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A review by lawbooks600
Waking Romeo by Kathryn Barker
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Representation: Minor Asian character
Score: Six points out of ten.
Oh, look, a Romeo and Juliet retelling. I picked this one up after seeing the intriguing title but I didn't know what to expect from it. Waking Romeo is a time travelling story set in the future whilst interweaving two classics: Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights. Unfortunately, when I picked it up, read and finished Waking Romeo, it was such a disappointment. I don't want to reread this novel. Also, why do I keep misreading it as Walking Romeo?
It starts with the first character I see, Juliet, living in London in 2083. Here's the catch: In an optimistic version of 2023, people invented time travel but only forward and so many people wanted to see what would happen in the future, the world fell apart. If the author thinks we would think of that in 2023, she was so wrong. Alas, there is no time travel yet in 2024, which I think is for the better. Only a select few, Deadenders, have the technology to also go back in time. One of them is Ellis. Jules already formed a relationship with Romeo, but, unfortunately for him, he is in a coma. Ellis tasks Jules with waking Romeo with both backwards and forwards time travel, then they briefly travel to 2056 to form a plan. Waking Romeo's most prominent flaws lie in its characters and plot as they were hard to connect with. The plotline was bizarre; one of the most I've seen. Did I mention Waking Romeo is non-linear and jumps around the place? Jules wakes Romeo (much to my dismay Romeo immediately wants to marry Jules. I get that Romeo and Jules already have a relationship, but that comes off as too soon.) Ellis meets Emily Bronte in the 1800s, concluding the narrative.
To summarise, Waking Romeo was a fractured fairy tale about Romeo and Juliet which showed much promise but in the end, it underwhelmed me.
Score: Six points out of ten.
Oh, look, a Romeo and Juliet retelling. I picked this one up after seeing the intriguing title but I didn't know what to expect from it. Waking Romeo is a time travelling story set in the future whilst interweaving two classics: Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights. Unfortunately, when I picked it up, read and finished Waking Romeo, it was such a disappointment. I don't want to reread this novel. Also, why do I keep misreading it as Walking Romeo?
It starts with the first character I see, Juliet, living in London in 2083. Here's the catch: In an optimistic version of 2023, people invented time travel but only forward and so many people wanted to see what would happen in the future, the world fell apart. If the author thinks we would think of that in 2023, she was so wrong. Alas, there is no time travel yet in 2024, which I think is for the better. Only a select few, Deadenders, have the technology to also go back in time. One of them is Ellis. Jules already formed a relationship with Romeo, but, unfortunately for him, he is in a coma. Ellis tasks Jules with waking Romeo with both backwards and forwards time travel, then they briefly travel to 2056 to form a plan. Waking Romeo's most prominent flaws lie in its characters and plot as they were hard to connect with. The plotline was bizarre; one of the most I've seen. Did I mention Waking Romeo is non-linear and jumps around the place? Jules wakes Romeo (much to my dismay Romeo immediately wants to marry Jules. I get that Romeo and Jules already have a relationship, but that comes off as too soon.) Ellis meets Emily Bronte in the 1800s, concluding the narrative.
To summarise, Waking Romeo was a fractured fairy tale about Romeo and Juliet which showed much promise but in the end, it underwhelmed me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Suicide attempt, and Death
Full trigger warnings: Death of a person and suicide attempt mentioned, physical injury, blood depiction, coma