Check ou my review for The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life by Dani Jansen.
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Genre: YA Contemporary
Published: September 22nd, 2020
Alison Green, desperate valedictorian-wannabe, agrees to produce her school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That’s her first big mistake. The second is accidentally saying Yes to a date with her oldest friend, Jack, even though she’s crushing on Charlotte. Alison manages to stay positive, even when her best friend starts referring to the play as “Ye Olde Shakespearean Disaster.” Alison must cope with the misadventures that befall the play if she’s going to survive the year. She’ll also have to grapple with what it means to be “out” and what she might be willing to give up for love. – Synopsis from Goodreads
I was happy to get a copy of The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life by Dani Jansen as she is from my province. Since I started reading YA books a few years ago you don’t see that many by authors from ” La Belle Province”. That is the nickname of the province of Quebec. Though it doesn’t say in the book if the story takes place here, it was still so nice to see an author from my neck of the woods.
The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is a cute contemporary story. It probably won’t make you think deep thoughts. But what it will do is make you remember your High School years. I have to say that I did find the writing a bit young though I do not like to give that adjective to Young Adult litterature because we must not forget by whom it is intended to be read, young adults and not a 40 year old woman. I could imagine 12 or 14 year old me loving this book. The characters would’ve been more relatable for me at that age but they were still well developed and interesting enough to keep me engaged. The issues they were dealing with I could see myself being upset with at that age as well.
I quite enjoyed the LGBTQ+ representation in this book. It made this little queer girl’s heart so happy to see it. And I thought that there was some queer uplifting queer kids. Not sure if that made sense lol but I’m stiking to it.
It was a cute quick YA contemporary. The sort you read in an afternoon on the beach.
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