Review: A clever, unique and intriguing young adult adaption
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 14, 2014
Any author who re-writes any well known classic to make it more relatable to people today, has a huge feat ahead of them, none more so than authors who rewrite Shakespeare. C.E. Wilson took on an incredibly difficult challenge, and not only succeeded, but also wrote the story so well, that the emotions that are more difficult to experience whilst reading Othello in script form, just flew off the page and I really connected with the characters and storyline.Being a huge Shakespeare fan, I have read all of his known plays, and Othello is one of the more difficult ones to read and understand. C.E. Wilson did a fantastic job in brining Shakespeare’s characters alive in the 21st century, and made their motives, feelings and struggles seem very much relatable to real problems that young people face today. I liked how it was set in a school, which made an excellent way for all the characters to know each other, and have jealousy issues related to school related drama.I particularly loved how the characters were introduced to us. I really felt the connection between Orion (Othello) and Dev (Desdemona) and I could see the love that they had for each other so clearly that it broke my heart to see Orion’s descent into jealousy. The pacing of the story was also perfectly in line with the way that Shakespeare’s original work was paced. Whilst many may feel the ending is very sudden and not much closure is given, I loved how C.E. Wilson tackled this tragic ending, as it was very much in line with how Shakespeare’s plays do end very abruptly after the final dramatic scene, with less prominent characters speaking the final lines.I gave this book 4 stars, as there were a few moments in the book where I felt the dialogue was a bit stilted, almost as though it were written for a play and not for a novel, but in the grand scheme of how well-thought out and produced this book was, this was really only a little thing.This is one of the best Shakespeare retellings I have read, it is incredibly well-thought out and was extremely relatable to young adults, and I feel that this sort of book would have helped a lot of my class-mates when I was studying Shakespeare at school.A clever, unique and intriguing young adult adaption of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’.4 Stars!