On my first read of Romeo and Juliet, I really wasn’t the biggest fan. Chalk it up to having had a really terrible English teacher that year, or being too unfocused to ‘get it’. Whatever it was, I wasn’t a fan.
Of course, nothing is what it appears, and after the second reading I was head over heels. Regardless of how you feel about the plot alone, R&J opens up a million conversations that I find endlessly fascinating, about choice and love and fate.
Defy The Stars was a pretty exciting concept to me. All ears (eyes?), I started reading, eager to hear what Parent’s take would be on the famed star-crossed lovers.
What I did like:
-I loved how music was constantly on Julia’s mind. It was present when she felt the dissonance of her and Reed’s relationship, during her struggle with the third movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, and when she was listening to a band play in a restaurant, noting how the musicians had spent forever perfecting their pieces. “I’m convinced one day that’ll be me,” she said, “playing my heart out with no one listening.”
-I adored the last few pages. The ending that Parent chose sat really well with me. It left much to the imagination, while still finishing on a strong note. It was, in a sense, a Romeo and Juliet ending, but it was much more, just the story itself, which remained faithful to R&J but also held its own meaning and openly questioned the nature of such a tragic story.
What didn’t work for me:
Julia’s Friends:
-There is nothing I despise more than when the protagonist comes with a gang of giggling girlfriends, and although Julia’s best friend Sara extended a bit beyond that, she still fell into this category. Add another girl to the mix who is little more than a name (Rachel), and we’re headed downhill.
‘Oh, they’re so boy crazy, and they won’t leave me alone’, the protagonist whines as she inwardly rolls her eyes. They dress far more risqué than our casual but still pretty MC. They’re are constantly kidnapping her and taking her out to parties, and you can count that she won’t be able to say one word about to a boy without the gaggle teasing her ruthlessly about it later.
When these girls appear in a story and there isn’t some drastic change towards the end when it is revealed that *gasp* the characters are more than the titular props of the MC, it becomes very difficult for me to enjoy the book.
The Writing:
There were times when Parent’s prose succeeded in being vivid and distinct, but there were also times when the verse-like style became choppy and disconnected to the point where it was just distracting and a burden to the story.
If a book is entirely written with breaks like a poem that arise
mid sentence, it better create a strong effect. For me, all that this did was weigh down the writing. Layout aside, the words themselves failed to draw me in, and often became awkward. And why did every other chapter end with ‘for now…’!? Once was enough, and I don’t really understand why there couldn’t have been an alternate way to break up chapters.
The fact that I didn’t care much about anyone but Julia:
So this isn’t a spoiler, because this story is inspired by R&J, and also the first couple pages begin with Julia grieving over Reed’s death and then flash backwards to before he and Julia met, so I feel like I can just come out and say it. I didn’t give a crap when Reed died. I was angry with how it happened, but only because Julia was upset, and the two had been so close to being together.
I also didn’t care very much when someone else close to Julia died, the scene just seemed obligatory rather than devastating, and when a vital character dies, I shouldn’t be completely complacent.
In Romeo and Juliet, the ending is supposed to break your heart, and it does. I feel that a work that draws upon R&J should at least make me feel *something* when the love interest dies. For me, this was perhaps the most disappointing feature of the novel.
Part of this lack of feeling was due to the fact that Reed and Julia’s relationship never really sparked for me. It just felt like ‘we are meant to be together you electrify me’ was a statement that Julia kept saying, but it didn’t really apply. With every scene where Julia monologued about her devotion, I just wanted to ask: ‘But why?’ For the most part of the novel, I didn’t really feel like Reed and Julia connected.
With all of that said, perhaps some of the things that I couldn’t stand won’t be so dramatic to other people, or detract from the story. I can see how this book could be enjoyable, but for me, it was only disappointing and frustrating. If it sounds like your cup of tea, I say to give it a try. It’s a quick read. As for me, I’m done with it. ‘For now.’
No. I’m actually done with it though.
cynicalsapphire
Oh dear. I looked at the first couple of pages of this one and decided it wasn’t for me. Verse rarely does hold appeal for me, and since it didn’t speak to me immediately, I DNFed and spared myself and the author.
Unfortunate that the friends weren’t real characters. This is coming to be a larger issue for me than absent parents. If the characters have friends, they should actually talk about more than just the heroine’s issues. They shouldn’t be cardboard cutouts there solely for infodumping. I want the supporting cast to have small plot arcs, and I want to know about their lives too.
Also, I really hate when verse novels read like choppy prose. The line breaks need to make sense, because I read poetry with those breaks in mind, so I can tell when it feels clunky and awkward. That “for now” thing sounds unfortunate.
Am I monster because the ending of R&J doesn’t break my heart?
Stephanie Sinclair
Hmm. Character usually make or break a book for me because I tend to get really irritated easily. But I like the concept a lot, so I’ll still give this one a shot to see how I feel. Great review, Adrienne!