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Take Her Down
In this queer YA retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar , stakes at Augustus Magnet School are cutthroat, scheming is creative, and loyalty is ever-changing.
Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon, and she lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader who Bronwyn barely knows. Life gets worse when her ex-best friend, the always-cool Jude Cuthbert, ostracizes Bronwyn from the queer social elite for dating a boy, Porter Kendrick.
Bronwyn and Jude are both running for student body president, and that means war. But after Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass share a video of Jude in a compromising position, Jude suddenly goes missing. No one has seen her for weeks and it might be all Bronwyn’s fault.
Will Jude ever be found? Or will Bronwyn finally have to reckon with what she’s won―and what she’s lost?
Content Depictions of sexual assault.
Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon, and she lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader who Bronwyn barely knows. Life gets worse when her ex-best friend, the always-cool Jude Cuthbert, ostracizes Bronwyn from the queer social elite for dating a boy, Porter Kendrick.
Bronwyn and Jude are both running for student body president, and that means war. But after Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass share a video of Jude in a compromising position, Jude suddenly goes missing. No one has seen her for weeks and it might be all Bronwyn’s fault.
Will Jude ever be found? Or will Bronwyn finally have to reckon with what she’s won―and what she’s lost?
Content Depictions of sexual assault.
282 pages, Paperback
Published March 15, 2022
About the author
Lauren Emily Whalen
14 books22 followersLauren Emily Whalen is the author of the YA novels SATELLITE (2017) and TWO WINTERS (2021), and the YA nonfiction book DEALING WITH DRAMA (2020). Her short story "I Saw Her Again" appears in LINK BY LINK: A SPIRITED HOLIDAY ANTHOLOGY (2020). Lauren is also an actor and very amateur aerialist, and lives in Chicago with her cat, Versace, and an apartment full of books. Follow her on Instagram at laurenemilywrites.
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November 30, 2023
jesus christ.
okay.
i don’t know if it’s morally upstanding to dunk on this book. it is small potatoes—it’s from a very small indie publishing house—and it’s genuinely diverse, not just in terms of the cast’s sexualities but also their races and mental health experiences. there are good intentions here. there are good ideas here, too! i mean, come on, it’s sapphic julius caesar and there’s tarot! and i feel a bit nasty picking apart a small book with good intentions and not, like, stephen king.
but i don’t read or care about stephen king so i don’t have anything to say. and this book took me on a journey that i would like you, dear reader, to retrace with me. hold my hand. and behold a list of things that happen:
so.
some thoughts:
i genuinely do like the concept a lot (calpurnia is doing a school project; this is her final assignment; she gives all the characters pseudonyms based off of julius caesar; it’s purposefully meta and that’s sexy) and i love funky formatting (some chapters are testimonies from the characters, but we also get monologues given at the time, diary excerpts, campaign speeches for the school election, etc). the soothsayer plot in julius caesar is transplanted to the cassius character doing a tarot card reading, and that fucking SLAPS. it’s also set up in five acts, like the original julius caesar! hell yeah!
except the pacing of this book is so fucking weird. the first act is half of the book. it’s so long. if this book removed all the extraneous exposition, it would be two-thirds the length. if this book ALSO removed all the repeat information that WE ALREADY KNOW because WE WERE TOLD, it would be half the length. there are at least four entirely irrelevant side characters. by the time i got to the midpoint, i was exasperated by the amount of buildup and the number of times we got “jude is a gross biphobe and bronwyn literally wants her dead but this is hard for her because they used to be friends; also bronwyn and porter are having tons of sex.” my midread notes read “94 pages into this book. no metaphorical stabbing. tick tick cass and bronwyn i’m only awake until midnight”
all this exposition and buildup would be easier to deal with if these characters were interesting, but they’re very one-note, and they only get worse. jude is the most interesting character despite the gross biphobia, because she has a personality that goes beyond “rich girl” or "innocent but secretly a killer." antonia is also fucking awesome. she is everything. she/they trans lesbian with ocd mwah mwah mwah.
but bronwyn, cass, and porter all fell through for me, which is heart-wrenching, because i fucking love brutus and cassius. i am insane about brutus and cassius. but bronwyn is deeply fucking annoying. she acknowledges that she’s rich and spoiled, but never stops being rich and spoiled; her aunt has taken her in for convoluted reasons (her dad did embezzlement and went to jail and her other dad went to hike the appalachian trail to cope. yeah. this book is fucking insane), and she keeps bitching about how she lives in a garage now, even though 1. it is not a straight-up garage; it's a room that used to be a garage and has been converted to a bedroom and 2. HER AUNT TOOK HER IN OUT OF THE GOODNESS OF HER HEART. she also lets her boyfriend go off his meds cold turkey because... she likes to fuck with his dick which doesn’t work on his meds. and she refers to him as a “beta male.” okay. that is NOT my brutus that is NOT my best friend. cass has potential, but her chapters were very repetitive: wanting to impress bronwyn, cheerleading metaphor, conflicting feelings about porter, asexuality crisis, wanting to impress bronwyn. porter was the best-written of the three; his relationship with his bipolar was genuinely interesting; but i have little to say about him because there is just so much going on in this book that no character ever gets full focus and most of their traits are told to us instead of shown.
speaking of stuff told to us repeatedly: let’s talk about jude’s biphobia, huh? because it makes no fucking sense. she’s totally fine with trans and nonbinary people; she only hates bi people. which doesn’t work logically, but whatever, sometimes prejudice isn’t logical. (sidebar: this book is kind of weird about trans people. not innately weird, but there are a few times when someone is like “how dare you date a CIS man” and uhhhh… okay. if trans people want to avoid cis people, sure, but when cis women are like “yeah, i would date a trans man, but not a cis man” …girl. you may just be transphobic. plus this book keeps saying gender =/= genitals, but then also saying things like “i knew the text was from a cishet man because he said u instead of you” and “i could tell he was a guy because of his voice” and like. ?????)
jude is constantly talking about needing to “bring back the lesbian label,” and later on another character mentions that kids these days think the lesbian label is outdated, which just… isn’t true? who is saying that? go on tumblr and throw a rock and you’ll hit twenty teenage lesbians. jude is also seen as the de facto leader of this school, with enough social power to completely isolate bronwyn. i’m not denying that bi people face disgusting prejudice; what i don’t believe is how the fuck this school works. the narration beats into your head that this is a SMALL, PRIVATE, LIBERAL, MOSTLY FEMALE school—but it’s clearly not solely gay people or solely leftists, because bronwyn talks about being afraid of getting groped by cishet men post-trump election. so why does this read like that youtube video about living in a world where being GAY is the norm and being STRAIGHT is a crime? (bi people are not straight; bi relationships are inherently queer; but the way the characters in this book shit on straight men factors into the way they treat bronwyn’s relationship with a straight man.) are you telling me one lesbian has enough social power to make her biphobia the entire school’s problem? are you telling me this school is so far left that “the cishet boys were downright deferential” as if in apology after trump’s election? the cishet boys at my middle school followed me down a hall to yell TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP the day after the election. cishet boys don’t know what deference means. what kind of fucking world do you people live in? is it paramount heathers? do y’all live in the paramount heathers tv show where the fat gay trans jewish kids are the bullies and the poor wittle cishets are the oppressed group? “at augustus high, no one cares if you’re queer. in fact, they expect it.” IN WHAT FUCKING WORLD?
on the trump note—this book is set in 2017. the characters are constantly referencing the aftermath of the 2016 election. i am of two minds about this, because on the one hand, i really do enjoy the sense that they’re all newly awakened to the fact that adults can’t protect them. the election went the way it went, and the kids had no power over that, so of course they want to reclaim any sort of political power they can, because all of our main characters are marginalized in some way (almost all of them are LGBT women and two of them are people of color). the other day my dad commented that my generation seems deeply pessimistic, and, like, yeah, man, have you seen the fucking news? the sense of being let down by the bleakness of the current world climate hits deeply home! “we trusted the adults in our lives,” bronwyn says, “and they fucked us.”
however. why does every character in this book stan hillary clinton. why does hating trump and being afraid of his power mean you have to lick clinton boot. everyone is like oooh hillary clinton was a powerful woman and we looked up to her and she wore PANTSUITS ooooooh. it’s very #girlboss #progressive #womeninthetwopartysystem. this entire book is very that. it wants to make points about feminism, but that falls through when you remember that the big midpoint scene is... leaking a girl's sex tape. which turns out to be
still, my primary frustration with this book isn't about the politics, believe it or not. it's that i came for a sapphic julius caesar, and this isn't julius caesar. sure, there’s a character named jude who gets deposed from her tyrant status, but the book is not interested in the plot of julius caesar. this book is concerned with 1. delving deep into the weirdest biphobic echo chamber you’ve ever seen, at length, as if this constitutes plot instead of a sign that every character needs to fucking go outside and 2. sex crimes. (which NO one faces real consequences for, except jude, who presumably is just traumatized for the rest of her fucking life. girl, bronwyn should be in JAIL, not finishing the school year at this school before her expulsion takes place.) i know moving a shakespeare play to high school means that THINGS CHANGE, but it felt like the focus was never on the plot so much as it was on, just, the weirdest and most uncomfortable shit you’ve ever heard of.
that said, it also focuses at least a little on product placement for the card game exploding kittens, and i can get behind that because i really like that game.
hold my hand again as i share my favorite lines from this book:
- “Her mouth turned down perpetually like a sad clown’s.”
- “Do you remember that girlboss thing?”
- “He was grunting like a frat boy hopped up on miller lite and toxic masculinity.”
- “If kneecaps were capable of orgasms, mine would have been coming multiple times.”
one star for the genuine effort made (because i do believe there was genuine effort made); one for antonia and jude and their dynamic. i am so fucking baffled by this book god bless
okay.
i don’t know if it’s morally upstanding to dunk on this book. it is small potatoes—it’s from a very small indie publishing house—and it’s genuinely diverse, not just in terms of the cast’s sexualities but also their races and mental health experiences. there are good intentions here. there are good ideas here, too! i mean, come on, it’s sapphic julius caesar and there’s tarot! and i feel a bit nasty picking apart a small book with good intentions and not, like, stephen king.
but i don’t read or care about stephen king so i don’t have anything to say. and this book took me on a journey that i would like you, dear reader, to retrace with me. hold my hand. and behold a list of things that happen:
so.
some thoughts:
i genuinely do like the concept a lot (calpurnia is doing a school project; this is her final assignment; she gives all the characters pseudonyms based off of julius caesar; it’s purposefully meta and that’s sexy) and i love funky formatting (some chapters are testimonies from the characters, but we also get monologues given at the time, diary excerpts, campaign speeches for the school election, etc). the soothsayer plot in julius caesar is transplanted to the cassius character doing a tarot card reading, and that fucking SLAPS. it’s also set up in five acts, like the original julius caesar! hell yeah!
except the pacing of this book is so fucking weird. the first act is half of the book. it’s so long. if this book removed all the extraneous exposition, it would be two-thirds the length. if this book ALSO removed all the repeat information that WE ALREADY KNOW because WE WERE TOLD, it would be half the length. there are at least four entirely irrelevant side characters. by the time i got to the midpoint, i was exasperated by the amount of buildup and the number of times we got “jude is a gross biphobe and bronwyn literally wants her dead but this is hard for her because they used to be friends; also bronwyn and porter are having tons of sex.” my midread notes read “94 pages into this book. no metaphorical stabbing. tick tick cass and bronwyn i’m only awake until midnight”
all this exposition and buildup would be easier to deal with if these characters were interesting, but they’re very one-note, and they only get worse. jude is the most interesting character despite the gross biphobia, because she has a personality that goes beyond “rich girl” or "innocent but secretly a killer." antonia is also fucking awesome. she is everything. she/they trans lesbian with ocd mwah mwah mwah.
but bronwyn, cass, and porter all fell through for me, which is heart-wrenching, because i fucking love brutus and cassius. i am insane about brutus and cassius. but bronwyn is deeply fucking annoying. she acknowledges that she’s rich and spoiled, but never stops being rich and spoiled; her aunt has taken her in for convoluted reasons (her dad did embezzlement and went to jail and her other dad went to hike the appalachian trail to cope. yeah. this book is fucking insane), and she keeps bitching about how she lives in a garage now, even though 1. it is not a straight-up garage; it's a room that used to be a garage and has been converted to a bedroom and 2. HER AUNT TOOK HER IN OUT OF THE GOODNESS OF HER HEART. she also lets her boyfriend go off his meds cold turkey because... she likes to fuck with his dick which doesn’t work on his meds. and she refers to him as a “beta male.” okay. that is NOT my brutus that is NOT my best friend. cass has potential, but her chapters were very repetitive: wanting to impress bronwyn, cheerleading metaphor, conflicting feelings about porter, asexuality crisis, wanting to impress bronwyn. porter was the best-written of the three; his relationship with his bipolar was genuinely interesting; but i have little to say about him because there is just so much going on in this book that no character ever gets full focus and most of their traits are told to us instead of shown.
speaking of stuff told to us repeatedly: let’s talk about jude’s biphobia, huh? because it makes no fucking sense. she’s totally fine with trans and nonbinary people; she only hates bi people. which doesn’t work logically, but whatever, sometimes prejudice isn’t logical. (sidebar: this book is kind of weird about trans people. not innately weird, but there are a few times when someone is like “how dare you date a CIS man” and uhhhh… okay. if trans people want to avoid cis people, sure, but when cis women are like “yeah, i would date a trans man, but not a cis man” …girl. you may just be transphobic. plus this book keeps saying gender =/= genitals, but then also saying things like “i knew the text was from a cishet man because he said u instead of you” and “i could tell he was a guy because of his voice” and like. ?????)
jude is constantly talking about needing to “bring back the lesbian label,” and later on another character mentions that kids these days think the lesbian label is outdated, which just… isn’t true? who is saying that? go on tumblr and throw a rock and you’ll hit twenty teenage lesbians. jude is also seen as the de facto leader of this school, with enough social power to completely isolate bronwyn. i’m not denying that bi people face disgusting prejudice; what i don’t believe is how the fuck this school works. the narration beats into your head that this is a SMALL, PRIVATE, LIBERAL, MOSTLY FEMALE school—but it’s clearly not solely gay people or solely leftists, because bronwyn talks about being afraid of getting groped by cishet men post-trump election. so why does this read like that youtube video about living in a world where being GAY is the norm and being STRAIGHT is a crime? (bi people are not straight; bi relationships are inherently queer; but the way the characters in this book shit on straight men factors into the way they treat bronwyn’s relationship with a straight man.) are you telling me one lesbian has enough social power to make her biphobia the entire school’s problem? are you telling me this school is so far left that “the cishet boys were downright deferential” as if in apology after trump’s election? the cishet boys at my middle school followed me down a hall to yell TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP the day after the election. cishet boys don’t know what deference means. what kind of fucking world do you people live in? is it paramount heathers? do y’all live in the paramount heathers tv show where the fat gay trans jewish kids are the bullies and the poor wittle cishets are the oppressed group? “at augustus high, no one cares if you’re queer. in fact, they expect it.” IN WHAT FUCKING WORLD?
on the trump note—this book is set in 2017. the characters are constantly referencing the aftermath of the 2016 election. i am of two minds about this, because on the one hand, i really do enjoy the sense that they’re all newly awakened to the fact that adults can’t protect them. the election went the way it went, and the kids had no power over that, so of course they want to reclaim any sort of political power they can, because all of our main characters are marginalized in some way (almost all of them are LGBT women and two of them are people of color). the other day my dad commented that my generation seems deeply pessimistic, and, like, yeah, man, have you seen the fucking news? the sense of being let down by the bleakness of the current world climate hits deeply home! “we trusted the adults in our lives,” bronwyn says, “and they fucked us.”
however. why does every character in this book stan hillary clinton. why does hating trump and being afraid of his power mean you have to lick clinton boot. everyone is like oooh hillary clinton was a powerful woman and we looked up to her and she wore PANTSUITS ooooooh. it’s very #girlboss #progressive #womeninthetwopartysystem. this entire book is very that. it wants to make points about feminism, but that falls through when you remember that the big midpoint scene is... leaking a girl's sex tape. which turns out to be
still, my primary frustration with this book isn't about the politics, believe it or not. it's that i came for a sapphic julius caesar, and this isn't julius caesar. sure, there’s a character named jude who gets deposed from her tyrant status, but the book is not interested in the plot of julius caesar. this book is concerned with 1. delving deep into the weirdest biphobic echo chamber you’ve ever seen, at length, as if this constitutes plot instead of a sign that every character needs to fucking go outside and 2. sex crimes. (which NO one faces real consequences for, except jude, who presumably is just traumatized for the rest of her fucking life. girl, bronwyn should be in JAIL, not finishing the school year at this school before her expulsion takes place.) i know moving a shakespeare play to high school means that THINGS CHANGE, but it felt like the focus was never on the plot so much as it was on, just, the weirdest and most uncomfortable shit you’ve ever heard of.
that said, it also focuses at least a little on product placement for the card game exploding kittens, and i can get behind that because i really like that game.
hold my hand again as i share my favorite lines from this book:
- “Her mouth turned down perpetually like a sad clown’s.”
- “Do you remember that girlboss thing?”
- “He was grunting like a frat boy hopped up on miller lite and toxic masculinity.”
- “If kneecaps were capable of orgasms, mine would have been coming multiple times.”
one star for the genuine effort made (because i do believe there was genuine effort made); one for antonia and jude and their dynamic. i am so fucking baffled by this book god bless
March 5, 2022
DNF at 42%
Thank you to Bold Stokes Books and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Before I get into my review, the reason why I DNF'd: an entire chapter was essentially dedicated to referencing Harry Potter. It didn't even add anything relevant to the story. Instant pass.
This book was one of my most anticipated of the year. A sapphic Julius Caesar retelling? I mean, sign me up! Especially since I really enjoyed the author's previous Shakespeare retelling, Two Winters (A Winter's Tale).
But this book was just a complete and utter failure. The story was set during the Trump election era, yet was set at a school reminiscent of the school in Faking It - where it is shameful to not be gay, trans, etc. - which confused the atmosphere. It leaned so heavily on both the Trump era and this school culture to reason out every single plot point, but their competing qualities just completely cancelled out the stakes. Like we're supposed to believe that you were scared to go to school after the Trump election when your school is mostly queer and non-men? As a queer and Jewish person who went to school in the Christian South that day, I could just not get behind this. Yet despite this school's so-called "progressive" culture, it was wildly biphobic, lesbophobic, and generally toxic. The setting felt specially designed to be as oppressive to bisexual characters, which is appalling considering the dedication is to the bisexual readers.
The JC character is a lesbian who bullies the Brutus character for "cheating on her identity" when she dates a boy. Yet the JC character isn't even a lesbian herself, apparently having had crushes on boys, and so the Brutus character decides to try to out her as bisexual by catfishing her as a boy. This book also contains a lot of rhetoric that seems to imply that young people nowadays don't use the word "lesbian," which felt a little too close to some TERF rhetoric I've seen on the internet for comfort.
The writing seemed to be INCREDIBLY hesitant and insecure. Plot points and backstories were reiterated time and time again, almost as if in fear that the audience had already forgotten everything that had happened. It caused the story to drag, the already non-existent stakes to drop, and the characters to feel exhaustive.
I can't emphasize how disappointed I was by this read, especially because it was something I had genuinely been looking forward to for quite some time. Julius Caesar deserves better. Queer people deserve better.
CW: sexual assault (graphic)*, self harm (graphic)*, mental illness, anxiety, biphobia, bullying, sexual content (implied), f-slur (used to refer to oneself), alcoholism (mention), drug use (mention), underage drinking (brief), parental abandonment, potential outing, takes place during Trump era and discussed often.
*these are CWs I found from other reviews since I didn't finish the book.
Thank you to Bold Stokes Books and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Before I get into my review, the reason why I DNF'd: an entire chapter was essentially dedicated to referencing Harry Potter. It didn't even add anything relevant to the story. Instant pass.
This book was one of my most anticipated of the year. A sapphic Julius Caesar retelling? I mean, sign me up! Especially since I really enjoyed the author's previous Shakespeare retelling, Two Winters (A Winter's Tale).
But this book was just a complete and utter failure. The story was set during the Trump election era, yet was set at a school reminiscent of the school in Faking It - where it is shameful to not be gay, trans, etc. - which confused the atmosphere. It leaned so heavily on both the Trump era and this school culture to reason out every single plot point, but their competing qualities just completely cancelled out the stakes. Like we're supposed to believe that you were scared to go to school after the Trump election when your school is mostly queer and non-men? As a queer and Jewish person who went to school in the Christian South that day, I could just not get behind this. Yet despite this school's so-called "progressive" culture, it was wildly biphobic, lesbophobic, and generally toxic. The setting felt specially designed to be as oppressive to bisexual characters, which is appalling considering the dedication is to the bisexual readers.
The JC character is a lesbian who bullies the Brutus character for "cheating on her identity" when she dates a boy. Yet the JC character isn't even a lesbian herself, apparently having had crushes on boys, and so the Brutus character decides to try to out her as bisexual by catfishing her as a boy. This book also contains a lot of rhetoric that seems to imply that young people nowadays don't use the word "lesbian," which felt a little too close to some TERF rhetoric I've seen on the internet for comfort.
The writing seemed to be INCREDIBLY hesitant and insecure. Plot points and backstories were reiterated time and time again, almost as if in fear that the audience had already forgotten everything that had happened. It caused the story to drag, the already non-existent stakes to drop, and the characters to feel exhaustive.
I can't emphasize how disappointed I was by this read, especially because it was something I had genuinely been looking forward to for quite some time. Julius Caesar deserves better. Queer people deserve better.
CW: sexual assault (graphic)*, self harm (graphic)*, mental illness, anxiety, biphobia, bullying, sexual content (implied), f-slur (used to refer to oneself), alcoholism (mention), drug use (mention), underage drinking (brief), parental abandonment, potential outing, takes place during Trump era and discussed often.
*these are CWs I found from other reviews since I didn't finish the book.
February 25, 2022
i honestly don’t really know what i thought of this book. there were moments i loved, and moments i disliked.
firstly, trigger warnings:
moderate biphobia, alcohol, sexual content
graphic sexual assault, manic episodes, mental illness, self harm
okay, let’s get started. i LOVE a shakespeare retelling, and i loved the way that this was split into five acts and included quotes from Julius Caesar at the start of each act. i also really liked the multiple POVs in this book and the short chapters in which they were included. it was great to be able to understand the plot from every main character’s perspective in an attempt to comprehend their behaviours. the plot twists, while brutal and awful, were unexpected and created a really interesting shift in the story. i also ADORED the nonbinary representation, with one of the main characters identifying as a demigirl and using she/they pronouns. having characters that identify outside of the binary gender spectrum makes me feel incredibly seen and having the characters use Antonia’s they/them pronouns as well was very validating. finally, i thoroughly enjoyed having the #MeToo Movement embedded into this story; it was done seamlessly and extremely well.
at times, i felt as though this book was trying too hard to be modern and progressive. also the main characters did not really face any legal consequences for their actions (which were incredibly toxic, harmful, and exploitative). i understood, and even liked, that this story was meant to have a happy ending, however the lack of consequence felt almost unrealistic.
so, that’s where i stand. in the middle, i suppose. and thus, i give this 3 stars.
firstly, trigger warnings:
moderate biphobia, alcohol, sexual content
graphic sexual assault, manic episodes, mental illness, self harm
okay, let’s get started. i LOVE a shakespeare retelling, and i loved the way that this was split into five acts and included quotes from Julius Caesar at the start of each act. i also really liked the multiple POVs in this book and the short chapters in which they were included. it was great to be able to understand the plot from every main character’s perspective in an attempt to comprehend their behaviours. the plot twists, while brutal and awful, were unexpected and created a really interesting shift in the story. i also ADORED the nonbinary representation, with one of the main characters identifying as a demigirl and using she/they pronouns. having characters that identify outside of the binary gender spectrum makes me feel incredibly seen and having the characters use Antonia’s they/them pronouns as well was very validating. finally, i thoroughly enjoyed having the #MeToo Movement embedded into this story; it was done seamlessly and extremely well.
at times, i felt as though this book was trying too hard to be modern and progressive. also the main characters did not really face any legal consequences for their actions (which were incredibly toxic, harmful, and exploitative). i understood, and even liked, that this story was meant to have a happy ending, however the lack of consequence felt almost unrealistic.
so, that’s where i stand. in the middle, i suppose. and thus, i give this 3 stars.
March 2, 2022
Take Her Down by Lauren Emily Whalen hits all the right YA notes for me, not to mention representation. Add to that LGBT Shakespear Julius Ceasar retelling! I was all in for this book.
I have to start by saying how stunning the cover is. The format of the story is very interesting too as it is told in the format of a student thesis, and actually split into five acts which I really enjoyed this style along with the actual Julius Caesar quotes.
REPREESNTATION MATTERS. This book is screaming representation for Young Adults from gender to sexuality to mental illness and beyond.
I really enjoyed the multiple POV in this book, and the well written characters.
The biphobic mean girl lesbian character was not my favorite but actually is a good representation of what happens in the lesbian community.
If you're paying attention you will see the #metoo movement in this book, and I appreciated that.
I really enjoyed this book that is much more than just A queer YA retelling.
Some trigger warnings to be aware of: Biphobia, sexual assault, mental illness, self-harm.
I have to start by saying how stunning the cover is. The format of the story is very interesting too as it is told in the format of a student thesis, and actually split into five acts which I really enjoyed this style along with the actual Julius Caesar quotes.
REPREESNTATION MATTERS. This book is screaming representation for Young Adults from gender to sexuality to mental illness and beyond.
I really enjoyed the multiple POV in this book, and the well written characters.
The biphobic mean girl lesbian character was not my favorite but actually is a good representation of what happens in the lesbian community.
If you're paying attention you will see the #metoo movement in this book, and I appreciated that.
I really enjoyed this book that is much more than just A queer YA retelling.
Some trigger warnings to be aware of: Biphobia, sexual assault, mental illness, self-harm.
Read
May 2, 2022DNF
February 20, 2022
DNFed.
February 28, 2022
A queer Julius Caesar retelling? Told in the format of a student thesis? With clever twists on the original names for the characters? Alright, I’m interested.
First things first, the positives of this book. It has lots of representation, from sexuality to gender to mental illness. It talks about questioning sexuality, thinking you're one thing then life turns that on it’s head for you. I think this will mean a lot for young people still coming to terms with themselves. Knowing it’s okay to not know and it’s okay to change your labels if the old ones don’t suit you anymore.
The cover is BEAUTIFUL. That’s what really drew me in first.
Now for the not so good stuff. It’s split into acts, like the original Julius Caesar play is (a good thing!). However, the first act of this book is an introduction. It is way too long (exactly 45% of the book, according to Kindle) and way too repetitive. I get that Bronwyn has a boyfriend now. I get that Porter is bipolar. I get that Cass is questioning herself and is a cheerleader. I get that Hillary lost the election (why I had to read that 100 times in the year 2022 is beyond me). I get that Jude is biphobic. I don’t need to be told these things over and over again for the entire first half of the book. I almost stopped reading because I didn’t want to read any of these things AGAIN.
Also, and I know this might sound crazy, but there’s too much representation in this book. It’s doing too much, and not providing good representation for everyone it’s trying to. Not everyone HAS to be queer.
Also the mean biphobic lesbian trope never sits well with me. Could’ve done without that for sure.
Overall, this book had such a promising premise but it didn’t really hit the mark for me. Perhaps a younger audience will do better with it. Though this book does turn very dark once you get by the first half so be sure to check the trigger warnings if you’re going to read this. There were some parts of this book that I really liked, and all of them were after that first 45%. I just wish the acts had been more evenly spaced so the story had a real chance to grow and thrive.
First things first, the positives of this book. It has lots of representation, from sexuality to gender to mental illness. It talks about questioning sexuality, thinking you're one thing then life turns that on it’s head for you. I think this will mean a lot for young people still coming to terms with themselves. Knowing it’s okay to not know and it’s okay to change your labels if the old ones don’t suit you anymore.
The cover is BEAUTIFUL. That’s what really drew me in first.
Now for the not so good stuff. It’s split into acts, like the original Julius Caesar play is (a good thing!). However, the first act of this book is an introduction. It is way too long (exactly 45% of the book, according to Kindle) and way too repetitive. I get that Bronwyn has a boyfriend now. I get that Porter is bipolar. I get that Cass is questioning herself and is a cheerleader. I get that Hillary lost the election (why I had to read that 100 times in the year 2022 is beyond me). I get that Jude is biphobic. I don’t need to be told these things over and over again for the entire first half of the book. I almost stopped reading because I didn’t want to read any of these things AGAIN.
Also, and I know this might sound crazy, but there’s too much representation in this book. It’s doing too much, and not providing good representation for everyone it’s trying to. Not everyone HAS to be queer.
Also the mean biphobic lesbian trope never sits well with me. Could’ve done without that for sure.
Overall, this book had such a promising premise but it didn’t really hit the mark for me. Perhaps a younger audience will do better with it. Though this book does turn very dark once you get by the first half so be sure to check the trigger warnings if you’re going to read this. There were some parts of this book that I really liked, and all of them were after that first 45%. I just wish the acts had been more evenly spaced so the story had a real chance to grow and thrive.
March 15, 2022
Thank You NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review
I have a lot of opinions on this book… most of them not good
FIRSTLY strong tws for: sa/ rape, self harm, biphobia (challenged), alcohol, manic episode, mental illness, parent abandonment
WHAT I LIKED:
- The representation !! lgbtq+ characters including bisexual, lesbian, gay rep POC, non- binary (demi girl who uses she/they pronouns), trans, asexual rep, characters with ocd, depression, anxiety, bipolar ll
- The plot itself was actually pretty interesting and i loved the whole Julius Caesar retelling bc i love retellings so so much
- I loved having POVs from different characters and i think if that wasn’t included i would be completely lost
- I think the ‘downfall’ of the characters in this after what they did was written realistically
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
- I didn’t like how lesbianism was presented in this book all the talking about it being outdated really rubbed me the wrong way and while i can’t think of any specific examples i found myself cringing with what characters would say and the biphobic lesbian trope just feels so overdone at this point
- The first half (like 45% of it) was the most boring thing i have ever read, just a bunch on inner dialogue that was there for no reason, i don’t know how i didn’t DNF it there an introduction should never go for that long why does everything need to be repeated 100 times we get it !?
- Not to be that person but this inner dialogue was supposed to be like part of an interview for a thesis? (i did like the idea of the thesis) that was not realistic at all who would talk like that in an interview ???
- I could not connect to any of these characters tbh i get they were flawed but i believe something about the writing style/layout prevented me from seeing them as just flawed characters
- The ending was horrific after what happened the only consequence received was getting expelled from school (they even let her finish the school year for pity… pity after what she did tf?)
The negatives really do out way the positives and this is probably a book i wouldn’t recommend
I have a lot of opinions on this book… most of them not good
FIRSTLY strong tws for: sa/ rape, self harm, biphobia (challenged), alcohol, manic episode, mental illness, parent abandonment
WHAT I LIKED:
- The representation !! lgbtq+ characters including bisexual, lesbian, gay rep POC, non- binary (demi girl who uses she/they pronouns), trans, asexual rep, characters with ocd, depression, anxiety, bipolar ll
- The plot itself was actually pretty interesting and i loved the whole Julius Caesar retelling bc i love retellings so so much
- I loved having POVs from different characters and i think if that wasn’t included i would be completely lost
- I think the ‘downfall’ of the characters in this after what they did was written realistically
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
- I didn’t like how lesbianism was presented in this book all the talking about it being outdated really rubbed me the wrong way and while i can’t think of any specific examples i found myself cringing with what characters would say and the biphobic lesbian trope just feels so overdone at this point
- The first half (like 45% of it) was the most boring thing i have ever read, just a bunch on inner dialogue that was there for no reason, i don’t know how i didn’t DNF it there an introduction should never go for that long why does everything need to be repeated 100 times we get it !?
- Not to be that person but this inner dialogue was supposed to be like part of an interview for a thesis? (i did like the idea of the thesis) that was not realistic at all who would talk like that in an interview ???
- I could not connect to any of these characters tbh i get they were flawed but i believe something about the writing style/layout prevented me from seeing them as just flawed characters
- The ending was horrific after what happened the only consequence received was getting expelled from school (they even let her finish the school year for pity… pity after what she did tf?)
The negatives really do out way the positives and this is probably a book i wouldn’t recommend
March 21, 2022
Thank you to Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book sounded like it was exactly the sort of thing I would enjoy. It’s described as a queer retelling of Julius Caesar, taking place at Augustus High, a school full of some of the brightest and the most cutthroat of students. The premise seemed intriguing, unfortunately, the story wasn’t. There were times I was tempted to dnf this book but I continued in hopes it would get better, it didn’t.
Ok, so what were my issues with this book?
First of all, the rambling. There is so much unnecessary info included in this book that could have easily been taken out. We got to know the backstories of characters who ended up playing such a small role in the story that it seemed pointless to know so much about them. There were also many instances where the characters would veer off topic and start talking about something that was completely irrelevant to the plot. Like why are there three pages of inner monologue about what type of books a character had read when they were eight?
Then there’s the repetition. I kid you not, about half of this book is just the same points repeated over and over again. We would learn some new detail every once in a while and then return to pages of reiteration. I put this book down for two weeks and when I came back to continue, I barely remembered anything and yet was quickly caught up due to all the repetition. It isn’t until maybe the last quarter of the book that the repetition decreases, however, it’s still there.
This book also felt like it was trying too hard to be “modern”? There was this instance where two characters had left some trash in the school hallway and they cleaned it up because they didn’t want to be classists and make the janitor clean it. Who thinks like that? You just clean up after yourself because its the decent thing to do. It just felt like the author threw in the classist line to make this book and its characters seem more progressive.
There were also quite a few pop culture references in here but they weren’t too excessive to become a huge issue for me.
In the end, I really did think this book had a great premise, it just wasn't executed well.
Trigger Warnings: sexual assault (graphic), self-harm (graphic), biphobia, bullying, drug use (mention), alcoholism (mention), underage drinking, potential outing
This book sounded like it was exactly the sort of thing I would enjoy. It’s described as a queer retelling of Julius Caesar, taking place at Augustus High, a school full of some of the brightest and the most cutthroat of students. The premise seemed intriguing, unfortunately, the story wasn’t. There were times I was tempted to dnf this book but I continued in hopes it would get better, it didn’t.
Ok, so what were my issues with this book?
First of all, the rambling. There is so much unnecessary info included in this book that could have easily been taken out. We got to know the backstories of characters who ended up playing such a small role in the story that it seemed pointless to know so much about them. There were also many instances where the characters would veer off topic and start talking about something that was completely irrelevant to the plot. Like why are there three pages of inner monologue about what type of books a character had read when they were eight?
Then there’s the repetition. I kid you not, about half of this book is just the same points repeated over and over again. We would learn some new detail every once in a while and then return to pages of reiteration. I put this book down for two weeks and when I came back to continue, I barely remembered anything and yet was quickly caught up due to all the repetition. It isn’t until maybe the last quarter of the book that the repetition decreases, however, it’s still there.
This book also felt like it was trying too hard to be “modern”? There was this instance where two characters had left some trash in the school hallway and they cleaned it up because they didn’t want to be classists and make the janitor clean it. Who thinks like that? You just clean up after yourself because its the decent thing to do. It just felt like the author threw in the classist line to make this book and its characters seem more progressive.
There were also quite a few pop culture references in here but they weren’t too excessive to become a huge issue for me.
In the end, I really did think this book had a great premise, it just wasn't executed well.
Trigger Warnings: sexual assault (graphic), self-harm (graphic), biphobia, bullying, drug use (mention), alcoholism (mention), underage drinking, potential outing
February 24, 2022
Wow…Very complicated feelings about this book! Love all the queer rep and the modern take on Julius Caesar. Setting it as a student thesis was an interesting format for it to be written in and as a whole it is really well written, almost surprisingly so given high school setting, the very casual, modern dialogue style, and the almost flippant vibe of the first half…but it really goes deep and has a lot of emotional breadth, especially in the second half of the story. It does meander a bit in some places, but man, talk about bringing up some seriously visceral feelings with all the commentary on the 2016 presidential election.
And oof…the parts towards the end about what happened with Jude…those were emotionally really hard to read, to the point that I almost didn’t know if I could finish the book. But I did and I think it was wrapped up well, no "happy" endings here but I felt satisfied by how everything concluded. This is definitely one of those books that stays with you and gives you a lot to think about and process after reading.
Thank you to Bold Strokes Books for this eARC.
And oof…the parts towards the end about what happened with Jude…those were emotionally really hard to read, to the point that I almost didn’t know if I could finish the book. But I did and I think it was wrapped up well, no "happy" endings here but I felt satisfied by how everything concluded. This is definitely one of those books that stays with you and gives you a lot to think about and process after reading.
Thank you to Bold Strokes Books for this eARC.
March 9, 2022
4.5
With Two Winters, Whalen proved she was a master of the retelling. And with Take Her Down, she took her game up a notch.
While I haven’t read Julius Caesar in many years, I loved this queer YA retelling. The play format was perfect. The mental health coverage was fantastic. And then there was the fact that the trigger warning for sexual assault was listed on the back cover! 👏👏👏
I loved the writing, the ability to really dig into that uncertainty we feel as teens, how much peer pressure and social hierarchy affect us, what lengths we will go to for popularity and acceptance. I can’t wait to see what retelling Whalen goes for next!
With Two Winters, Whalen proved she was a master of the retelling. And with Take Her Down, she took her game up a notch.
While I haven’t read Julius Caesar in many years, I loved this queer YA retelling. The play format was perfect. The mental health coverage was fantastic. And then there was the fact that the trigger warning for sexual assault was listed on the back cover! 👏👏👏
I loved the writing, the ability to really dig into that uncertainty we feel as teens, how much peer pressure and social hierarchy affect us, what lengths we will go to for popularity and acceptance. I can’t wait to see what retelling Whalen goes for next!
Read
March 24, 2022
Trigger & Content Warnings
Bimisia
Graphic sexual assault
Parental abandonment
Anxiety
Alcoholism mentioned
Self-harm
Alcohol consumption
Drug use emntioned
Bullying
Bimisia
Graphic sexual assault
Parental abandonment
Anxiety
Alcoholism mentioned
Self-harm
Alcohol consumption
Drug use emntioned
Bullying
March 23, 2022
This ultimately sounded interesting, what isn't to love about a Shakespeare retelling? Unfortunately I just didn't like this. I'm not a fan of pop culture reference's and this is filled with them, on every page. I read to escape and I don't want to read about the pandemic. I also felt like this book was trying to do way to much; however there was good commentary around mental health specifically Bipolar and sexuality. I feel this book would have been better if Whalen had chosen to focus on a few subjects and had developed on them further. I also feel there were way to many character's and they were underdeveloped; again this could have been solved with fewer characters.
May 14, 2023
First of all, what a rollercoaster has this been! From the very first pages you are being carried away into the story. It’s written in an original way by combining interviews, fragments of diaries, audio and video tapes into a fitting whole. The story does a great job in keeping you hooked. Even though around halfway you discover which event derailed everything, the story keeps continuing at the same pace (like when the POV’s are only a few lines each right before something is about to go wrong, you can really feel the suspense building) afterwards with a lot more things that had yet to happen and be revealed. I definitely didn’t see everything coming. The Shakespearian vibe throughout the story was also a nice touch.
A small minus for me was that the timeline was sometimes hard to follow. In itself, I found it very good that it was not always constructed entirely chronologically, which adds to the story. It just might have been helpful to add something like 'one month before the bottom dropped out' to the chapter number when applicable.
About what happened in the story, it’s pretty messed up how people can go to such lengths to sabotage one another. It’s also eye opening that even in the LGBTQIA community, some people still feel like they don’t belong because others still think in boxes and the seemingly confident ones just bully the others like it sometimes happens in the broader society. I can only hope no one has to go through this in real life.
So if you like a fast paced, LGBTQIA high school drama, with twists you don’t see coming, I definitely recommend checking this book out. 4,5/5 stars for me.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.
A small minus for me was that the timeline was sometimes hard to follow. In itself, I found it very good that it was not always constructed entirely chronologically, which adds to the story. It just might have been helpful to add something like 'one month before the bottom dropped out' to the chapter number when applicable.
About what happened in the story, it’s pretty messed up how people can go to such lengths to sabotage one another. It’s also eye opening that even in the LGBTQIA community, some people still feel like they don’t belong because others still think in boxes and the seemingly confident ones just bully the others like it sometimes happens in the broader society. I can only hope no one has to go through this in real life.
So if you like a fast paced, LGBTQIA high school drama, with twists you don’t see coming, I definitely recommend checking this book out. 4,5/5 stars for me.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.
January 6, 2022
Lauren Emily Whalen's superpower is capturing the bittersweet difficulties of being a teen: the drama of class elections; the pressures of friend groups; the pain of neglectful and apathetic parents; the struggles to hone out an identity. High school students Bronwyn, Cass, Porter, Jude and Antonia are all navigating the slippery slope that is life at their progressive high school. But some things never change, no matter what shiny label you slap on it. One step wrong and you may find yourself at the bottom of the heap, or suffering the biggest injury of all: ending up on the outskirts of the social group where you once reigned supreme. This Mean Girls meets Heathers retelling of Julius Caesar is a refreshing and modern take on hierarchies of power and how nobody, not even aloof teenagers, are immune.
March 3, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! I was so excited to read this novel! A queer Julius Caesar retelling? Yes, please! And look at that pretty cover! It ended up being so much more than I expected (in so many ways). I finished the book with mixed feelings, but I do think it will appeal to teenage readers. It has some powerful messages, which I also appreciated.
The story is told through a high school senior’s thesis. When she was a freshman, in 2017, Calpurnia’s school had an absolutely wild election for student body president. Two queer ex-BFFs ran against each other in a vicious race. There was drama, betrayal, and dire consequences for the parties involved. Cal tells the story of that year over five acts through interviews and journal entries from the other students. The first act is almost half of the book, giving you a ton of background information on all of the characters and their motivations leading up to a major incident. The other four acts show various characters’ reactions and all of the chaos that followed.
There is a lot going on in this novel. There’s a group of three people on one side of the election, two teens on the opposing side, three outsiders who get involved, and of course, the narrator. To Whalen’s credit, she does a great job of giving everyone distinct personalities. I found it easy to keep track of the characters, which was essential for this complex of a story.
The characters themselves are all morally grey. I liked how they each had unique backgrounds. The author included so much representation— there’s a bi character, a lesbian, a character who identifies as a demigirl (they were my favorite!), and more. There is diversity in race, and many characters are struggling with various mental health disorders. Everyone is fleshed out, but their tones could have been further developed. The perspective shifts quite a bit (since there are lots of interviews and pieces of media thrown in), and the voices were often too similar.
The author delivers well on the promise of a Shakespeare retelling. I haven’t seen or read Julius Caesar since high school, so I’m not the best authority on this, but there were a bunch of parallels to the source material. Many Shakespearean themes are present in this book, such as nightmares, foreshadowing, betrayal, moral ambiguity, chaos and disaster, and more. However, I think the author could have still followed those themes while developing the novel into her own a little more. I had some issues with the book, and many of them had to do with the pace. I’d argue this might have been a result of the novel trying to follow the pacing of a play.
As I said, the first half is mostly background information and building up to the main event. It’s pretty slow, with a bunch of repetition. This is a common issue in books with many perspectives, but so many times, something would happen and we’d have to read the same exact description of it from three different characters. There’s gotta be a better way to describe how each character handled something without repeating the same minor details over and over. The slow pace stands out even more when you compare it with the second half, which is almost too fast.
In the second half, things get much darker (this also tracks with the Shakespeare retelling). I was surprised by this, because the situations are so grim. The characters all do bad things, and for YA, it is dark (please check trigger warnings before reading this book!). I would have been fine with that, but the pace was so fast that it felt like we were getting hit with bad thing after bad thing after bad thing with little time to absorb each incident. That might work for a play, but in a novel, there is so much more room to expand on ideas and fully explore them. I wish there was more time spent on each incident, as well as more explanation of how different characters dealt with the ramifications.
The writing is good— the words flowed together well, so it was easy to read. The concept of telling this story as a thesis was cool, but I did wish Cal analyzed things or added her own thoughts a little more. Sometimes I was a tad confused about minor plot points, which could have been because there were so many perspectives.
This review is getting way too long, and I still haven’t quite described all of my mixed feelings. In sum: Take Her Down is a book with many moving parts. Some parts of it worked for me, while other parts didn’t. The messages do stand out. The story truly made me stop and remember the climate of 2017 as a queer woman. It was scary, and this novel is an excellent example of how it might have affected high schoolers. It doesn’t shy away from discussing difficult subjects, like sexual assault, homophobia and biphobia, hypomania, parental abandonment, and more. I’m grateful for that, though I would argue sometimes the messages were heavy-handed. The author tried to tackle so many subjects. It worked, but maybe it could have worked even better with 30% of those topics cut, so the rest could have been delved into deeper.
I imagine teens will appreciate the drama, the fast pace in the second half, and the messages of this novel. I sure wish I had a book during high school that told me it was okay to evolve and process your sexuality over time. So, I recommend this for older teenagers. I think I’m a little too old (in my mid-20s haha) to appreciate some of the YA elements.
3 out of 5 stars.
The story is told through a high school senior’s thesis. When she was a freshman, in 2017, Calpurnia’s school had an absolutely wild election for student body president. Two queer ex-BFFs ran against each other in a vicious race. There was drama, betrayal, and dire consequences for the parties involved. Cal tells the story of that year over five acts through interviews and journal entries from the other students. The first act is almost half of the book, giving you a ton of background information on all of the characters and their motivations leading up to a major incident. The other four acts show various characters’ reactions and all of the chaos that followed.
There is a lot going on in this novel. There’s a group of three people on one side of the election, two teens on the opposing side, three outsiders who get involved, and of course, the narrator. To Whalen’s credit, she does a great job of giving everyone distinct personalities. I found it easy to keep track of the characters, which was essential for this complex of a story.
The characters themselves are all morally grey. I liked how they each had unique backgrounds. The author included so much representation— there’s a bi character, a lesbian, a character who identifies as a demigirl (they were my favorite!), and more. There is diversity in race, and many characters are struggling with various mental health disorders. Everyone is fleshed out, but their tones could have been further developed. The perspective shifts quite a bit (since there are lots of interviews and pieces of media thrown in), and the voices were often too similar.
The author delivers well on the promise of a Shakespeare retelling. I haven’t seen or read Julius Caesar since high school, so I’m not the best authority on this, but there were a bunch of parallels to the source material. Many Shakespearean themes are present in this book, such as nightmares, foreshadowing, betrayal, moral ambiguity, chaos and disaster, and more. However, I think the author could have still followed those themes while developing the novel into her own a little more. I had some issues with the book, and many of them had to do with the pace. I’d argue this might have been a result of the novel trying to follow the pacing of a play.
As I said, the first half is mostly background information and building up to the main event. It’s pretty slow, with a bunch of repetition. This is a common issue in books with many perspectives, but so many times, something would happen and we’d have to read the same exact description of it from three different characters. There’s gotta be a better way to describe how each character handled something without repeating the same minor details over and over. The slow pace stands out even more when you compare it with the second half, which is almost too fast.
In the second half, things get much darker (this also tracks with the Shakespeare retelling). I was surprised by this, because the situations are so grim. The characters all do bad things, and for YA, it is dark (please check trigger warnings before reading this book!). I would have been fine with that, but the pace was so fast that it felt like we were getting hit with bad thing after bad thing after bad thing with little time to absorb each incident. That might work for a play, but in a novel, there is so much more room to expand on ideas and fully explore them. I wish there was more time spent on each incident, as well as more explanation of how different characters dealt with the ramifications.
The writing is good— the words flowed together well, so it was easy to read. The concept of telling this story as a thesis was cool, but I did wish Cal analyzed things or added her own thoughts a little more. Sometimes I was a tad confused about minor plot points, which could have been because there were so many perspectives.
This review is getting way too long, and I still haven’t quite described all of my mixed feelings. In sum: Take Her Down is a book with many moving parts. Some parts of it worked for me, while other parts didn’t. The messages do stand out. The story truly made me stop and remember the climate of 2017 as a queer woman. It was scary, and this novel is an excellent example of how it might have affected high schoolers. It doesn’t shy away from discussing difficult subjects, like sexual assault, homophobia and biphobia, hypomania, parental abandonment, and more. I’m grateful for that, though I would argue sometimes the messages were heavy-handed. The author tried to tackle so many subjects. It worked, but maybe it could have worked even better with 30% of those topics cut, so the rest could have been delved into deeper.
I imagine teens will appreciate the drama, the fast pace in the second half, and the messages of this novel. I sure wish I had a book during high school that told me it was okay to evolve and process your sexuality over time. So, I recommend this for older teenagers. I think I’m a little too old (in my mid-20s haha) to appreciate some of the YA elements.
3 out of 5 stars.
Read
July 20, 2022Ending your book with an epilogue about how well written it is? Powerful, iconic, incredible.
March 22, 2022
For "Take Her Down," Lauren Emily Whalen returns to the land of Shakespeare for a queer-fic retelling of "Julius Caesar" set in the hyper-stressful, seemingly progressive but not quite world of Augustus Magnet School where just about everything is good until it's bad.
Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon plopped into the care of an aunt she barely knows and her ultra-competitive cheerleader and younger cousin, Cass.
Life gets even worse for Bronwyn when the out and accepted bisexual is ostracized by her hardcore lesbian former bestie Jude Cuthbert, or JC, for, gasp, dating a boy - Porter Kendrick.
Life at Augustus Magnet School is getting complicated. It doesn't help that class elections are coming up and they pit Bronwyn and Jude against each other, both determined to win at any costs and both equally willing to exploit the other's weaknesses and, well, seeming hypocrisies.
This is going to get messy.
One need be only slightly familiar with Whalen as a writer to know that she's a bold, risk-taking literary voice more than willing to tackle difficult subjects even for her teen/YA readers. "Take Her Down" amps that up a notch, a complicated read for a complicated period of life and an effort that finds Whalen diving into issues impacting her readers ranging from lesbophobia to fluid sexuality to sexual assault and a whole lot more.
Timid readers be warned. "Take Her Down" is not likely for the faint of heart. The film has an undeniable progressive heart and mind whether openly embracing its openly sexual high school students or openly taunting a certain orange-toned former president who is never mentioned by name but is always treated with great disdain. It's likely fair to say that "Take Her Down" isn't a book for everyone, a fact likely already evident from the book's wildly diverse ratings and reviews including nearly as many DNF's as Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny."
Personally? I enjoyed "Take Her Down," though perhaps not quite as much as Whalen's last effort "Two Winters." It's nearly impossible to be this bold and cutting-edge without offending more than a few folks and, well trust me, "Take Her Down" is most certainly going to offend a few folks.
So be it.
"Take Her Down" finds Whalen in stronger voice and trusting that voice. The same people who are offended here wouldn't be saying a thing if these two lead characters were men - it's refreshing to see two young women who are so relentlessly unlikable yet fiercely engaging, behaving dastardly, and openly human in ways we don't talk about nearly enough.
There were times when I longed for a bit more suspense in "Take Her Down" that unfolds, a more matter-of-fact story that unfolds with the structure of a thesis even if it I found myself wishing we could lose that structure and really cut loose.
The ending, in particular, is powerful in the way that Whalen allows it to unfold as Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass find Jude in a particularly vulnerable spot and exploit it to their advantage with the election right around the corner. It's a gut punch, one could say, as all involved are forced to deal with new realities and events beyond their control.
While it tackles mature themes, "Take Her Down" remains firmly planted in the teen/YA realm embracing topics not always talked about and most certainly not with this much candor and honesty. "Take Her Down" certainly isn't likely to be embraced by the masses, but for the vulnerable teens and young adults Whalen has always passionately embraced this is likely to be a Shakespearean lighthouse in the darkness that we often call life.
Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon plopped into the care of an aunt she barely knows and her ultra-competitive cheerleader and younger cousin, Cass.
Life gets even worse for Bronwyn when the out and accepted bisexual is ostracized by her hardcore lesbian former bestie Jude Cuthbert, or JC, for, gasp, dating a boy - Porter Kendrick.
Life at Augustus Magnet School is getting complicated. It doesn't help that class elections are coming up and they pit Bronwyn and Jude against each other, both determined to win at any costs and both equally willing to exploit the other's weaknesses and, well, seeming hypocrisies.
This is going to get messy.
One need be only slightly familiar with Whalen as a writer to know that she's a bold, risk-taking literary voice more than willing to tackle difficult subjects even for her teen/YA readers. "Take Her Down" amps that up a notch, a complicated read for a complicated period of life and an effort that finds Whalen diving into issues impacting her readers ranging from lesbophobia to fluid sexuality to sexual assault and a whole lot more.
Timid readers be warned. "Take Her Down" is not likely for the faint of heart. The film has an undeniable progressive heart and mind whether openly embracing its openly sexual high school students or openly taunting a certain orange-toned former president who is never mentioned by name but is always treated with great disdain. It's likely fair to say that "Take Her Down" isn't a book for everyone, a fact likely already evident from the book's wildly diverse ratings and reviews including nearly as many DNF's as Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny."
Personally? I enjoyed "Take Her Down," though perhaps not quite as much as Whalen's last effort "Two Winters." It's nearly impossible to be this bold and cutting-edge without offending more than a few folks and, well trust me, "Take Her Down" is most certainly going to offend a few folks.
So be it.
"Take Her Down" finds Whalen in stronger voice and trusting that voice. The same people who are offended here wouldn't be saying a thing if these two lead characters were men - it's refreshing to see two young women who are so relentlessly unlikable yet fiercely engaging, behaving dastardly, and openly human in ways we don't talk about nearly enough.
There were times when I longed for a bit more suspense in "Take Her Down" that unfolds, a more matter-of-fact story that unfolds with the structure of a thesis even if it I found myself wishing we could lose that structure and really cut loose.
The ending, in particular, is powerful in the way that Whalen allows it to unfold as Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass find Jude in a particularly vulnerable spot and exploit it to their advantage with the election right around the corner. It's a gut punch, one could say, as all involved are forced to deal with new realities and events beyond their control.
While it tackles mature themes, "Take Her Down" remains firmly planted in the teen/YA realm embracing topics not always talked about and most certainly not with this much candor and honesty. "Take Her Down" certainly isn't likely to be embraced by the masses, but for the vulnerable teens and young adults Whalen has always passionately embraced this is likely to be a Shakespearean lighthouse in the darkness that we often call life.
March 28, 2022
3 Stars
This book was described as a YA queer retelling of Julius Caesar, and honestly, it does a really good job with that premise. I loved the nods to the original, including taking place at Augustus High. The characters were aptly named and really portrayed their parts. Looking back at some cliff notes to remember all the important details of the original play, this really did line up as a YA queer modern day retelling of Julius Caesar.
The book is written as sort of a literary project by one of the bystanders of the actual events that occurred, Calpurnia. She speaks with Bronwyn (Brutus), Cass (Cassius), and Porter (Portia) the most in the beginning, expanding to other main characters as the acts progress. We get the story of Jude Cuthbert (Julius Caesar), who went from queen of Augustus High, an out and proud lesbian reclaiming the term, running for student body president, and just an overall person of power, to nothing. The book follows all the events that happened, sometimes a bit out of order, but usually it makes sense. Through interviews we get to see the inner workings of all the characters from the moment, and their reflections 3 years after the events transpired.
Jude and Bronwyn have been best friends for basically ever. Then Bronwyn’s life completely changes. Her pop goes to jail for white collar crime, her dad leaves to go find himself among the Appalachian trail, and she has to go live in a converted garage at her estranged aunt’s house. During this time, Bronwyn, an out and proud lesbian, catches the eye of Porter, and she starts developing feelings. Porter, being a straight cis man and all, is not welcomed by the super accepting queer community at Augustus High, and when Bronwyn starts dating him, Jude ousts her from all queer circles. Bronwyn takes this personally and starts to run against Jude in the school presidential election.
I truly loved the bits and pieces that led back to Julius Caesar - it really kept me captivated. While I know the play well, it was exciting to see what the modern day twists were. One thing that turned me off was the structure of the novel. Since it was a collection of interviews, it was very informal, and a lot of times made me disinterested. I loved the content that was being provided, but the way it was written was not something that necessarily appealed to me. I also felt so underwhelmed at the ending.
One thing that truly made me close to DNF-ing is the rampant biphobia in this book that did not stop. It was so strong. Biphobia is something that plagues the queer community, and for so much energy to be put into it, it was hard to read and see that constantly come up. While the author does dedicate the book to “the B’s in LGBTQ+,” it can be super harmful to read all of that hate. It is hard to see biphobia from one character, but to see everyone side with that one character, it feels so overwhelming.
Another thing - this book mentions the presidential election of 2020 very often. It feels like there were so many parallels trying to be made with that and their student body president election. It felt like I could not escape the politics of the real world while reading, which I didn’t love.
I definitely say to check trigger warnings when it comes to this book, as it can get pretty heavy, but ultimately, it was a good queer YA modern retelling of Julius Caesar.
This book was described as a YA queer retelling of Julius Caesar, and honestly, it does a really good job with that premise. I loved the nods to the original, including taking place at Augustus High. The characters were aptly named and really portrayed their parts. Looking back at some cliff notes to remember all the important details of the original play, this really did line up as a YA queer modern day retelling of Julius Caesar.
The book is written as sort of a literary project by one of the bystanders of the actual events that occurred, Calpurnia. She speaks with Bronwyn (Brutus), Cass (Cassius), and Porter (Portia) the most in the beginning, expanding to other main characters as the acts progress. We get the story of Jude Cuthbert (Julius Caesar), who went from queen of Augustus High, an out and proud lesbian reclaiming the term, running for student body president, and just an overall person of power, to nothing. The book follows all the events that happened, sometimes a bit out of order, but usually it makes sense. Through interviews we get to see the inner workings of all the characters from the moment, and their reflections 3 years after the events transpired.
Jude and Bronwyn have been best friends for basically ever. Then Bronwyn’s life completely changes. Her pop goes to jail for white collar crime, her dad leaves to go find himself among the Appalachian trail, and she has to go live in a converted garage at her estranged aunt’s house. During this time, Bronwyn, an out and proud lesbian, catches the eye of Porter, and she starts developing feelings. Porter, being a straight cis man and all, is not welcomed by the super accepting queer community at Augustus High, and when Bronwyn starts dating him, Jude ousts her from all queer circles. Bronwyn takes this personally and starts to run against Jude in the school presidential election.
I truly loved the bits and pieces that led back to Julius Caesar - it really kept me captivated. While I know the play well, it was exciting to see what the modern day twists were. One thing that turned me off was the structure of the novel. Since it was a collection of interviews, it was very informal, and a lot of times made me disinterested. I loved the content that was being provided, but the way it was written was not something that necessarily appealed to me. I also felt so underwhelmed at the ending.
One thing that truly made me close to DNF-ing is the rampant biphobia in this book that did not stop. It was so strong. Biphobia is something that plagues the queer community, and for so much energy to be put into it, it was hard to read and see that constantly come up. While the author does dedicate the book to “the B’s in LGBTQ+,” it can be super harmful to read all of that hate. It is hard to see biphobia from one character, but to see everyone side with that one character, it feels so overwhelming.
Another thing - this book mentions the presidential election of 2020 very often. It feels like there were so many parallels trying to be made with that and their student body president election. It felt like I could not escape the politics of the real world while reading, which I didn’t love.
I definitely say to check trigger warnings when it comes to this book, as it can get pretty heavy, but ultimately, it was a good queer YA modern retelling of Julius Caesar.
March 11, 2022
|| Thank you to BookSirens and Bold Strokes Books for providing me this arc in exchange for an honest review ! ||
Honestly if it wouldn't have been an ARC, I would have DNF'd at around 40%, but I wanted to finish it to give a better honest review.
I liked how the story is told: through a project from an external person, all of it made into different Acts where main characters would tell their own story through different media (interview online/irl, voice records, diaries). However, even if each chapters started very well like Bronwyn/Cass/etc was telling their story to someone, the remaining part of the chapters felt more like a regular 1st person POV but more condensed.
I have to say I'm all into school dramas with back stabbing to get to the main goal, and I got a lot here. But it was indeed maybe too much and too harsh? You must beware of TW because all the dramas are around that: biphobia, sexual assault, revenge sextape, hypomanic episodes (bipolar II). And I honestly couldn't get attached to any of the characters because of that, because of what and how they did all of that.
There's also a lot of representation (lesbian, gay, trans, demigirl, non-binary, bi, asexual), and I'm usually 100% for that but maybe here it was too much? I never thought I'd once say there's too much representation in a book but sadly it is in a way it feels hard to believe: somehow almost the whole school is queer or questioning, otherwise there's only white straight cis boys (surprisingly we don't talk about straight cis girls, as there's a huge hate on white -only- straight cis boys, we don't talk about the girls). There's also a lot of mentions about the 2017 US elections (that got me out of the book everytime it was mentionned) and so obviously a lot of hate over Trump (well deserved to be honest but still), and suddenly there's this whole hate and fear of the white stray cis men since he was elected? Honestly it doesn't feel realistic that so much stuff from this book is put ON these elections.
And I also must say that it was very long, the 1st Act is basically an introduction to the story but it's almost half of the book, all of that to give us a deeper view of the synopsis but nothing new. The remaining 60% are that "after synopsis" and I still don't feel good about what we got because we "only" got "that". Honestly I was expecting way more stuff happening after the synopsis, more dramas, than what we got here.
That's my biggest review so far but I had to say what was good and what wasn't, because it was a hard read for me.
TRIGGER WARNING:
Honestly if it wouldn't have been an ARC, I would have DNF'd at around 40%, but I wanted to finish it to give a better honest review.
I liked how the story is told: through a project from an external person, all of it made into different Acts where main characters would tell their own story through different media (interview online/irl, voice records, diaries). However, even if each chapters started very well like Bronwyn/Cass/etc was telling their story to someone, the remaining part of the chapters felt more like a regular 1st person POV but more condensed.
I have to say I'm all into school dramas with back stabbing to get to the main goal, and I got a lot here. But it was indeed maybe too much and too harsh? You must beware of TW because all the dramas are around that: biphobia, sexual assault, revenge sextape, hypomanic episodes (bipolar II). And I honestly couldn't get attached to any of the characters because of that, because of what and how they did all of that.
There's also a lot of representation (lesbian, gay, trans, demigirl, non-binary, bi, asexual), and I'm usually 100% for that but maybe here it was too much? I never thought I'd once say there's too much representation in a book but sadly it is in a way it feels hard to believe: somehow almost the whole school is queer or questioning, otherwise there's only white straight cis boys (surprisingly we don't talk about straight cis girls, as there's a huge hate on white -only- straight cis boys, we don't talk about the girls). There's also a lot of mentions about the 2017 US elections (that got me out of the book everytime it was mentionned) and so obviously a lot of hate over Trump (well deserved to be honest but still), and suddenly there's this whole hate and fear of the white stray cis men since he was elected? Honestly it doesn't feel realistic that so much stuff from this book is put ON these elections.
And I also must say that it was very long, the 1st Act is basically an introduction to the story but it's almost half of the book, all of that to give us a deeper view of the synopsis but nothing new. The remaining 60% are that "after synopsis" and I still don't feel good about what we got because we "only" got "that". Honestly I was expecting way more stuff happening after the synopsis, more dramas, than what we got here.
That's my biggest review so far but I had to say what was good and what wasn't, because it was a hard read for me.
TRIGGER WARNING:
March 14, 2022
Take Her Down is book that gave me many complicated feelings. It has a cast of morally gray characters, and a lot of heavy, heavy content. Trigger warning for sexual assault and self harm. When recommending, this to teens make sure they're aware of this. The last third of this was almost draining to read and I urge everyone to go in with caution. It wasn't badly written or really problematic, but it covers a ton of sensitive issues.
This is a retelling of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It revolves around an election for student body president, and the cloud of the 2016 election looms heavily over it. This is a super compelling set up, and I could relate to the despair these students felt, but I wonder if today's teens will really connect with it. After all, the teens I work with definitely don't care this much about Hillary Clinton. It felt very white feminism, very girlboss at times. Still, you could see where these students were coming from, despite their bad choices and questionable morals.
This book also has a ton of LGBT+ representation. It explores the layers of sexuality and especially lesbianism in a way I found interesting. I would love to hear what actual lesbians think of it, since the word "lesbian" is treated like an outdated term, and the one lesbian character is a villain, of sorts. While I don't identify as a lesbian and can't speak on that, I do think I can talk about the questioning in this book. Almost every character in this book goes through a journey of sexual questioning. There's ace rep, plenty of sapphic love and a trans character. These journeys felt honest and real, more so than any other plot point. I really related to Cass and her complicated feelings on love and sex.
Still, this book is not perfect. The lesbian villain feels slightly problematic, many characters get away with doing horrible things, and a lot of questions about sexuality are left unanswered. I also think a lot of the really heavy content comes out of nowhere, without warning. A little build up would be nice. Despite all that, this book made an impact. It made me root for characters who were bad people, and it made me question a lot of things about being queer in our time. I liked it, but some people will hate it. And that's kind of cool.
This is a retelling of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It revolves around an election for student body president, and the cloud of the 2016 election looms heavily over it. This is a super compelling set up, and I could relate to the despair these students felt, but I wonder if today's teens will really connect with it. After all, the teens I work with definitely don't care this much about Hillary Clinton. It felt very white feminism, very girlboss at times. Still, you could see where these students were coming from, despite their bad choices and questionable morals.
This book also has a ton of LGBT+ representation. It explores the layers of sexuality and especially lesbianism in a way I found interesting. I would love to hear what actual lesbians think of it, since the word "lesbian" is treated like an outdated term, and the one lesbian character is a villain, of sorts. While I don't identify as a lesbian and can't speak on that, I do think I can talk about the questioning in this book. Almost every character in this book goes through a journey of sexual questioning. There's ace rep, plenty of sapphic love and a trans character. These journeys felt honest and real, more so than any other plot point. I really related to Cass and her complicated feelings on love and sex.
Still, this book is not perfect. The lesbian villain feels slightly problematic, many characters get away with doing horrible things, and a lot of questions about sexuality are left unanswered. I also think a lot of the really heavy content comes out of nowhere, without warning. A little build up would be nice. Despite all that, this book made an impact. It made me root for characters who were bad people, and it made me question a lot of things about being queer in our time. I liked it, but some people will hate it. And that's kind of cool.
February 20, 2022
***Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book ahead of its release. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Take Her Down is a queer Julius Caesar retelling and does manage to follow a lot of the beats that the original play did in a new way. The book is divided into five acts much like the play. All the characters a cheekily named in a way that nods to the original character. There is a ton of representation in this book. The way this author talks about what it is like to consider yourself as queer but be in a relationship with someone who is straight felt very real. The discussion of bisexuality was done very well.
I think this book would be very important to any high schooler who is dealing with their sexuality and isn’t really sure where they land. There is a bit of homophobia and biphobia (?) in this book, but for the most part, the high school in this book is very progressive and welcoming to whatever identity the student relates to.
This book also got very dark towards the end, which makes sense considering the source material. I just wasn’t expecting it. There are a lot of content warnings for this book. I’ll put the ones that stuck out to me at the bottom of my review but be aware if there are things that trigger you.
While I am not the target audience for this book, I can normally get past that and enjoy a book for what it is. However, the first “act” of this book that set up all the characters and relationships felt so long. The first act is nearly the entire first half of the book. I would have liked it more if the acts were divided more evenly and we could really explore what happens after everything happens. There were a few times that I was close to just putting this book down. At the end, I’m glad I didn’t but it was a struggle.
I can see how this book would be really important to someone in high school, in particular someone who is struggling with identity. But this isn’t really a YA book that can be enjoyed across all ages.
CW: sexual assault/rape, bullying, teenage drinking, bipolar/manic struggles
Take Her Down is a queer Julius Caesar retelling and does manage to follow a lot of the beats that the original play did in a new way. The book is divided into five acts much like the play. All the characters a cheekily named in a way that nods to the original character. There is a ton of representation in this book. The way this author talks about what it is like to consider yourself as queer but be in a relationship with someone who is straight felt very real. The discussion of bisexuality was done very well.
I think this book would be very important to any high schooler who is dealing with their sexuality and isn’t really sure where they land. There is a bit of homophobia and biphobia (?) in this book, but for the most part, the high school in this book is very progressive and welcoming to whatever identity the student relates to.
This book also got very dark towards the end, which makes sense considering the source material. I just wasn’t expecting it. There are a lot of content warnings for this book. I’ll put the ones that stuck out to me at the bottom of my review but be aware if there are things that trigger you.
While I am not the target audience for this book, I can normally get past that and enjoy a book for what it is. However, the first “act” of this book that set up all the characters and relationships felt so long. The first act is nearly the entire first half of the book. I would have liked it more if the acts were divided more evenly and we could really explore what happens after everything happens. There were a few times that I was close to just putting this book down. At the end, I’m glad I didn’t but it was a struggle.
I can see how this book would be really important to someone in high school, in particular someone who is struggling with identity. But this isn’t really a YA book that can be enjoyed across all ages.
CW: sexual assault/rape, bullying, teenage drinking, bipolar/manic struggles
February 18, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the arc in exchange for an honest review!
CW: sexual assault, homophobia (and prevalent biphobia), underage drinking, underage drug use, graphic self-harm
This book drew me in from the cover, then the interesting premise: tarot and a queer Shakespeare retelling? As a teacher trying to dig up good new releases for a queer high school book club, this was something I had to read as soon as possible.
I'm glad I did. Lauren Emily Whalen has masterfully juggled a story of a high school class election against two separate backdrops, one referenced overtly and one cheekily alluded to throughout the book: the 2016 presidential election, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. This way of storytelling creates such a fascinating dichotomy in the book itself, making the school election feel like both so much more than what it truly is (teenagers reclaiming their voices during a tumultuous time in their country!) and so wildly unimportant in the grand scheme of life (how many of us truly remember who our class president even was?) for these characters.
And, to be clear, very few of these characters are "good," which is something anyone familiar with the original Shakespeare material might already be expecting. Everyone has their darkness, where the morality gets grey and you're not quite sure whether you're cheering for them to succeed or get knocked down. That's part of the magic of this story being set in a high school; everything feels so high stakes to them when one wrong move - intentional or not - could find a teenager ousted from their social group.
Add to this a great discussion of sexuality, from the importance of identity in times of turbulence to its fluidity, and mental illness (one character is open about their bipolar disorder), and you have a beautiful book that I found difficult to put down. I look forward to adding this one to my classroom shelves.
CW: sexual assault, homophobia (and prevalent biphobia), underage drinking, underage drug use, graphic self-harm
This book drew me in from the cover, then the interesting premise: tarot and a queer Shakespeare retelling? As a teacher trying to dig up good new releases for a queer high school book club, this was something I had to read as soon as possible.
I'm glad I did. Lauren Emily Whalen has masterfully juggled a story of a high school class election against two separate backdrops, one referenced overtly and one cheekily alluded to throughout the book: the 2016 presidential election, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. This way of storytelling creates such a fascinating dichotomy in the book itself, making the school election feel like both so much more than what it truly is (teenagers reclaiming their voices during a tumultuous time in their country!) and so wildly unimportant in the grand scheme of life (how many of us truly remember who our class president even was?) for these characters.
And, to be clear, very few of these characters are "good," which is something anyone familiar with the original Shakespeare material might already be expecting. Everyone has their darkness, where the morality gets grey and you're not quite sure whether you're cheering for them to succeed or get knocked down. That's part of the magic of this story being set in a high school; everything feels so high stakes to them when one wrong move - intentional or not - could find a teenager ousted from their social group.
Add to this a great discussion of sexuality, from the importance of identity in times of turbulence to its fluidity, and mental illness (one character is open about their bipolar disorder), and you have a beautiful book that I found difficult to put down. I look forward to adding this one to my classroom shelves.
April 20, 2022
"the truth is, loud and proud is great. but for some of us, it gets exhausting. and confusing."
3.5/ 5⭐.
ARC Provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
(Trigger Warnings: sexual assault, self harm, mental illness, biphobia, bullying, implied sexual content, f-slur used to refer to oneself, mentions of alcoholism, mentions of underage drinking, mentions of drug use, parental abandonment, potential outing, mentions of Tr*mp.)
Told in the form of a student theses, Take Her Down is a modern queer Julius Caesar retelling with plot twists and representation that is done flawlessly.
First of all, I will start off by saying that the premise of this book seemed promising.
I loved the representation and how casually it was done.
It was comical to me how, in most stories, characters are usually being ostracised for their attraction to the same gender, but in this book, Bronwyn is "exiled" because of her attraction to a straight, white man.
I think the author did a wonderful job at capturing the uncertainty surrounding queerness and sexuality, especially as teenagers.
The mental health coverage was superb!
As promising as the premise of this book seemed though, the further I read, the more bored I became.
There is an excessive amount of useless information in this book that could have easily been taken out. Backstories of characters who have minor roles. Five pages of pointless inner monologue. The repetition. Irrelevant.
The characters were okay, but I couldn't find it in myself to care for them. There was a disconnect between myself and the characters. They weren't getting through to me the way I thought they would.
The mystery surrounding Jude's narrative was the only thing that kept me completely hooked. I also wanted to see what consequences Bronwyn would face.
The ending felt like a cop out, in my opinion. But I get why the author did it this way.
The format almost reminded me of A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, but make it extremely gay and add some biphobia.
3.5/ 5⭐.
ARC Provided by NetGalley for an honest review.
(Trigger Warnings: sexual assault, self harm, mental illness, biphobia, bullying, implied sexual content, f-slur used to refer to oneself, mentions of alcoholism, mentions of underage drinking, mentions of drug use, parental abandonment, potential outing, mentions of Tr*mp.)
Told in the form of a student theses, Take Her Down is a modern queer Julius Caesar retelling with plot twists and representation that is done flawlessly.
First of all, I will start off by saying that the premise of this book seemed promising.
I loved the representation and how casually it was done.
It was comical to me how, in most stories, characters are usually being ostracised for their attraction to the same gender, but in this book, Bronwyn is "exiled" because of her attraction to a straight, white man.
I think the author did a wonderful job at capturing the uncertainty surrounding queerness and sexuality, especially as teenagers.
The mental health coverage was superb!
As promising as the premise of this book seemed though, the further I read, the more bored I became.
There is an excessive amount of useless information in this book that could have easily been taken out. Backstories of characters who have minor roles. Five pages of pointless inner monologue. The repetition. Irrelevant.
The characters were okay, but I couldn't find it in myself to care for them. There was a disconnect between myself and the characters. They weren't getting through to me the way I thought they would.
The mystery surrounding Jude's narrative was the only thing that kept me completely hooked. I also wanted to see what consequences Bronwyn would face.
The ending felt like a cop out, in my opinion. But I get why the author did it this way.
The format almost reminded me of A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, but make it extremely gay and add some biphobia.
April 30, 2022
2.75 Stars. This is a book that is a little all over the place, and doesn't always deal with the more toxic nature of high school. I think it was especially jarring that it tries to capture some of the feelings queer folks had during the earliest days of the Trump era, but didn't do a great job of it. It also doesn't help that it is a retelling of a tragic Shakespearean play in Julus Caesar.
So the whole plot revolves around the Julus Caesar stand in learning of the Brutus character 'betraying' her sexuality as a lesbian and then devising a plot to get back at the Brutus stand in. It involves some very toxic behavior up to and including sexual assault. In this sense, it feels very 13 reasons why and handles its dark subject matter just about as poorly. It even has a hook in that the events of the story are based on an English project, and the characters' names aren't even their actual names.
I will give the author this much: it takes a lot of guts to try to tackle a whole bunch of issues within and without the LGBT+ community. I just think that framing it around the retelling of one of the most famous plays and betrayals in history is a lot to handle with grace. I think it mostly fails, especially with the highlighting of biphobia/ erasure and allowing those characters to be the sort of heroes of the story. Almost every character in this book is a level of toxic that is amazing. I found myself not wanting to know what happens to them, simply because they are all mostly horrible people.
It has a lot of tone issues that made it hard for me to follow what the characters actually wanted. It felt all performative, which makes it worse. Mean Girls for example had Regina George, but for as problematic as she was, we were shown some of the reasons why she is the way she is without actually condoning her actions. We saw that she was bad, knew it, and even if her lines are iconically funny, we still knew she needed a lot of work and needed to be laid low before she could fix herself. Here, there were very few lessons learned, and we were often shown one thing, but told another.
I don't say this often, but I don't believe I could recommend this book at all.
*I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
So the whole plot revolves around the Julus Caesar stand in learning of the Brutus character 'betraying' her sexuality as a lesbian and then devising a plot to get back at the Brutus stand in. It involves some very toxic behavior up to and including sexual assault. In this sense, it feels very 13 reasons why and handles its dark subject matter just about as poorly. It even has a hook in that the events of the story are based on an English project, and the characters' names aren't even their actual names.
I will give the author this much: it takes a lot of guts to try to tackle a whole bunch of issues within and without the LGBT+ community. I just think that framing it around the retelling of one of the most famous plays and betrayals in history is a lot to handle with grace. I think it mostly fails, especially with the highlighting of biphobia/ erasure and allowing those characters to be the sort of heroes of the story. Almost every character in this book is a level of toxic that is amazing. I found myself not wanting to know what happens to them, simply because they are all mostly horrible people.
It has a lot of tone issues that made it hard for me to follow what the characters actually wanted. It felt all performative, which makes it worse. Mean Girls for example had Regina George, but for as problematic as she was, we were shown some of the reasons why she is the way she is without actually condoning her actions. We saw that she was bad, knew it, and even if her lines are iconically funny, we still knew she needed a lot of work and needed to be laid low before she could fix herself. Here, there were very few lessons learned, and we were often shown one thing, but told another.
I don't say this often, but I don't believe I could recommend this book at all.
*I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
February 17, 2022
I love a modern Shakespeare retelling, and what a breath of fresh air for Lauren Emily Whelan to select Julius Caesar as her vehicle for this young adult election drama. 'Take Her Down' takes place at Augustus High, a Magnet School for overachieving and ambitious youngsters. Being LGBTQ+ here is the norm, sexuality intrinsically linked to power and status. Instead of Julius and Brutus, we have Jude and Bronwyn, former best friends who are at war for the position of student body president. The Roman lust for power and the desire for vengeance still come through strongly in the story, gripping the reader from start to finish.
Whalen explores a whole host of issues within the story, brining Shakespeare's story into a contemporary setting with real gusto. Bi-phobia, mental health issues, and sexual trauma are just some of the themes laced within the story of this gritty rivalry, We see the story from a variety of viewpoints throughout, this serving to bring us into the story from the perspective of a range of characters. To the tail end of the story, this gets a bit too disjointed as we see some plot points repeatedly from multiple perspectives. However, it is in the moment in the middle of the book where the conspiracy comes to a head that the split narrative works the most effectively - we hear from all the witnesses, but it is not until Jude tells her side of the story later that we realise the true significance of that dramatic narrative climax.
Overall, this is a fast paced rollercoaster of emotions. Shakespeare is brought right up to date - the references and shaping of the story were a particular joy for this Shakespeare nerd. I also feel that many young adults will feel seen within the narrative which is a bonus of the retelling. 4 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Whalen explores a whole host of issues within the story, brining Shakespeare's story into a contemporary setting with real gusto. Bi-phobia, mental health issues, and sexual trauma are just some of the themes laced within the story of this gritty rivalry, We see the story from a variety of viewpoints throughout, this serving to bring us into the story from the perspective of a range of characters. To the tail end of the story, this gets a bit too disjointed as we see some plot points repeatedly from multiple perspectives. However, it is in the moment in the middle of the book where the conspiracy comes to a head that the split narrative works the most effectively - we hear from all the witnesses, but it is not until Jude tells her side of the story later that we realise the true significance of that dramatic narrative climax.
Overall, this is a fast paced rollercoaster of emotions. Shakespeare is brought right up to date - the references and shaping of the story were a particular joy for this Shakespeare nerd. I also feel that many young adults will feel seen within the narrative which is a bonus of the retelling. 4 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 26, 2022
𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧
In this queer YA retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, stakes at Augustus Magnet School are cutthroat, scheming is creative, and loyalty is ever-changing.
Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon, and she lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader who Bronwyn barely knows. Life gets worse when her ex-best friend, the always-cool Jude Cuthbert, ostracizes Bronwyn from the queer social elite for dating a boy, Porter Kendrick.
Bronwyn and Jude are both running for student body president, and that means war. But after Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass share a video of Jude in a compromising position, Jude suddenly goes missing. No one has seen her for weeks and it might be all Bronwyn’s fault.
Will Jude ever be found? Or will Bronwyn finally have to reckon with what she’s won—and what she’s lost?
▪️🥀▪️ My Review ▪️🥀▪️
"All is fair in love and war" John Lyly
Wow, this was so good! I can't wait to buy the paperback. This was an intoxicating tale of betrayal, highschool politics and backstabbing.
I absolutely love retelling's of Shakespeare and Lauren Emily made this her own.
With an assortment of intriguing characters. There is lots of angst and this shows the very fundamentals of the darker side of human nature, where loyalties are tested.
I recommend this so much it was astounding and my first read by this author but definitely won't be the last.
There is quite a lot of issues in this book that may cause distress for some readers. If you find subject matters such as mental health, sexual assault, Biphobia then this book might not be for you.
In this queer YA retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, stakes at Augustus Magnet School are cutthroat, scheming is creative, and loyalty is ever-changing.
Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon, and she lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader who Bronwyn barely knows. Life gets worse when her ex-best friend, the always-cool Jude Cuthbert, ostracizes Bronwyn from the queer social elite for dating a boy, Porter Kendrick.
Bronwyn and Jude are both running for student body president, and that means war. But after Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass share a video of Jude in a compromising position, Jude suddenly goes missing. No one has seen her for weeks and it might be all Bronwyn’s fault.
Will Jude ever be found? Or will Bronwyn finally have to reckon with what she’s won—and what she’s lost?
▪️🥀▪️ My Review ▪️🥀▪️
"All is fair in love and war" John Lyly
Wow, this was so good! I can't wait to buy the paperback. This was an intoxicating tale of betrayal, highschool politics and backstabbing.
I absolutely love retelling's of Shakespeare and Lauren Emily made this her own.
With an assortment of intriguing characters. There is lots of angst and this shows the very fundamentals of the darker side of human nature, where loyalties are tested.
I recommend this so much it was astounding and my first read by this author but definitely won't be the last.
There is quite a lot of issues in this book that may cause distress for some readers. If you find subject matters such as mental health, sexual assault, Biphobia then this book might not be for you.
February 12, 2022
I’m way outside the book’s target audience, but it still spoke to me. I came out in 1992 (Freshman year) and went through a world of sh!t because of it. This rattled me, and I kept looking for a way to be different. I even dated a couple of guys after I’d come out, but it never stuck because I’m a lesbian.
The fierceness of high school never changes, although what’s considered to be taboo does. When I was in school, it was taboo to be gay. Now, it’s much more taboo for a student to have an issue with it, at least in the more progressive areas.
Today’s kids have the ability to be whoever they are, whether that’s gay, bisexual, asexual, etc. And still, they struggle. I remember when Trump became president how much it got to me. I remember it causing another lesbian to start questioning everything and even to try guys one more time. Therefore, I’m sure it was also really confusing for high schoolers, particularly those who weren’t in the majority.
All of this helps explain the way the teens acted in this book. Add into it their own struggles with their parents, etc. and it becomes even clearer. Ultimately, though, people like who they like. Whether that means a person who has always been a lesbian meets one guy she likes or someone who was always straight falls in love with someone of their same gender. Sexuality has a tendency to be fluid, and it’s good to see that YA books are now picking up this thread and running with it.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.
The fierceness of high school never changes, although what’s considered to be taboo does. When I was in school, it was taboo to be gay. Now, it’s much more taboo for a student to have an issue with it, at least in the more progressive areas.
Today’s kids have the ability to be whoever they are, whether that’s gay, bisexual, asexual, etc. And still, they struggle. I remember when Trump became president how much it got to me. I remember it causing another lesbian to start questioning everything and even to try guys one more time. Therefore, I’m sure it was also really confusing for high schoolers, particularly those who weren’t in the majority.
All of this helps explain the way the teens acted in this book. Add into it their own struggles with their parents, etc. and it becomes even clearer. Ultimately, though, people like who they like. Whether that means a person who has always been a lesbian meets one guy she likes or someone who was always straight falls in love with someone of their same gender. Sexuality has a tendency to be fluid, and it’s good to see that YA books are now picking up this thread and running with it.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.
March 2, 2022
I read Whalen’s TWO WINTERS last year which stayed with me long after the last page and this book has had that same effect.
This is a cleverly crafted YA modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar.
Instead of Rome our setting is Augustus Magnet High School somewhere in the Chicago suburbs.
Two former best friends, Jude and Bronwyn are both vying for the position of class president. Bronwyn along with her cousin, Cass, and boyfriend, Porter, devise a plan to take Jude down.
Bronwyn and company think they have won, but at what cost to both Jude, themselves, and others?
I love the way this book is told by the narrator, Calpurnia, who is writing this as her AP Senior English project. She was a first year at the time of the “incident” and writes this using interviews and writings from the parties involved who have now gone off to college.
This book is very timely. It discusses the US political climate in 2017 and how that election impacted so many groups of young people definitely more than I realized.
This book deals with a lot of other hot topics in our culture today. Gender identity, mental health, and assault are all spotlighted during this read.
Whalen has turned Shakespeare’s play into a something unique that everyone should read. This book also has well defined and complex characters with 21st century issues that I think many people can identify with at some level.
This is a cleverly crafted YA modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar.
Instead of Rome our setting is Augustus Magnet High School somewhere in the Chicago suburbs.
Two former best friends, Jude and Bronwyn are both vying for the position of class president. Bronwyn along with her cousin, Cass, and boyfriend, Porter, devise a plan to take Jude down.
Bronwyn and company think they have won, but at what cost to both Jude, themselves, and others?
I love the way this book is told by the narrator, Calpurnia, who is writing this as her AP Senior English project. She was a first year at the time of the “incident” and writes this using interviews and writings from the parties involved who have now gone off to college.
This book is very timely. It discusses the US political climate in 2017 and how that election impacted so many groups of young people definitely more than I realized.
This book deals with a lot of other hot topics in our culture today. Gender identity, mental health, and assault are all spotlighted during this read.
Whalen has turned Shakespeare’s play into a something unique that everyone should read. This book also has well defined and complex characters with 21st century issues that I think many people can identify with at some level.
May 6, 2022
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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was interesting, and it's a bit hard to describe what kind of book it is. The formatting was actually really consumable, the different points of view portrayed as auditory interviews. This made the pacing quick and the layout of the plot well done. Admittedly though, I was frustrated by how long it took to find out what happened. Once I got 50% in and knew what happened and then learned the heavier parts of it - I was invested. However, any book that takes that long for me to get invested... feels eh to me.
This book tackles the incredibly complex subject that is biphobia and the experiences of queer femmes who date cishet men while showing the viewpoints of those who participate in said biphobia. I feel like it did this well, however, at times it did feel a little "much"- like identities were more important than plot, at times.
as CAWPILE: Characters: 7 | Atmosphere: 8 | Writing: 8 | Plot: 5 | Intrigue: 5 | Logic: 8 | Enjoyment: 5
Total: 6.57 / 3 stars
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was interesting, and it's a bit hard to describe what kind of book it is. The formatting was actually really consumable, the different points of view portrayed as auditory interviews. This made the pacing quick and the layout of the plot well done. Admittedly though, I was frustrated by how long it took to find out what happened. Once I got 50% in and knew what happened and then learned the heavier parts of it - I was invested. However, any book that takes that long for me to get invested... feels eh to me.
This book tackles the incredibly complex subject that is biphobia and the experiences of queer femmes who date cishet men while showing the viewpoints of those who participate in said biphobia. I feel like it did this well, however, at times it did feel a little "much"- like identities were more important than plot, at times.
as CAWPILE: Characters: 7 | Atmosphere: 8 | Writing: 8 | Plot: 5 | Intrigue: 5 | Logic: 8 | Enjoyment: 5
Total: 6.57 / 3 stars
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