By Tyler Ryder
New York Times-bestselling author Ryan North has written a masterpiece with his ‘playable’ novel “Romeo and/or Juliet.”
“Romeo and/or Juliet” is a story about love. Or weightlifting. Or robot fighting. Or pirates. That’s kind of up in the air. It is, for sure, both creative and funny. “Romeo and/or Juliet” is a “choosable-path adventure,” meaning that the reader (or player) chooses what character they want to pick, and what decisions they want their character to make. The novel starts off with an intro explaining the format and how it works. It then asks you to pick a character and offers a description of each. The two characters are the titular Romeo, who is young, in love, and not the smartest, and Juliet, who is young, not yet in love, and totally ripped. The two characters are both portrayed as real teenagers which makes this book incredibly identifiable, especially to high schoolers. “Romeo and/or Juliet” has over 100 endings, and just over 90 artists who provide multiple pictures each for the novel. The various stories range from topics all over the place, including ninjas, life, love, death, love again, and just being a teenager. *Spoilers!* On my first play through, I chose Juliet, and got an ending where I became a pirate. The novel is full of weird endings and dialogue like that, fresh from left field. My only real complaint about the book is that sometimes the humor is forced a little too hard. As someone who enjoys awkward humor, it gets to be a little much. This wouldn’t be as big of an issue if there weren’t so many reviews over-hyping the comedy.
That said, this book is still funny. Something that stuck with me was from early on in the Juliet path. The punch line of the joke is that Juliet’s protein shake is composed of raw meat and milk. Disgusting, but pretty funny.
The ability to choose your path in a book isn’t unique to this novel but it’s adapted very well. Using a classic piece of literature such as Romeo and Juliet is the perfect vessel for this type of novel because it’s instantly recognizable and sets parameters for what the reader can expect. Those parameters are used perfectly as a cover for what North really wanted to write about, which is fantasy and comedy.
Canadian author Ryan North has plenty of experience writing. He has his own webcomic called Dinosaur Comics, another Shakespeare choosable-path book (about Hamlet), and has been writing about Squirrel Girl for Marvel comics since 2015. North has received multiple awards for his writing, including 3 Eisner awards and one Alex award for “Romeo and/or Juliet.”
Additionally, Ryan North is coming to New Prairie high school next year. On November 8th, 2019 North will be here to give a talk about his novels, the writing process, and just writing in general. There will also be a school book sale this fall, where students can purchase North’s books and get them signed by him.