Michael Barnes
This tale unfolds like a Shakespearean tragedy disguised as a dark academia novel. If you do not like Shakespeare (my Dog HOW?, just kidding everyone is unique in their likes and dislikes) I do not think you will enjoy this novel which like the bard the author structures her novel deliberately like a Shakespearean play — Prologue, five acts, Epilogue — mirroring the arc of classical tragedy and each act divided into scenes.
At the fictional Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a prestigious and highly competitive American arts school, where seven acting students live and breathe the Bard until art and life begin to blur, and tragedy takes centre stage. James the tragic hero, Richard the villain? equal parts Iago and Edmund, Wren & Meredith the lovers and Oliver — our Horatio, the watchful narrator who survives to tell the tale.
"A haunting exploration of identity and performance, it’s a story for anyone who’s ever wondered whether we play our parts — or if our parts play us". - Coffee, Campfires & Shakespeare
This part murder mystery and part tragic love story is also a Gothic novel; the haunting sense of place at the academy and the sense that a terrible event is coming, the nightmarish atmosphere of the event occurring, and then the slow tearing apart of the fabric that held the friends and their world together. As Oliver muses towards the end of the story, that is the genius of a tragedy: you can almost believe, right up until the point of everything collapsing, that it might turn out alright.
This contemporary tale includes queer elements but I was a little disappointed that in the end (spoiler)could be categorised as the old trope.
Brilliant and magnificent text that evokes the beauty and terror of Shakespeare's prose one for the fans.
This tale unfolds like a Shakespearean tragedy disguised as a dark academia novel. If you do not like Shakespeare (my Dog HOW?, just kidding everyone is unique in their likes and dislikes) I do not think you will enjoy this novel which like the bard the author structures her novel deliberately like a Shakespearean play — Prologue, five acts, Epilogue — mirroring the arc of classical tragedy and each act divided into scenes.
At the fictional Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a prestigious and highly competitive American arts school, where seven acting students live and breathe the Bard until art and life begin to blur, and tragedy takes centre stage. James the tragic hero, Richard the villain? equal parts Iago and Edmund, Wren & Meredith the lovers and Oliver — our Horatio, the watchful narrator who survives to tell the tale.
"A haunting exploration of identity and performance, it’s a story for anyone who’s ever wondered whether we play our parts — or if our parts play us". - Coffee, Campfires & Shakespeare
This part murder mystery and part tragic love story is also a Gothic novel; the haunting sense of place at the academy and the sense that a terrible event is coming, the nightmarish atmosphere of the event occurring, and then the slow tearing apart of the fabric that held the friends and their world together. As Oliver muses towards the end of the story, that is the genius of a tragedy: you can almost believe, right up until the point of everything collapsing, that it might turn out alright.
This contemporary tale includes queer elements but I was a little disappointed that in the end (spoiler)could be categorised as the old trope.
Brilliant and magnificent text that evokes the beauty and terror of Shakespeare's prose one for the fans.