Member Reviews
i have to add this to my dnf just because of some of the triggering content: I loved parts of this book but others,,, not so much
DNF at 64%.
This was such a slog for me to get to that 64% mark, I just couldn’t carry on any further.
There are so many different POVs in this, it could be confusing to some readers. This also means that the same topics get brought up multiples and the timeline doesn’t flow well in parts.
DNF at 42%
Thank you to Bold Stokes Books and NetGalley for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Before I get into my review, the reason why I DNF'd: an entire chapter was essentially dedicated to referencing Harry Potter. It didn't even add anything relevant to the story. Instant pass.
This book was one of my most anticipated of the year. A sapphic Julius Caesar retelling? I mean, sign me up! Especially since I really enjoyed the author's previous Shakespeare retelling, Two Winters (A Winter's Tale).
But this book was just a complete and utter failure. The story was set during the Trump election era, yet was set at a school reminiscent of the school in Faking It - where it is shameful to not be gay, trans, etc. - which confused the atmosphere. It leaned so heavily on both the Trump era and this school culture to reason out every single plot point, but their competing qualities just completely cancelled out the stakes. Like we're supposed to believe that you were scared to go to school after the Trump election when your school is mostly queer and non-men? As a queer and Jewish person who went to school in the Christian South that day, I could just not get behind this. Yet despite this school's so-called "progressive" culture, it was wildly biphobic, lesbophobic, and generally toxic. The setting felt specially designed to be as oppressive to bisexual characters, which is appalling considering the dedication is to the bisexual readers.
The JC character is a lesbian who bullies the Brutus character for "cheating on her identity" when she dates a boy. Yet the JC character isn't even a lesbian herself, apparently having had crushes on boys, and so the Brutus character decides to try to out her as bisexual by catfishing her as a boy. This book also contains a lot of rhetoric that seems to imply that young people nowadays don't use the word "lesbian," which felt a little too close to some TERF rhetoric I've seen on the internet for comfort.
The writing seemed to be INCREDIBLY hesitant and insecure. Plot points and backstories were reiterated time and time again, almost as if in fear that the audience had already forgotten everything that had happened. It caused the story to drag, the already non-existent stakes to drop, and the characters to feel exhaustive.
I can't emphasize how disappointed I was by this read, especially because it was something I had genuinely been looking forward to for quite some time. Julius Caesar deserves better. Queer people deserve better.
CWs so far: mental health, anxiety, biphobia, bullying, sexual content (implied), f-slur (used to refer to oneself), alcoholism (mention), drug use (mention), underage drinking (brief), parental abandonment, potential outing, takes place during Trump era and discussed often.
what an amazing premise, queer retelling of shakespeare's julius caesar. i think this novel was good, but definitely needed something to bring it to a higher level. some more character development, some editing towards the beginner to fasten the speed of the novel and this would elevate it as a whole. overall i enjoyed this read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! I was so excited to read this novel! A queer Julius Caesar retelling? Yes, please! And look at that pretty cover! It ended up being so much more than I expected (in so many ways). I finished the book with mixed feelings, but I do think it will appeal to teenage readers. It has some powerful messages, which I also appreciated.
The story is told through a high school senior’s thesis. When she was a freshman, in 2017, Calpurnia’s school had an absolutely wild election for student body president. Two queer ex-BFFs ran against each other in a vicious race. There was drama, betrayal, and dire consequences for the parties involved. Cal tells the story of that year over five acts through interviews and journal entries from the other students. The first act is almost half of the book, giving you a ton of background information on all of the characters and their motivations leading up to a major incident. The other four acts show various characters’ reactions and all of the chaos that followed.
There is a lot going on in this novel. There’s a group of three people on one side of the election, two teens on the opposing side, three outsiders who get involved, and of course, the narrator. To Whalen’s credit, she does a great job of giving everyone distinct personalities. I found it easy to keep track of the characters, which was essential for this complex of a story.
The characters themselves are all morally grey. I liked how they each had unique backgrounds. The author included so much representation— there’s a bi character, a lesbian, a character who identifies as a demigirl (they were my favorite!), and more. There is diversity in race, and many characters are struggling with various mental health disorders. Everyone is fleshed out, but their tones could have been further developed. The perspective shifts quite a bit (since there are lots of interviews and pieces of media thrown in), and the voices were often too similar.
The author delivers well on the promise of a Shakespeare retelling. I haven’t seen or read Julius Caesar since high school, so I’m not the best authority on this, but there were a bunch of parallels to the source material. Many Shakespearean themes are present in this book, such as nightmares, foreshadowing, betrayal, moral ambiguity, chaos and disaster, and more. However, I think the author could have still followed those themes while developing the novel into her own a little more. I had some issues with the book, and many of them had to do with the pace. I’d argue this might have been a result of the novel trying to follow the pacing of a play.
As I said, the first half is mostly background information and building up to the main event. It’s pretty slow, with a bunch of repetition. This is a common issue in books with many perspectives, but so many times, something would happen and we’d have to read the same exact description of it from three different characters. There’s gotta be a better way to describe how each character handled something without repeating the same minor details over and over. The slow pace stands out even more when you compare it with the second half, which is almost too fast.
In the second half, things get much darker (this also tracks with the Shakespeare retelling). I was surprised by this, because the situations are so grim. The characters all do bad things, and for YA, it is dark (please check trigger warnings before reading this book!). I would have been fine with that, but the pace was so fast that it felt like we were getting hit with bad thing after bad thing after bad thing with little time to absorb each incident. That might work for a play, but in a novel, there is so much more room to expand on ideas and fully explore them. I wish there was more time spent on each incident, as well as more explanation of how different characters dealt with the ramifications.
The writing is good— the words flowed together well, so it was easy to read. The concept of telling this story as a thesis was cool, but I did wish Cal analyzed things or added her own thoughts a little more. Sometimes I was a tad confused about minor plot points, which could have been because there were so many perspectives.
This review is getting way too long, and I still haven’t quite described all of my mixed feelings. In sum: Take Her Down is a book with many moving parts. Some parts of it worked for me, while other parts didn’t. The messages do stand out. The story truly made me stop and remember the climate of 2017 as a queer woman. It was scary, and this novel is an excellent example of how it might have affected high schoolers. It doesn’t shy away from discussing difficult subjects, like sexual assault, homophobia and biphobia, hypomania, parental abandonment, and more. I’m grateful for that, though I would argue sometimes the messages were heavy-handed. The author tried to tackle so many subjects. It worked, but maybe it could have worked even better with 30% of those topics cut, so the rest could have been delved into deeper.
I imagine teens will appreciate the drama, the fast pace in the second half, and the messages of this novel. I sure wish I had a book during high school that told me it was okay to evolve and process your sexuality over time. So, I recommend this for older teenagers. I think I’m a little too old (in my mid-20s haha) to appreciate some of the YA elements.
3 out of 5 stars.
This is the end of year assignment of a student, and she decided to explain her teacher the story behind the election for student body president gone wrong 4 years ago. Therefore, she interviewed old students and used recordings of this time to present the facts under several point of views. The story also takes place after the presidential vote of 2017 and we get the reactions of the students and their fears.
Lauren Emily Whalen can write teenager drama, the need to belong, the wrong decisions and the guilt. She also made a nice work at letting you guess pretty far in the book. Though the LGBTQ+ representation is really high in this school, do they respect the choices of others better than anywhere else? This book shows how no matter how open minded and respectful we think we are, everyone is biased.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for providing me with an audio-ARC in exchange for my honest review.*
Book description: “In this queer YA retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar…”
Me: YES!
I was pleasantly surprised at how Take Her Down was written; the story is broken into 5 acts, like you’re actually reading a Shakespearean play. That made this story even more unique! I also loved the diversity and inclusiveness.
Overall, a wonderful read and would recommend it to anyone!
This story is broken into 5 acts, and for a Shakespeare retelling, I thought that was a really cool detail! There are multiple viewpoints that help to tell the story, and this a great way to help the reader understand what is happening. I liked the YA twist on the Julius Caesar story. It was fun and messy, and just right! There is fantastic diversity in this one. I thought the author did a great job bringing the characters to life!
I love a good Shekspeare retelling, so the second my eyes lied on Julius Ceaser and queer, I knew I had to read it right away. It does contain some sensitive material, so make sure to check tw’s before reading.
Dividing the book into acts, each starting with a Julius Ceaser quote was certainly a nice touch. As for the plot itself, in the end, I wasn’t quite sure what to think. My expectations for YA are admittedly different (not lower) than for adult/new adult books, but I still found myself underwhelmed. What mainly bothered me is how removed from reality some of the characters are, not facing any consequences of their actions. While I understand a happy ending was appropriate here, I feel it’d add to the intrigue if there were any real stakes here.
I read Whalen’s TWO WINTERS last year which stayed with me long after the last page and this book has had that same effect.
This is a cleverly crafted YA modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar.
Instead of Rome our setting is Augustus Magnet High School somewhere in the Chicago suburbs.
Two former best friends, Jude and Bronwyn are both vying for the position of class president. Bronwyn along with her cousin, Cass, and boyfriend, Porter, devise a plan to take Jude down.
Bronwyn and company think they have won, but at what cost to both Jude, themselves, and others?
I love the way this book is told by the narrator, Calpurnia, who is writing this as her AP Senior English project. She was a first year at the time of the “incident” and writes this using interviews and writings from the parties involved who have now gone off to college.
This book is very timely. It discusses the US political climate in 2017 and how that election impacted so many groups of young people definitely more than I realized.
This book deals with a lot of other hot topics in our culture today. Gender identity, mental health, and assault are all spotlighted during this read.
Whalen has turned Shakespeare’s play into a something unique that everyone should read. This book also has well defined and complex characters with 21st century issues that I think many people can identify with at some level.
I think what drew me to this book is that there is nothing else like it. A queer retelling of Julius Caesar can’t be found on any bookshelves and I love that the author thought of something so unique. It took me a little bit to adjust to the writing style, but eventually I hated the main antagonist just as much as the author wanted me to. It was a fairly quick read but kept me interested throughout the whole thing. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for something they haven’t read anything like
A queer Julius Caesar retelling? Told in the format of a student thesis? With clever twists on the original names for the characters? Alright, I’m interested.
First things first, the positives of this book. It has lots of representation, from sexuality to gender to mental illness. It talks about questioning sexuality, thinking you're one thing then life turns that on it’s head for you. I think this will mean a lot for young people still coming to terms with themselves. Knowing it’s okay to not know and it’s okay to change your labels if the old ones don’t suit you anymore.
The cover is BEAUTIFUL. That’s what really drew me in first.
Now for the not so good stuff. It’s split into acts, like the original Julius Caesar play is (a good thing!). However, the first act of this book is an introduction. It is way too long (exactly 45% of the book, according to Kindle) and way too repetitive. I get that Bronwyn has a boyfriend now. I get that Porter is bipolar. I get that Cass is questioning herself and is a cheerleader. I get that Hillary lost the election (why I had to read that 100 times in the year 2022 is beyond me). I get that Jude is biphobic. I don’t need to be told these things over and over again for the entire first half of the book. I almost stopped reading because I didn’t want to read any of these things AGAIN.
Also, and I know this might sound crazy, but there’s too much representation in this book. It’s doing too much, and not providing good representation for everyone it’s trying to. Not everyone HAS to be queer.
Also the mean biphobic lesbian trope never sits well with me. Could’ve done without that for sure.
Overall, this book had such a promising premise but it didn’t really hit the mark for me. Perhaps a younger audience will do better with it. Though this book does turn very dark once you get by the first half so be sure to check the trigger warnings if you’re going to read this. There were some parts of this book that I really liked, and all of them were after that first 45%. I just wish the acts had been more evenly spaced so the story had a real chance to grow and thrive.
After reading Two Winters, I knew I'd enjoy this book! Another modern Shakespeare retelling, but Julius Caesar this time! Another one that I have no real previous experience with. But I really enjoyed this! Broken down into 5 acts and told in a unique way, complete with modern issues that we all face. If you enjoy Shakespeare retellings, definitely check this author out!
i honestly don’t really know what i thought of this book. there were moments i loved, and moments i disliked.
firstly, trigger warnings:
moderate biphobia, alcohol, sexual content
graphic sexual assault, manic episodes, mental illness, self harm
okay, let’s get started. i LOVE a shakespeare retelling, and i loved the way that this was split into five acts and included quotes from Julius Caesar at the start of each act. i also really liked the multiple POVs in this book and the short chapters in which they were included. it was great to be able to understand the plot from every main character’s perspective in an attempt to comprehend their behaviours. the plot twists, while brutal and awful, were unexpected and created a really interesting shift in the story. i also ADORED the nonbinary representation, with one of the main characters identifying as a demigirl and using she/they pronouns. having characters that identify outside of the binary gender spectrum makes me feel incredibly seen and having the characters use Antonia’s they/them pronouns as well was very validating. finally, i thoroughly enjoyed having the #MeToo Movement embedded into this story; it was done seamlessly and extremely well.
at times, i felt as though this book was trying too hard to be modern and progressive. the unrelenting comments about the US President, while important, often did not relate to the actual plot. also the main characters did not really face any legal consequences for their actions (which were incredibly toxic, harmful, and exploitative). i understood, and even liked, that this story was meant to have a happy ending, however the lack of consequence felt almost unrealistic.
so, that’s where i stand. in the middle, i suppose. and thus, i give this 3 stars.
Wow…Very complicated feelings about this book! Love all the queer rep and the modern take on Julius Caesar. Setting it as a student thesis was an interesting format for it to be written in and as a whole it is really well written, almost surprisingly so given high school setting, the very casual, modern dialogue style, and the almost flippant vibe of the first half…but it really goes deep and has a lot of emotional breadth, especially in the second half of the story. It does meander a bit in some places, but man, talk about bringing up some seriously visceral feelings with all the commentary on the 2016 presidential election.
And oof…the parts towards the end about what happened with Jude…those were emotionally really hard to read, to the point that I almost didn’t know if I could finish the book. But I did and I think it was wrapped up well, no "happy" endings here but I felt satisfied by how everything concluded. This is definitely one of those books that stays with you and gives you a lot to think about and process after reading.
A queer YA retelling of Julius Caesar. I am generally a big fan of classic retellings. In this case, although the writing was engaging and the book well-paced and sensational, I found some of the tropes off-putting. I thought the portrayal of mental illness was stigmatizing and wouldn't recommend it for that reason. It's an interesting concept--a Julius Caesar retelling told as a school election against the backdrop of the 2016 US election. And the multiple POV format makes it engaging and a quick read. Older readers may well enjoy it, but it is very dark, and all readers would do well to read a list of trigger warnings before diving in.
Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of this book!
The cover is beautiful omg! I overall enjoyed this book but it was a lot darker then I initially thought. It felt a little repetitive at times but I really loved reading it!
Take Her Down is a queer Julius Caesar retelling and does manage to follow a lot of the beats that the original play did in a new way. The book is divided into five acts much like the play. All the characters a cheekily named in a way that nods to the original character. There is a ton of representation in this book. The way this author talks about what it is like to consider yourself as queer but be in a relationship with someone who is straight felt very real. The discussion of bisexuality was done very well.
I think this book would be very important to any high schooler who is dealing with their sexuality and isn’t really sure where they land. There is a bit of homophobia and biphobia (?) in this book, but for the most part, the high school in this book is very progressive and welcoming to whatever identity the student relates to.
This book also got very dark towards the end, which makes sense considering the source material. I just wasn’t expecting it. There are a lot of content warnings for this book. I’ll put the ones that stuck out to me at the bottom of my review but be aware if there are things that trigger you.
While I am not the target audience for this book, I can normally get past that and enjoy a book for what it is. However, the first “act” of this book that set up all the characters and relationships felt so long. The first act is nearly the entire first half of the book. I would have liked it more if the acts were divided more evenly and we could really explore what happens after everything happens. There were a few times that I was close to just putting this book down. At the end, I’m glad I didn’t but it was a struggle.
I can see how this book would be really important to someone in high school, in particular someone who is struggling with identity. But this isn’t really a YA book that can be enjoyed across all ages.
CW: sexual assault/rape, bullying, teenage drinking, bipolar/manic struggles
I'm so thankful for the author and her team, however, I could not relate to the style of writing and so I was left unconnected. I did not get anything happening and felt like the book wanted to include every one and everything . I'm glad that ppl liked it tho.
The cover and the description of this book are what caused me to request this arc. Now I’ve finished it, I can say that it definitely didn’t disappoint!
It’s well written with an excellent narrative, good character development and an interesting plot. It was so gripping that I ended up reading it all in less than a day. I was also here for all the drama, sometimes I didn’t really know what was happening, but I carried on to see how the characters would resolve their problems and it ended up being a good, engaging read!
There’s also an excellent cast of diverse characters with representation all over the LGBTQIA+ community, and quite a few PoC characters! Overall, I think that it’s definitely worth a read if, like me, you enjoy Shakespeare retellings!
Important note: Please check the trigger warnings before you read this book because it contains quite a bit of triggering material including:
-self harm
-biphobia
-sexual assault
-underage drinking and drug use
Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐️