Helpful Score: 3
Reviewed by Candace Cunard for TeensReadToo.com
After the death of her great-aunt, Julie's world is turned upside down. Aunt Rose had raised Julie and her twin sister, Janice, since they were three years old and survived a car crash that killed both of their parents. Now, more than twenty years later, Julie still doesn't know much about her family, except that her mother was American and her father Italian, and that they both died near the city of Siena. So when Aunt Rose leaves the entire monetary value of her estate to Janice, and gives Julie nothing but the key to a Sienese safe-deposit box, Julie is horrified at such an unequal distribution of her aunt's fortune, but also intrigued by this chance to find out more about her own heritage. With nothing left to lose, she hops a plane to Siena and sets to work uncovering the mystery that her mother had been at work on when she died.
Julie quickly discovers that her real name is not Julie Jacobs, but Giulietta Tolomei, and that, if her mother's theories were correct, she is descended in the female line from the Giulietta Tolomei who was the inspiration for the character of Juliet in Shakespeare's ROMEO & JULIET - a story, she discovers, that was originally set, not in Verona, but in Siena. The clues left behind by her mother lead Julie to uncover the remains of the family feud between the Tolomeis and Salimbenis in modern-day Siena, and to delve deeper into the origins of the Shakespearean play that Julie already knows by heart.
The novel switches between presenting modern-day events from Julie's first-person point of view and narrating the events surrounding the original medieval tale of Romeo and Giulietta. As Julie reads the documents left for her by her mother, she discovers alarming facts - for example, that Romeo and Giulietta were not from feuding families, but that a third man stepped in and caused all of the trouble - and begins to ask questions that might put her in danger if heard by the wrong people.
Without a doubt, my favorite parts of the book were when Fortier described modern-day Siena. I've traveled in Italy before (though not to Siena), and her depiction of a city so steeped in history and so connected to its own past both rang true from my experiences of other cities and made me want to visit Siena. I enjoyed Julie's first-person segments of the narrative more than the flashback tale of the original Romeo and Giulietta, where Fortier's attempt to use more time-appropriate language resulted in a strange mishmash of medieval and modern phrasing. I felt much more strongly for the characters in the present of the story than for Fortier's recast Romeo and Giulietta (though I must admit that I never really liked Shakespeare's version, either).
The plot twists and turns itself into an impressive labyrinthine structure, but if you're not paying attention, it's possible to get lost. For this reason, I'd recommend this book primarily to readers who've already encountered ROMEO & JULIET, and particularly to those who enjoyed the story but aren't afraid to see it rewritten in some thought-provoking ways.
After the death of her great-aunt, Julie's world is turned upside down. Aunt Rose had raised Julie and her twin sister, Janice, since they were three years old and survived a car crash that killed both of their parents. Now, more than twenty years later, Julie still doesn't know much about her family, except that her mother was American and her father Italian, and that they both died near the city of Siena. So when Aunt Rose leaves the entire monetary value of her estate to Janice, and gives Julie nothing but the key to a Sienese safe-deposit box, Julie is horrified at such an unequal distribution of her aunt's fortune, but also intrigued by this chance to find out more about her own heritage. With nothing left to lose, she hops a plane to Siena and sets to work uncovering the mystery that her mother had been at work on when she died.
Julie quickly discovers that her real name is not Julie Jacobs, but Giulietta Tolomei, and that, if her mother's theories were correct, she is descended in the female line from the Giulietta Tolomei who was the inspiration for the character of Juliet in Shakespeare's ROMEO & JULIET - a story, she discovers, that was originally set, not in Verona, but in Siena. The clues left behind by her mother lead Julie to uncover the remains of the family feud between the Tolomeis and Salimbenis in modern-day Siena, and to delve deeper into the origins of the Shakespearean play that Julie already knows by heart.
The novel switches between presenting modern-day events from Julie's first-person point of view and narrating the events surrounding the original medieval tale of Romeo and Giulietta. As Julie reads the documents left for her by her mother, she discovers alarming facts - for example, that Romeo and Giulietta were not from feuding families, but that a third man stepped in and caused all of the trouble - and begins to ask questions that might put her in danger if heard by the wrong people.
Without a doubt, my favorite parts of the book were when Fortier described modern-day Siena. I've traveled in Italy before (though not to Siena), and her depiction of a city so steeped in history and so connected to its own past both rang true from my experiences of other cities and made me want to visit Siena. I enjoyed Julie's first-person segments of the narrative more than the flashback tale of the original Romeo and Giulietta, where Fortier's attempt to use more time-appropriate language resulted in a strange mishmash of medieval and modern phrasing. I felt much more strongly for the characters in the present of the story than for Fortier's recast Romeo and Giulietta (though I must admit that I never really liked Shakespeare's version, either).
The plot twists and turns itself into an impressive labyrinthine structure, but if you're not paying attention, it's possible to get lost. For this reason, I'd recommend this book primarily to readers who've already encountered ROMEO & JULIET, and particularly to those who enjoyed the story but aren't afraid to see it rewritten in some thought-provoking ways.
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