January 15, 2016
After sustaining a head injury, a girl is plagued by hallucinations of Shakespeare's players and soon becomes embroiled in familiar plots. Upon awakening in the hospital after a traumatic skiing accident, all Jaye can think about is missing rehearsals for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Finally, she's been cast as a lead, and her estranged friend, Pierce, was to be the Oberon to her Titania. But Jaye's injury has other plans. Her head swirls with familiar characters from Shakespeare's works: Romeo finds her in the snow; Hamlet greets her in a dark theater; and even the Bard himself makes appearances. While Jaye struggles to separate hallucinations from reality, memories of her father, whose absence haunts her, cause fissures between her and her family. Pierce pronounces his newfound affection for her and suddenly shows up around every corner--and Jaye's not sure if she likes it. To top it off, the new boy in her anatomy class happens to look just like her imaginary Romeo. Though the inspiration of the story will be immediately familiar to most readers, Jaye's personal drama still sets an engrossing stage; her fantasy players add dark elements to an otherwise overdone plot. Reckoning with the death of her father brings an emotional release more potent than forbidden romance. A dizzying new twist on one of the Bard's most famous plays. (Fiction. 12 & up)
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February 1, 2016
Gr 8 Up-This Shakespeare-influenced novel centers on an unreliable narrator meandering her way through high school, with concussion impairing her cognition. Jaye hit her head on a family skiing trip, and ever since waking up in the hospital she's been visited by Shakespeare himself, as well as some of his creations including Hamlet, Ophelia, and Romeo. Jaye tries to keep their presence in her life a secret as she processes the recent death of her father and rehearses for the school play, as Titania in Midsummer. She also has to navigate the romantic feelings of her former best friend, who was implicated in her father's car accident, and the attention of a handsome, rebellious boy with a checkered past who just transferred to her school. A healthy chunk of dialogue is directly quoted or paraphrased from Shakespearean plays, particularly Hamlet, and Jaye herself mirrors elements of the tragic Dane. She is melancholic and dramatic, and the story is peppered with her hallucinations. Readers are left wondering how trustworthy she is. Is she really seeing Shakespeare's spirit? What is the mystery behind her father's death? Which memories and thoughts are authentic, and which ones are symptoms of a concussion? VERDICT This novel has many questions and few answers, which is true to the Shakespearean influence and makes for a unique reading experience.-Kyle Lukoff, Corlears School, New York City
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 After six days of disorienting night terrors and throbbing hallucinations, Jaye Stuart wakes to find herself within the white walls of a hospital. Though a recent skiing incident left her with a fractured skull and maimed frontal lobe, Jaye's physical injuries, while excruciating, are the least of her worries. Her splitting headaches and crushing fatigue are also accompanied by full-fledged delusions in the form of wholly tangible (and utterly beguiling) Shakespeare characters. Eager to return to the starring role in her high school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Jaye attempts to suppress her apparitionsflitting fairies, the ever-icy Hamlet, and a blood-soaked floor, to name a fewfrom those around her. But as her grip on reality skids, Jaye is forced to confront harrowing memories of her deceased father, an increasingly toxic friendship, and the perplexing pangs of first love. In a book peppered with Shakespeare's characters and imbued with his language, Jaye is a fiercely headstrong force and West's writing is lyrical and opulent.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2016
Plots of several Shakespeare plays weave through this novel about Jaye's struggle to recover from a head injury, maintain her role in the school play, elude the attention of a boy her family loves, and develop a romance with her real "Romeo." Unreliable narration includes hallucinatory appearances by Shakespeare and his characters to reinforce Jaye's choices and problems, but the device is somewhat overused.
(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)