Read This Book…

Imagine a stage with a trap door. Beneath the trap door is a dark room, and in that room you’ll find all of the dead women and girls in Shakespeare’s tragedies. They are silent and alone in their grief and misery, until one day, Juliet begins to speak and Ophelia, Cordelia, and Lavinia all listen. Once Juliet shares her story, the others begin to open up, too. And once they’ve shared their stories, they begin to talk to each other — and challenge the Bard.

This is a stunning book that you almost have to go into knowing very little about it, because I admit when I first picked it up, I thought, How is this going to work? But I promise, just go with the flow. It’s part prose, part play, and mostly verse, and McCullough is a real master in how she not only retells three plays from the women’s perspective, but in how she composes three very different poetic styles to match the characters of Juliet, Ophelia, and Cordelia. I loved seeing their personalities come to life on the page, and when they start talking with each other they explore some hefty questions about the role of women in the tragedies, women’s suffering, agency, and what it means to tell a good story. I truly didn’t know where the book was going to go from there, and it was surprising, funny, maddening, insightful, and even — at times — joyful.

If you’ve read or seen Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, and Titus Andronicus, you might be able to see the connections and understand the references a bit more easily, but I don’t think it’s strictly necessary to enjoy this book. Shakespeare has permeated so many layers of our popular culture, and this book really stands on its own. It’s easily one of my favorites that I’ve in 2023 so far!