- Romeo & Juliet & Vampires

by William Shakespeare

Other authorsClaudia Gabel
Paperback, 2010

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Collection

Publication

HarperTeen (2010), Paperback, 256 pages

Description

"You are deluded, Romeo. Vampires do not have the capability to love. They are heartless." The Capulets and the Montagues have some deep and essential differences. Blood differences. Of course, the Capulets can escape their vampire fate, and the Montagues can try not to kill their undead enemies. But at the end of the day, their blood feud is unstoppable. So it's really quite a problem when Juliet, a vampire-to-be, and Romeo, the human who should be hunting her, fall desperately in love. What they don't realize is how deadly their love will turn out to be--or what it will mean for their afterlives. . . . This riotous twist on the ultimate tale of forbidden romance is simply to die for.

User reviews

LibraryThing member BookSpot
The classic Romeo & Juliet tale, but with a twist. The Capulet and Montague families have a deep hatred of one another--a blood feud really. Only in Romeo & Juliet & Vampires, it's a rather literally blood feud.

The Capulets are a great and powerful vampire family and the Montagues are a strong,
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forceful vampire hunting family. Each believes strongly that the world would be much better without the existence of the other. With a treaty in place to 'stop' the Capulets from killing humans and the Montagues from kiling vampires, things have settled somewhat but the hatred is still simmering.

When Juliet, the only Capulet daughter, and Romeo a Montague son, meet and fall hopelessly in love they know their future together won't be easy or smooth sailing but they have no idea just what all they will encounter and how much they will be tested.

I was excited at the prospect of a book that was mixing Romeo & Juliet and vampires directly after so, so many vampire books have pulled on Romeo & Juliet and I have to say I liked this book even more than I expected I would.

Claudia Gabel's vampire infused adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet is so much more than simply the classic tale with fangs stuck onto the characters. While the underlying storyline did stay very true to Shakespeare's original Romeo and Juliet, Gabel's vampire storyline felt like an original tale, too. The supernatural elements never felt forced or stuck into someone else's story--it was all a fully integrated, completely enjoyable story.

I haven't read any of the other classics/supernatural creature mash-ups before but if any of them are as good as this was, I'll have to give them a shot.

Another thing I noticed while reading Romeo & Juliet & Vampires was that I was able to keep track of the relationships between the characters a lot better than when I read Romeo & Juliet. I don't know if that's because this was in modern prose or why . . . but anyone who needs to read it for school might want to give this a shot (in addition to the non-vampire one!!) if you can be sure you won't include vampires on any tests or essays!

Both the classic Romeo & Juliet plot and the adapted vampire-y Romeo & Juliet plot are great. The Romeo and Juliet characters were great and I could especially understand Juliet and her struggle.

I hope you'll give this one a try.

(review from my blog: book-splot.blogspot.com--author interview posted there, too)
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LibraryThing member BookSpot
review (and giveaway and interivew on my blog) later this week!

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

256 p.; 7.96 inches

ISBN

0061976245 / 9780061976247
Page: 0.2084 seconds