Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North was such a fun read! I thought it was the perfect book to kick off my romance-themed February reading.
If you’re looking for a very sarcastic and humorous choose-your-own-adventure based on a classic, I would definitely recommend this!
My Thoughts on Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure by Ryan North
The first time I read through this book, I followed Shakespeare’s path. I would definitely recommend doing the same to start this book to simply see how Ryan North wrote the story. I thought that this was also a nice little refresher; there were plenty of bits I had forgotten about. If you don’t read through this path first, there are some bits and pieces that Ryan North adds to try to keep you up to date, but you may get a little confused with the storyline.
Then at the end of my first read through, I did the math to unlock the secret character (I thought this was so clever!!). After fully reading her storylines, I jumped back to the beginning and began again.
I really liked that there was an option to choose a path that lets you read about the authors and the illustrators! And man, the list of artists is incredible! I loved all of the different styles. I knew I was recognizing some artwork styles while reading; artists that I knew Emily Carroll, Christopher Hastings, and Noelle Stevenson.
On one read through I found the Nurse side quest. My goodness was that one difficult! It took both me and my boyfriend quite some time to figure out the puzzle! I also discovered the three books inside the book, which were a fun little addition! This book was just filled with surprises!
I continued reading through until I kept running into the same passages over and over again. When I thought I had taken every path possible, I started at the front of the book and paged through to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that there was quite a bit I had missed! But at this point, I was getting a bit tired of flipping pages and re-skimming the same bits anyway, so I just read the ones I had missed and called it a day.
One of my favorite parts of this book was the copyright page:
My Favorite Passages from Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure
Haha WOW this is your first conversation with her and she’s already bringing up religion and being devoted to her eternally. You wanna bail, Romeo?
Shout, “Hah hah hah right um I’m gonna go over there, bye” into her ear and bail: turn to 85.
No way, this lady is packed and stacked, especially in the back! Keep chatting her up! Turn to page 111.
“Romeo?” you ask. “Is that you? I mean, I haven’t even heard you say a hundred words yet, so it’s a little hard to recognize you by your voice. But your Romeo, right? A Montague?”
“OKAY FINE,” you say. “But you’d BETTER be there. Don’t, I don’t know, commit murder and get banished from Verona or anything.”
“Duh,” Romeo says, and then he’s gone. He didn’t even comment on your foreshadowing!
Oh crap! Forgot I said your foreshadowing!!
“When this is over we’re going to talk about pronoun attachment ambiguity,” you say.
My Final Thoughts on Romeo and/or Juliet: A Chooseable-Path Adventure
I absolutely loved the sarcasm-heavy tone of this book. I found myself laughing so much! I enjoyed the fact that many times, the narrator was simply poking fun at the original storyline or the things the characters did. For example, when a character was about to begin a monologue, either the narrator or another character in the scene would make fun of the speaker for raising their hand dramatically.
I would definitely recommend this book!
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