Title: Romeo's Ex: Rosaline's StoryAuthor: Lisa Fiedler
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 246
My Rating: 4/5
Surely everyone that went to high school was dragged into reading Romeo & Juliet at one point in their life. Everyone knows that the young, vain lovers hooked up the first day, married the next, and died together afterwords. But what happened to the others while we were following the couple's version of the story?
Rosaline is a young Capulet around sixteen years of age. She wants to go into the path of a healer and help people. She works and learns by a local healer to obtain new skills each day. One day, Romeo came in with an injured friend to where the healer's place was but she was out. Instead, Rosaline took care of the boy and immediately lovesick Romeo has fallen for her beauty. Continuously following her everywhere, this girl who believes in pure chastity is absolutely fed up with him. No matter, he soon fell in love with her cousin, Juliet, at the Capulet's ball. And Rosaline begins to develop feelings for Benvolio, Romeo's cousin. Looking through the lens of a character that not once appeared in the original story, what is her story like?
I got to say I did not regret picking this up. It brings more of a youthful approach on Shakespeare and much easier to understand. The author skillfully entangled all of the characters together, giving reasons why certain things turned out to be in the original play. The story is told in different characters' perspectives but you get to understand their personalities more instead of just being people around Romeo and Juliet. The only difference is that one character that supposedly died managed to survive and the ending was with a twist. I definitely recommend it! Though I always prefer to read the original first before going into another version of it. It is a great read, even if you don't know a thing of Shakespeare!
