I like to think of myself as a little bit of a Shakespeare retelling connoisseur, and was so geeked to find out about this YA retelling of Richard III, which is a deeply underrepresented source text in the realm of Shakespearean reimaginings. 

 

And scrolling through some of these reviews, it seems that very few readers approached this book from an interest in this book’s relationship to the original play, so this will be fun for me to talk about!! 

 

Richard III is recast as Rory King (yes, an unbelievably silly renaming) in this weird, intense thriller about what it feels to be an outsider in the cutthroat world of high school theatre. Instead of climbing to be king, in this adaptation, Rory is scheming to reach the greatest height one can achieve in high school: the lead in the musical. 

 

Now, I was a bit skeptical going into a Richard III retelling without a disabled MC. Richard’s disability, of course, is at the forefront of his experiences. The current culture we see today around performances of Richard III (appropriately) insists on casting disabled actors in the roles. But I think that Eagar made a decent choice in translating Richard’s experience with disability to Rory’s experiences as being poor and fat. These experiences are not seen as equal or comparable, but serve similar functions in the story, to cast the main character as other. And in this, I think that choice was successful, if not slightly underutilized. 

 

I think the thing that makes this book so successful as a Richard III retelling is its narration, which is handled in several different tactics. For anyone unfamiliar with the source text, Richard III is a classic Machievel archetype, but one that asks for sympathy and understanding. A properly performed Richard will make you both love and hate him, laugh with him and at him, and maybe even root for him. And the way that Eagar takes on this challenge is through inconsistent and malleable narrative. The text switches from first person to third person to second person or regular prose to scripted scenes as needed, as Rory provides the audience with an “objective view” or a monologue to connect with as needed to garner sympathy and support. I love a book that plays with form. 

 

Beyond Rory, the other character parallels were ones that I wasn’t quite as clear on, but that may be a fault of my own. The ones that were clear worked so interestingly, especially Margaret, cast as Rory’s concerned English teacher. 

 

There were plenty of really cool allusions to the original source material in here, such as the scene before Richard’s death with the ghosts, the Tower TM, and even the seasonal metaphors. I was yearning for a little bit more in terms of textual parallels at times, or at least more longevity of the ones featured (I kind of wanted more allusions to the Tower, or for it to have some more physical presence, but I also understand that we were in Rory’s hands and she didn’t really want us thinking about it) but the ones that were there were really cool. 

 

I think my favorite part of this book is the brief snippets of Rory’s papers that were featured between the Acts. Of course, these gave us some insight into the mind of the character herself, which allowed us to see her incredible writing skills and ability to engage with complex ideologies, giving us context for her scheming capacities both mentally and physically. But those papers also created brilliant context for the retelling itself, offering ideas about Machiavellian beliefs, Shakespearean tragedies, and dramatic form. It perfectly wove in pieces of information for the readers to engage with that provided more character depth and tools with which to appreciate and interrogate the story. Especially considering this is a YA story, its audience might not already be familiar with Machiavelli or these other ideas that are molding the choices made for the form of the story at large as well as the actions made by the characters within it, so these little pieces carried a lot of weight by offering pivotal moments to reflect and think amidst the drama and the action. 

 

I think my only real critique is the ambiguity with which Rory’s complaints about the theatre culture lands. It felt very much like it was left up to the audience whether Rory is right and that high school theatre directors are manipulative and create toxic environments, or whether she is wrong and she wasn’t driven to those lengths. I felt like there wasn’t quite room for the critique (which is very real and accurate) to fit and hold truth while we were so worried about whether Rory’s behavior was warranted. But that’s mostly because I liked that critique and just wanted it to hold more space in the story. 

 

Overall, definitely a really successful book and retelling in my eyes. Thank you to my friend Bailey for telling me about this one and getting a copy!! 

 

CW: suicide, fatphobia, mental illness, car accident, bullying, sexual content (minor)