What happens when you combine Romeo and Juliet, a seminar on Shakespeare, six teenagers, and a villa in Verona? You get The Juliet Club, but this novel is more than just the things I listed. It takes Shakespeare's plays and brings them, in funny ways, into the lives of the characters as they spend a month in Verona. It's a very fast-paced novel, that I enjoyed from start to finish.
A group of six teenagers, along with a handful of college undergraduates, have all won a place in the first annual Shakespeare Seminar in Verona, Italy. Three of the teenagers, Tom, Lucy, and Kate (automatic pun for Taming of the Shrew), are Americans and submitted an essay about their thoughts on Shakespeare for their competition entries. The other three, Giacomo, Silvia, and Benno, got in through other means. They are all good scholars, but were either asked or pushed into attending the four-week seminar. I thought that having dual cultures in this novel was an interesting idea. It points out that there are many people from foreign countries that speak English very, very well, while Americans tend to know only their own language. It gives a slight advantage to the Italian students, but the bonds that form are not the ones you'd expect.
When the story got to Verona, and the seminar was explained, it sounded like the beginning of Letters to Juliet, and in a way, these two do share the common bond of a group writing letters to people who have written to Juliet asking for advice. Considering the film just came out recently, I wondered if that's where Harper got the idea, then decided that I didn't care. The whole seminar sounded like a great experience (that I wish I could have had), and being able to answer letters while imaging what advice Juliet would give, sounds even better. Then there's the question of "do I write as Juliet in the play, or do I write as the historical Juliet (even though there's no proof she existed", along with various other problems I'd have to sort out first, but whatever. That's not important at all for this novel. That's just me thinking too much.
Something that I very much liked about The Juliet Club were all of the references to various Shakespeare plays and sonnets. Obviously, the seminar focuses on Romeo and Juliet, but at one point, Tom reads Henry V, Giacomo and Benno use sonnets to help write a love letter, Kate uses Much Ado About Nothing to explain the prank that is trying to be pulled, etc. Shakespeare isn't merely the ploy needed to kickstart the plot. The plays are an integral part of how the story unfolds, and help to explain certain characters personalities and actions. I don't know where most of the in-dialogue quotes are from, unless another characters says it, but I like that there is a smattering of quotes used to both express feeling and to just have something to say.
I was a little confused about how Harper didn't say much about what went on in the seminar. It felt like the Professoressa explained the theory of the course on the first day, and then left the students to their own devices, hoping that they'd learn what was expected. There were quite a few scenes when I read about the kids learning fight choreography, rehearsing scenes, making mistakes in the Elizabethan dance, and writing letters for the Juliet Club, but I didn't see them learn anything from their teacher. That was weird to me, but I think that may have ONLY bother ME. I can't imagine that other readers would be picky about this point. It didn't distract me too much from the plot, but I would have liked some more scenes with the teens learning about the play, or doing something with the the professoressa in a group environment.
I was very much impressed wtih The Juliet Club, despite the fact that Harper wrote the novelizations for High School Musical and Hannah Montana (I can't stand either of these, and think that novels for them are a bit of a joke, since the shows/films are insults to the human mind). I'm glad that Harper can add this fantastic novel to her repertoire, and I'm glad that I read it. What's even better is that I happened to pick up a signed copy of The Juliet Club from the bargain section of the bookstore. I seem to be having a lot of luck with that lately. So, read this book if you can. I can almost guarantee that if you have been agreeing with the majority of my blog posts, you will like this novel.
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