𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧

In this queer YA retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, stakes at Augustus Magnet School are cutthroat, scheming is creative, and loyalty is ever-changing.

Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon, and she lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader who Bronwyn barely knows. Life gets worse when her ex-best friend, the always-cool Jude Cuthbert, ostracizes Bronwyn from the queer social elite for dating a boy, Porter Kendrick.

Bronwyn and Jude are both running for student body president, and that means war. But after Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass share a video of Jude in a compromising position, Jude suddenly goes missing. No one has seen her for weeks and it might be all Bronwyn’s fault.

Will Jude ever be found? Or will Bronwyn finally have to reckon with what she’s won—and what she’s lost?

▪️🥀▪️ My Review ▪️🥀▪️


"All is fair in love and war" John Lyly


Wow, this was so good! I can't wait to buy the paperback. This was an intoxicating tale of betrayal, highschool politics and backstabbing.

I absolutely love retelling's of Shakespeare and Lauren Emily made this her own.

With an assortment of intriguing characters. There is lots of angst and this shows the very fundamentals of the darker side of human nature, where loyalties are tested.

I recommend this so much it was astounding and my first read by this author but definitely won't be the last.

This ultimately sounded interesting, what isn't to love about a Shakespeare retelling? Unfortunately I just didn't like this. I'm not a fan of pop culture reference's and this is filled with them, on every page. I read to escape and I don't want to read about the pandemic. I also felt like this book was trying to do way to much; however there was good commentary around mental health specifically Bipolar and sexuality. I feel this book would have been better if Whalen had chosen to focus on a few subjects and had developed on them further. I also feel there were way to many character's and they were underdeveloped; again this could have been solved with fewer characters.

For "Take Her Down," Lauren Emily Whalen returns to the land of Shakespeare for a queer-fic retelling of "Julius Caesar" set in the hyper-stressful, seemingly progressive but not quite world of Augustus Magnet School where just about everything is good until it's bad.

Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon plopped into the care of an aunt she barely knows and her ultra-competitive cheerleader and younger cousin, Cass.

Life gets even worse for Bronwyn when the out and accepted bisexual is ostracized by her hardcore lesbian former bestie Jude Cuthbert, or JC, for, gasp, dating a boy - Porter Kendrick.

Life at Augustus Magnet School is getting complicated. It doesn't help that class elections are coming up and they pit Bronwyn and Jude against each other, both determined to win at any costs and both equally willing to exploit the other's weaknesses and, well, seeming hypocrisies.

This is going to get messy.

One need be only slightly familiar with Whalen as a writer to know that she's a bold, risk-taking literary voice more than willing to tackle difficult subjects even for her teen/YA readers. "Take Her Down" amps that up a notch, a complicated read for a complicated period of life and an effort that finds Whalen diving into issues impacting her readers ranging from lesbophobia to fluid sexuality to sexual assault and a whole lot more.

Timid readers be warned. "Take Her Down" is not likely for the faint of heart. The film has an undeniable progressive heart and mind whether openly embracing its openly sexual high school students or openly taunting a certain orange-toned former president who is never mentioned by name but is always treated with great disdain. It's likely fair to say that "Take Her Down" isn't a book for everyone, a fact likely already evident from the book's wildly diverse ratings and reviews including nearly as many DNF's as Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny."

Personally? I enjoyed "Take Her Down," though perhaps not quite as much as Whalen's last effort "Two Winters." It's nearly impossible to be this bold and cutting-edge without offending more than a few folks and, well trust me, "Take Her Down" is most certainly going to offend a few folks.

So be it.

"Take Her Down" finds Whalen in stronger voice and trusting that voice. The same people who are offended here wouldn't be saying a thing if these two lead characters were men - it's refreshing to see two young women who are so relentlessly unlikable yet fiercely engaging, behaving dastardly, and openly human in ways we don't talk about nearly enough.

There were times when I longed for a bit more suspense in "Take Her Down" that unfolds, a more matter-of-fact story that unfolds with the structure of a thesis even if it I found myself wishing we could lose that structure and really cut loose.

The ending, in particular, is powerful in the way that Whalen allows it to unfold as Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass find Jude in a particularly vulnerable spot and exploit it to their advantage with the election right around the corner. It's a gut punch, one could say, as all involved are forced to deal with new realities and events beyond their control.

While it tackles mature themes, "Take Her Down" remains firmly planted in the teen/YA realm embracing topics not always talked about and most certainly not with this much candor and honesty. "Take Her Down" certainly isn't likely to be embraced by the masses, but for the vulnerable teens and young adults Whalen has always passionately embraced this is likely to be a Shakespearean lighthouse in the darkness that we often call life.

DNFed at 40%
I had high expectations from this one, I even brushed up on Julius Caesar so I don't miss any foreshadowing etc but I'm disappointed to say the least.
The things I liked:
The queer representation, I loved it!! Except maybe for this one thing about the demigirl representation, being one myself, I really don't think they would be comfortable as being referred to "girlfriend" but to each their own I guess.
The writing style kept me hooked despite me being bored out of my mind.

The things I didn't like:
Goes without saying but the Jude Cuthbert character. I don't think I would've liked her any better had I finished the book. The girl who puts everyone else into boxes, doesn't have a box herself? Hypocrisy at its best.
The writing style. Yes, it kept me hooked because of the way it is written but it is still very repetitive. The mentions of "that night" etc that were supposed to lead to something, still haven't lead anywhere and I'm not interested anymore to plow ahead and find out what happens.

The premise was really great which is why I had high expectations and it could have been one of my favorite dark academia reads had it been executed well.

Regardless, thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me access to this book in exchange for a review.

This book sounded like it was exactly the sort of thing I would enjoy. It’s described as a queer retelling of Julius Caesar, taking place at Augustus High, a school full of some of the brightest and the most cutthroat of students. The premise seemed intriguing, unfortunately, the story wasn’t. There were times I was tempted to dnf this book but I continued in hopes it would get better, it didn’t.

So what were my issues with this book?

First of all, the rambling. There is so much unnecessary info included in this book that could have easily been taken out. We got to know the backstories of characters who ended up playing such a small role in the story that it seemed pointless to know so much about them. There were also many instances where the characters would veer off topic and start talking about something that was completely irrelevant to the plot. Like why are there three pages of inner monologue about what type of books a character had read when they were eight?

Then there’s the repetition. About half of this book is just the same points repeated over and over again. We would learn some new detail every once in a while and then return to pages of reiteration. I put this book down for two weeks and when I came back to continue, I barely remembered anything and yet was quickly caught up due to all the repetition. It isn’t until maybe the last quarter of the book that the repetition decreases, however, it’s still there.

This book also felt like it was trying too hard to be “modern”? There was this instance where two characters had left some trash in the school hallway and they cleaned it up because they didn’t want to be classists and make the janitor clean it. Why is classism your first thought, people usually just clean up after themselves because its the decent thing to do. It just felt like the author threw in the classist line to make this book and its characters seem more progressive.

There were also quite a few pop culture references in here but they weren’t too excessive to become a huge issue for me.

In the end, I really did think this book had a great premise, it just wasn't executed well.

TAKE HER DOWN by Lauren Emily Whalen is a contemporary young adult retelling of Shakespeare's Julius Cesar with Mean Girls vibes and queer main characters. When queer "it" girl, Jude, ostracizes her second in command, Bronwyn, for dating a guy, the two of them begin a rivalry that reaches a fever pitch when they both run for student body president of their elite and progressive private school. All of this is heightened by the recent presidential election, in which an unnamed, orange-faced would-be dictator got elected over a hyper-competent female candidate. Both girls participate in some questionable behavior as the student election gets closer, and eventually, an act of public humiliation crosses a line and sends everyone involved spiraling into dangerous territory.

In this book, none of the main characters are particularly likable, but they're all understandable. The author does a commendable job at justifying their poor decisions just enough so that the reader pities rather than despises them. The topical issues, the most prominent being queer gatekeeping, make the world feel fleshed out and provide motivations for the characters' actions. Other topics include the 2016 presidential election as a backdrop, mental health, family dynamics, wealth and privilege, high school rivalries, gender politics, and sexual identities. All of these factors contribute to the Shakespearean stakes of this high school election, which could feel artificial in the wrong hands. But Whalen keeps everything grounded in reality with all its complexities and gray area.

A non-exhaustive list of content warnings: rape, incest, injury, on-the-page sex, mental health crisis, underage drinking

This book is excellent for what it is, not what it strives to be. What it strives to be is an overly-topical, grandiose thing. It will not be a timeless piece as it relies so heavily on the context. A context that is hard to enjoy in the moment. What this book is good at is what its unmentioned core it; LGBTQ+ representation. Whalen presented everything perfectly in a manner that made you want to take up Capital Hill reciting her words.

Thank You NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review

I have a lot of opinions on this book… most of them not good

FIRSTLY strong tws for: sa/ rape, self harm, biphobia (challenged), alcohol, manic episode, mental illness, parent abandonment

WHAT I LIKED:
- The representation !! lgbtq+ characters including bisexual, lesbian, gay rep POC, non- binary (demi girl who uses she/they pronouns), trans, asexual rep, characters with ocd, depression, anxiety, bipolar ll
- The plot itself was actually pretty interesting and i loved the whole Julius Caesar retelling bc i love retellings so so much
- I loved having POVs from different characters and i think if that wasn’t included i would be completely lost
- I think the ‘downfall’ of the characters in this after what they did was written realistically

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
- I didn’t like how lesbianism was presented in this book all the talking about it being outdated really rubbed me the wrong way and while i can’t think of any specific examples i found myself cringing with what characters would say and the biphobic lesbian trope just feels so overdone at this point
- The first half (like 45% of it) was the most boring thing i have ever read, just a bunch on inner dialogue that was there for no reason, i don’t know how i didn’t DNF it there an introduction should never go for that long why does everything need to be repeated 100 times we get it !?
- Not to be that person but this inner dialogue was supposed to be like part of an interview for a thesis? (i did like the idea of the thesis) that was not realistic at all who would talk like that in an interview ???
- I could not connect to any of these characters tbh i get they were flawed but i believe something about the writing style/layout prevented me from seeing them as just flawed characters
- The ending was horrific after what happened the only consequence received was getting expelled from school (they even let her finish the school year for pity… pity after what she did tf?)

The negatives really do out way the positives and this is probably a book i wouldn’t recommend

Take Her Down is book that gave me many complicated feelings. It has a cast of morally gray characters, and a lot of heavy, heavy content. Trigger warning for sexual assault and self harm. When recommending, this to teens make sure they're aware of this. The last third of this was almost draining to read and I urge everyone to go in with caution. It wasn't badly written or really problematic, but it covers a ton of sensitive issues.

This is a retelling of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It revolves around an election for student body president, and the cloud of the 2016 election looms heavily over it. This is a super compelling set up, and I could relate to the despair these students felt, but I wonder if today's teens will really connect with it. After all, the teens I work with definitely don't care this much about Hillary Clinton. It felt very white feminism, very girlboss at times. Still, you could see where these students were coming from, despite their bad choices and questionable morals.

This book also has a ton of LGBT+ representation. It explores the layers of sexuality and especially lesbianism in a way I found interesting. I would love to hear what actual lesbians think of it, since the word "lesbian" is treated like an outdated term, and the one lesbian character is a villain, of sorts. While I don't identify as a lesbian and can't speak on that, I do think I can talk about the questioning in this book. Almost every character in this book goes through a journey of sexual questioning. There's ace rep, plenty of sapphic love and a trans character. These journeys felt honest and real, more so than any other plot point. I really related to Cass and her complicated feelings on love and sex.

Still, this book is not perfect. The lesbian villain feels slightly problematic, many characters get away with doing horrible things, and a lot of questions about sexuality are left unanswered. I also think a lot of the really heavy content comes out of nowhere, without warning. A little build up would be nice. Despite all that, this book made an impact. It made me root for characters who were bad people, and it made me question a lot of things about being queer in our time. I liked it, but some people will hate it. And that's kind of cool.

#march2022release #netgalley #takeherdown

In this #queer #ya #retelling of #Shakespeare ’s #juliuscaesar stakes at Augustus Magnet School are cutthroat, scheming is creative, and loyalty is ever-changing. 

Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon, and she lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader who Bronwyn barely knows. Life gets worse when her ex-best friend, the always-cool Jude Cuthbert, ostracizes Bronwyn from the queer social elite for dating a boy, Porter Kendrick. 

Bronwyn and Jude are both running for student body president, and that means war. But after Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass share a video of Jude in a compromising position, Jude suddenly goes missing. No one has seen her for weeks and it might be all Bronwyn’s fault. 

Will Jude ever be found? Or will Bronwyn finally have to reckon with what she’s won―and what she’s lost? 

📍Content Advisory: Depictions of sexual assault.

First of all, what a rollercoaster has this been! From the very first pages you are being carried away into the story. It’s written in an original way by combining interviews, fragments of diaries, audio and video tapes into a fitting whole. The story does a great job in keeping you hooked. Even though around halfway you discover which event derailed everything, the story keeps continuing at the same pace (like when the POV’s are only a few lines each right before something is about to go wrong, you can really feel the suspense building) afterwards with a lot more things that had yet to happen and be revealed. I definitely didn’t see everything coming. The Shakespearian vibe throughout the story was also a nice touch.

A small minus for me was that the timeline was sometimes hard to follow. In itself, I found it very good that it was not always constructed entirely chronologically, which adds to the story. It just might have been helpful to add something like 'one month before the bottom dropped out' to the chapter number when applicable.

About what happened in the story, it’s pretty messed up how people can go to such lengths to sabotage one another. It’s also eye opening that even in the LGBTQIA community, some people still feel like they don’t belong because others still think in boxes and the seemingly confident ones just bully the others like it sometimes happens in the broader society. I can only hope no one has to go through this in real life.

So if you like a fast paced, LGBTQIA high school drama, with twists you don’t see coming, I definitely recommend checking this book out. 4,5/5 stars for me.

Honestly if it wouldn't have been an ARC, I would have DNF'd at around 40%, but I wanted to finish it to give a better honest review.

I liked how the story is told: through a project from an external person, all of it made into different Acts where main characters would tell their own story through different media (interview online/irl, voice records, diaries). However, even if each chapters started very well like Bronwyn/Cass/etc was telling their story to someone, the remaining part of the chapters felt more like a regular 1st person POV but more condensed.

I have to say I'm all into school dramas with back stabbing to get to the main goal, and I got a lot here. But it was indeed maybe too much and too harsh? You must beware of TW because all the dramas are around that: biphobia, sexual assault, revenge sextape, hypomanic episodes (bipolar II). And I honestly couldn't get attached to any of the characters because of that, because of what and how they did all of that.

There's also a lot of representation (lesbian, gay, trans, demigirl, non-binary, bi, asexual), and I'm usually 100% for that but maybe here it was too much? I never thought I'd once say there's too much representation in a book but sadly it is in a way it feels hard to believe: somehow almost the whole school is queer or questioning, otherwise there's only white straight cis boys (surprisingly we don't talk about straight cis girls, as there's a huge hate on white -only- straight cis boys, we don't talk about the girls). There's also a lot of mentions about the 2017 US elections (that got me out of the book everytime it was mentionned) and so obviously a lot of hate over Trump (well deserved to be honest but still), and suddenly there's this whole hate and fear of the white stray cis men since he was elected? Honestly it doesn't feel realistic that so much stuff from this book is put ON these elections.

And I also must say that it was very long, the 1st Act is basically an introduction to the story but it's almost half of the book, all of that to give us a deeper view of the synopsis but nothing new. The remaining 60% are that "after synopsis" and I still don't feel good about what we got because we "only" got "that". Honestly I was expecting way more stuff happening after the synopsis, more dramas, than what we got here.

That's my biggest review so far but I had to say what was good and what wasn't, because it was a hard read for me.

TRIGGER WARNING:
biphobia, bullying, bipolar II with hypomanic episodes, drug, rape (graphic), self-harm (graphic), and Trump can be a TW too.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't get into it. I know some people have a problem with the depiction of bi-phobia in the lesbian community, but it really wasn't that for me because I think that is an actual issue that needs to be addressed. I just couldn't get into it and found myself not caring about the characters enough to plow through. Something about the pacing and the framing of the story just didn't work for me.

𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧 is a queer retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. If you don’t know the themes of that play, let me fill you in on just a few - power, politics, and betrayal. Whalen takes these themes to a whole new level within the hallways of Augustus Magnet School.

Jude and Bronwyn are both running for student body president at Augustus High. It’s bad enough they are opposing one another on the ballot, but they are ex-best friends as well. Jude feels like Bronwyn betrayed the lesbian alliance, Bronwyn feels judged, and friends are taking sides.

If you enjoy dark academia, you’ll love all the back-stabbing, betrayals, and just the nastiness of it all. Although I could have done without the real-life politics, I appreciated the diversity of the characters - as sexual orientations and mental health disorders are represented. Most of the characters walk in the morally gray areas, but some dabble into the darker shadows.

**𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘋𝘔 𝘮𝘦.

Thank you to @suzyapprovedbooktours @laurenemilywrites and @boldstrokesbooks for a spot on tour and a gifted ebook.

Queer retelling of Julius Ceaser but in high school.

Calpurnia is a senior and as her finale thesis she chooses to research and analyze the events leading up to and surrounding an election for student body president her freshman year. The story is told through first person accounts, interviews, and journal entries from other students. I liked the way the book was laid out, it felt like you were getting a documentary view of the events.

This novel has a lot going on, broken out in to acts like a play, the first act is mostly background on the characters and their motivations leading up to the events in the book. Like the play it is based on, the story gets darker and more intense as it goes. I admit I have always been a bigger fan of Shakespeare's comedies.

Overall the book was well-written and engaging. I think if I had been in high school I would have enjoyed it more, but I would recommend it for late high school teenagers. With the addition of trigger warnings for sexual assault, self-harm, homophobia and biphobia.

I am a sucker for modern Shakespeare retellings. Especially when they follow the five act format. I really enjoyed the narrative choice here as an interview for a project (multi POV) with everyone involved in what happened to Jude Cunningham (Here our Julius Caesar).

One of my greatest pleasures as a reader is finding the title of the book within the text. It's like a reward. "Take her down" was probably in this book over 100 times. It was absolutely over the top. Did I enjoy it the first time? Yes. After the 10th time it became insufferable.

I absolutely cannot stand Donald Trump, but the author's rationality that all these events occurred specifically because he was elected and none of it would have happened if Hillary had won was a real stretch for me.

Overall this book was okay. It discussed very difficult topics, but I'm not sure if it did this well enough.

This is the first modern retelling I’ve read and I really enjoyed it! I’m grateful to Bookstagram for introducing me to the YA genre.

I typically enjoy books that take place in an academic setting and this one was really unique in that it was written as a student’s thesis. I appreciated the author’s take on so many issues that impact teens in our society. Take Her Down is the perfect title for this compelling and creative page turner and I highly recommend it.

I was very excited to read this but when checking for TWs in other reviews, I discovered that this book has a number of graphic TWs that I am not able to read at this time. I am submitting a review because you can’t retract an ARC request on netgalley and ARCs don’t include TWs (which I think is a huge oversight!) I’m marking 5 stars because I wouldn’t want to bring the rating down considering I haven’t read it!

Wow. I just finished this book, and wow. I feel like I need to go for a walk and clear my head!

Before I get into anything, know that this book is heavy. It covers self harm, mental illness, rape, revenge porn, bi-erasure and a whole bunch of other things. I am 100% not saying don’t read it, because it was amazing, but yeah. Be warned.

Whenever I think of the play Julius Caesar, I get tired. We had to study it for English one year, and it is the only book I have ever fallen asleep reading. Twice. So I can’t speak for how well the Shakespear retelling aspect went, but I did enjoy the format of this book. Despite being told from a number of points of view, it came together well, and I was invested in all the characters, which is impressive.

Written as a thesis-type paper by a student who is retelling a scandal that happened at their high school a few years earlier. It’s written as a series of interviews, interspersed with journal entries, speeches, and other rememberings. I wasn’t sure how this would work, being that there were a number of different voices, but the author did a really good job of it. Weare learning about something that has happened, and seeing it through a lens of hindsight, and while this is evident in parts, it’s not at all overwhelming or preachy.

I won’t go into plot detail, as I don’t want to spoil things. The original scandal took place just after the election of a certain reality TV star as President of the USA, and tracks the way this had an impact on teenagers. While the line "If the right person had been elected president of the United States, none of this bullshit would have happened” does occur, and did make me laugh, it’s about more than this. Author did an impressive job of not naming said President, so Kudos!

This book has a lot of rep. We have lesbians, we have gays, we have a trans demigirl, we have a list at the beginning which lets us know each characters pronouns. We have a male (yes!) with Bipolar, who is medicated, and a person with OCD. I think what drew me in was the take the author had on the toxicity of the LGBT+ community at times. As an omnisexual cis female, with a very close non-binary lesbian friend, the discussions about so called “gold star lesbians” and how toxic that mindset is actually is something we talk about a lot. Bi-erasure is real, and this book really digs into why people get so defensive and cliquey.

Honestly, I loved this book. The character growth was amazing, across all the characters. It was a little like a Nickelodeon show, where parents are just a set of legs, but to me, that gave it a feeling of genuineness - I sure as shit wasn’t talking to my parents about this stuff at that age, I thought I was well grown.

Content Warnings: a lot. Drinking, drugs, mental health, rape, revenge porn (kind of), Trump, bi-erasure, self harm, bullying, injury.

Overall Rating: 5 Stars

I really enjoyed this book: the format is unique and kept things interesting, the way the characters get swept up in what is going on around them seems very relatable, and the way it mirrors Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is really impressive. I admit that at times this story dragged, it took me a bit to get into. I also got frustrated because the ending felt unrealistic and with a lack of consequences. However the setting is spot on and the story telling is exceptional.