they wouldn't get most of the references at all. Overall, I enjoyed it and wanted to see how it ended, but when I did finish it I wished there was more because it didn't feel quite finished.
flowersofquiethappiness's review
4.0
When a favorite reviewer highly recommended this teenage take on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, I knew I'd have to try it. And I wasn't disappointed! It translated into modern times very well (as I figured) and was just a whole lot of fun. Mostly the bits between Trixie and Ben. Those two characters never failed to make me laugh and shake my head at their determination to not admit their feelings and then be unable to deny them. :D Super fun with adorable romantic bits, if you like Much Ado, I think you'd enjoy this one.
joannaautumn's review
2.0
A nerdy love story, basically.
Plot
A romance between two seniors that started out as a childhood rivalry and develops into love? With both characters going to a school for extremely gifted people with high IQ scores? Both of them are into comics and sci-fi/ fantasy cult shows – Marvel comics, Buffy the vampire slayer, D&D, etc. Both of them dislike each other and want to be better than the other at basically everything? Sign me up.
There is a side plot as well, with their two best friends that start dating so the two have to bury the hatchet and try to be nice to each other. And well, we will see how that will go. There is a subplot that is predictable to give us a bit more reading material.
Also, I am subjectively adding a star for Oscar Wilde quotations and reference of Saga.
Characters
The characters are fairly likable – besides Trixie. I liked the group dynamics and the male characters, I didn’t quite get why the main character hates West so much, he seems ok. Trixie was at certain points annoying, unnecessarily rude towards West and creating drama and conflict between them. More about her in my section – the things I disliked in the book written below.
I have a feeling I won’t really remember these characters in the long run. Not that they were flat but I don’t think they will stick with me, just not my type of favorite characters.
Writing
The writing is light and easy to read, perfect for the audience it is aiming at. I had a bit of a problem with the humor of this book because sometimes it feels forced or actually – not that funny. Other than that it is an entertaining read and makes you flip pages fast to see what happens next.
Things that I dislike
Although I wasn’t really expecting this book to be a 5star read, I had some expectations and sadly these things weren’t in that list.
That casual girl shaming
There are multiple examples of the characters shaming Meg for dressing provocatively, wearing heels or wanting to experiment with boys – that bothered me because the girl is allowed to do whatever she wants with herself, it’s not as if she is going into prostitution, she just wants to explore and at that age that’s normal as long as she keeps herself safe while doing so. Also the shaming was directed towards any other girl that is wearing makeup or provocative clothes or even heels (Mary Ann France for example).
The annoying main female character
Nothing more to say here, I found Trixie very annoying, and I love rivalry love stories but somehow her personality didn’t really win me over. But in general, I have a tendency not to like main female characters in YA books, so I didn’t really expect to love Trixie – I tolerated her for the most of the book. She is in a way a bully, being mean to both Jack and West and in one chapter she shoved some guy to get out of the classroom, then there’s the whole I found Trixie condescending, selfish, judgemental and rude – her attitude is terrible.
A lot of talking about rivalry but not a lot of competing happening
I could see that the rivalry was mostly on her side, he was more docile and usually didn’t insult her unless she starts insulting him first. It kind of defeats the purpose of the rivalry relationship if their rivalry is rarely shown in action. Their insults are shown but the competitions and preparations not so much.
That fast jump into romance at the 44%
Okay, I didn’t expect it to be revealed in such a stupid way, and West is damn right crazy if he kept liking her after all she said to him, call me old fashioned but if somebody said those hurtful things about my mother and friends abandoning me I wouldn’t have any sympathy towards that person. One thing is unrequited love and another is abuse. There is no excuse for using those words against anybody no matter how much you hate that person, decency stops you from involving these things. I honestly don't understand why West is so smitten with her.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would and I don’t think I can recommend it, 2/5.
Plot
A romance between two seniors that started out as a childhood rivalry and develops into love? With both characters going to a school for extremely gifted people with high IQ scores? Both of them are into comics and sci-fi/ fantasy cult shows – Marvel comics, Buffy the vampire slayer, D&D, etc. Both of them dislike each other and want to be better than the other at basically everything? Sign me up.
There is a side plot as well, with their two best friends that start dating so the two have to bury the hatchet and try to be nice to each other. And well, we will see how that will go. There is a subplot that is predictable to give us a bit more reading material.
Characters
The characters are fairly likable – besides Trixie. I liked the group dynamics and the male characters, I didn’t quite get why the main character hates West so much, he seems ok. Trixie was at certain points annoying, unnecessarily rude towards West and creating drama and conflict between them. More about her in my section – the things I disliked in the book written below.
I have a feeling I won’t really remember these characters in the long run. Not that they were flat but I don’t think they will stick with me, just not my type of favorite characters.
Writing
The writing is light and easy to read, perfect for the audience it is aiming at. I had a bit of a problem with the humor of this book because sometimes it feels forced or actually – not that funny. Other than that it is an entertaining read and makes you flip pages fast to see what happens next.
Things that I dislike
Although I wasn’t really expecting this book to be a 5star read, I had some expectations and sadly these things weren’t in that list.
That casual girl shaming
There are multiple examples of the characters shaming Meg for dressing provocatively, wearing heels or wanting to experiment with boys – that bothered me because the girl is allowed to do whatever she wants with herself, it’s not as if she is going into prostitution, she just wants to explore and at that age that’s normal as long as she keeps herself safe while doing so. Also the shaming was directed towards any other girl that is wearing makeup or provocative clothes or even heels (Mary Ann France for example).
The annoying main female character
Nothing more to say here, I found Trixie very annoying, and I love rivalry love stories but somehow her personality didn’t really win me over. But in general, I have a tendency not to like main female characters in YA books, so I didn’t really expect to love Trixie – I tolerated her for the most of the book. She is in a way a bully, being mean to both Jack and West and in one chapter she shoved some guy to get out of the classroom, then there’s the whole
Spoiler
ruin Cornell thing she legit asked his best friend to dig up dirt and ruin him because the guy didn’t have an idea if Harper is truly guilty or not, and they have been dating for like a week, they’re not married or in a long term relationship for him to straight up lie about knowing if she was or wasn’t guilty.A lot of talking about rivalry but not a lot of competing happening
I could see that the rivalry was mostly on her side, he was more docile and usually didn’t insult her unless she starts insulting him first. It kind of defeats the purpose of the rivalry relationship if their rivalry is rarely shown in action. Their insults are shown but the competitions and preparations not so much.
That fast jump into romance at the 44%
Okay, I didn’t expect it to be revealed in such a stupid way, and West is damn right crazy if he kept liking her after all she said to him, call me old fashioned but if somebody said those hurtful things about my mother and friends abandoning me I wouldn’t have any sympathy towards that person. One thing is unrequited love and another is abuse. There is no excuse for using those words against anybody no matter how much you hate that person, decency stops you from involving these things. I honestly don't understand why West is so smitten with her.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would and I don’t think I can recommend it, 2/5.