Episode 35: Romeo and/or Juliet

[Jeannette]

In this episode, we discuss retellings of classic stories and fairytales! What makes them good? What makes them bad? Which ones do we like? Then we talk Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure, and which paths worked and didn't work for us.

[Meredith]

We ran out of time before we could talk about the side character paths for the Nurse and Rosaline! The Nurse path was like an old school video game was kinda funny, but it got really old trying to find the path for the cypher code thingy. I still need to go back and read the Rosalind storyline. And we somehow didn't get to bring up the sex ladder LOL.

[Megan]

I know, I can't believe you guys didn't mention the Rosaline adventure! It was so cheesy and funny.

Have any of you read any of Gregory Maguire's (sp) other books? He did a lot of other retellings and I wasn't a huge fan of Wicked (the beastiality towards the beginning threw me through a loop and kinda colored my expereince) and I liked his other books more - I think the Cinderella the most.

Other retellings that I love would have to be Phantom (I have DNF'd the original) and just LOVE LOVE LOVE this retelling by Susan Kay - it's all about the Phantom's life starting with his birth and it is wonderful. Robin McKinley wrote a lot of fantasy and retellings, Rose Daughter (a Beauty and the Beast retelling) is one of my favorites and I adored Ella Enchanted (the movie is horrendous!). And I'm just gonna throw out there that the movie Shakespeare in Love is fabulous and is set during the time he is writing Romeo and Juliet and has just a touch of Twelfth Night, too. So not really a retelling, more of an inspired by?

Recently, I read a Cinderella retelling by Julia Quinn in her Bidgertons series and it was very good and I know that Eloisa James has a whole series that is just fairy tale retellings set during the Regency. I already own her When Beauty Tames the Beast and I need to read it soon (but that's book two, I need to start with book one because I'm like that).

And I would have to say that Romeo and Juliet (which I love, I get a dopey grin on my face every time I watch the balcony scene) is a love story - but a tragic love story. It's not definitely a "romance". Somewhat similar to how Nicholas Spark's doesn't write "romances" he writes "love stories" that often times end tragically (or so I'm led to believe, I've only read one of his books). I kind of like to imagine that a mom walked out of The Globe with her kid after watching the play and said, 'I hope you see how tragically all this ended for them all because they didn't communicate - so you tell me if you want to get married to someone even if you think I won't approve!'

[Jeannette]

Megan wrote: "I know, I can't believe you guys didn't mention the Rosaline adventure! It was so cheesy and funny.

Have any of you read any of Gregory Maguire's (sp) other books? He did a lot of other retellings..."

I did like the Rosaline adventure! I love noir mystery so that was super fun to me. Regarding Maguire, my first one and one of the ones I like the best was actually Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. It was great. I have only read a couple of others of his, but that and Wicked were my two faves. I really do like retellings in general though. When I see a new one, it's almost an insta-add to my TBR.

I completely agree about Romeo and Juliet being some kind of cautionary tale. Maybe I'll be that parent one day!