The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is a perfectly fine book. Mostly, it’s actually rather fun. It’s a little forgettable, but it’s got a solid structure and pacing, interesting ensemble of characters, and more than a few genuinely amusing jokes and one-liners. Protagonist Alison, teen lesbian overachiever, is struggling to balance her first relationship, schoolwork and her quest to become valedictorian, and the shambolic school play that she’s somehow found herself agreeing to produce and stage manage. While I’ve seen a few reviewers calling her pretentious and unrealistic, I have to say I found her pretty relatable and authentic - pretentious, yes, but have you talked to many teenagers lately? Specifically the kind trying to be valedictorians? “Pretentious” is not remotely an unrealistic character trait for a teenager. (Exhibit A: me at 16. Hoo boy.)

So that’s all well and good, and the main final message - that we can’t always be perfect at everything, and that can be fine - is, too. But there’s another ongoing theme throughout the book that I found a little off-putting; namely, the importance of being out as a queer person, to everyone, as publicly as possible. Some characters demand or pressure their friends to come out, or to come out to other groups and in other spaces, when the friends aren’t ready; at other times, it’s suggested that relationships won’t work if both parties aren’t equally, fully, publicly out. I feel like the author was intending to create a message of being true to yourself or something, but it really comes off badly, potentially harmfully.

So other than that - but it’s a pretty big that - a pretty fun, very zippy, book, with quips and quests and just about every possible theatrical shenanigan imaginable.

I read this as part of the Queer Lit Readathon to fulfill the prompt of "Brings You Joy" because I was such a huge theatre kid in my youth (and still am, although I miss doing multiple shows a year with incredibly talent folks). The stress this teen was under was so relatable, as so much can be thrown at you in this atmosphere, and I honestly just wanted to let her know it would all be okay. I talk about this book in this Queer Lit Readathon wrap up.