A review by thelibraryofalexandra
Romeo for Real by Markus Harwood-Jones

2.0

really wish wholeheartedly that I could have adored this book - it had the makings to be a fantastic re-interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Julian's journey could have been wonderful, if not for the fact that it was too short. This rendered the overall narrative to maintain a sort of superficial quality to it; and by that, I mean, the characters, the dialogue, and unfortunately the story itself, was too shallow and lacked any sort of depth. It lacked meaning. For instance, Romeo's character was quite two dimensional; he went from denial to acceptance extremely quick and I feel, it may trivialise people's own experience with struggling with their own sexuality. Also, having to read Romeo's dialogue with his friends were excruciating, not only that, the story was built upon generalisations and stereotypes.

In terms of Romeo's relationship with Julian - where did it come from? I understand that the original Romeo and Juliet is not the greatest of healthy love portrayals, considering the instant love - but this fell into that same trope. There was no chemistry, no depth of romance nor character growth as they came together.

If the story and thus, the characters, had room to grow - in that, there was room for everything to be explored more, it may be a different story. But, unfortunately, this book fails to immerse the reader with lacklustre characters, dialogue and narrative.