This was a wonderful young adult book about a girl who struggles with the pressure of doing it all in high school. She wanted to earn valedictorian but also run a play and find a girlfriend. So great to see LGBTQ characters in young adult books!!

This book could have been great if it was just put in the right genre. This is said its supposed to be a young adult fiction book but it feels so childish. Everything about this book was much to young for its target audience. Yes, the characters are technically in high school but is it.
Also let's address the character of Ben. Being in the closet is not an excuse for being a misogynistic jerk! The main character just excused his behavior once she found out he was in the closet. It was absolutely infuriating. It also just added to how juvenile the book was.
If this book had been set as a middle grade book I think it would have been great. If all of this had been set in a middle school or maybe to a freshman then so much more of this would have been believed but with the way it was marketed it just didn't work at all.

I was really excited for this book for the representation, plot tropes, Shakespeare content, etc. The audio narrator was very strong, but unfortunately, I had a hard time investing in the actual "voice" of the narration. It didn't feel like a teen to me, and therefore it made it challenging to love this book. Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press Audio for the opportunity to read this story, but unfortunately, it wasn't for me.

I didn’t love this book. Allison ‘s character was so driven for academic success and being valedictorian, but then it felt like she completely changed when she was working on the play.

I did appreciate that the book had reflections of the play in things like a love triangle, general chaos and comedy.

One thing that is hard to look past is the pressure to come out publicly. I thought that wasn’t handled very well, and it definitely took away from the story.

The narrator was good, though it took me a while to get used to her voice.

I thought the audiobook aspect of this book was really good. There were a few moments when I didn't love the voices that the reader, Rebecca Auerbach, did, but she did voices and it was easy to distinguish who was talking.

As for the story itself, that's where the three stars comes in. I liked it, it was fine, but it seemed that Alison just kept getting into one moral/social/academic dilemma after another after another after another. Wow, and another one. There were a lot of lessons in this book, like maybe 500. Too much happened and it all happened very fast and most things resolved easily before the next crisis and some were forgotten about.

Then some things were just weird; why did the whole cast wear unitards? Where did they come from, or where did the money for them come from? That was a strange moment that never came up again and wasn't explained and didn't hold relevance to the story other than maybe being an excuse for the gay side character to still be in the bathroom. And the theater mafia, what was up with that? Was the point just to stress the low budget of the production, just to be another problem for Alison that was largely glossed over? If adults are making threatening phone calls to children some action should be taken! But nothing was really done about it.

As I said, it was a fine book, it was seven+ hours of decent entertainment but it isn't making my favorites list.

Ok so the plot is cute and all and maybe the protagonist’s actions would make sense to another teenager but I just can’t handle her behavior anymore. I’m giving up at 85% because I AM PHYSICALLY UNCOMFORTABLE. THAT IS THE LEVEL OF ANXIETY THIS GIRL’S SELF ORCHESTRATED MESSES ARE CAUSING ME.

I won’t go into too much detail because I suspect there’s some stuff going on with my mental health right now that’s causing me to judge the main character more harshly than I otherwise would, but she really comes off not as just a graduating high schooler with a lot to juggle but instead as a brainless, self absorbed ultra Type A brat.

The last straw that caused me to put down my headphones and walk away was that, after getting together with the girl she’s been crushing on and making every possible misstep it’s possible to make, she’s now irrationally angry that this girl....has more free time than her?? And wants to FaceTime her??? And is about to make a SPECTACULAR ASS of herself to said crush about it????

Annnnnd I’m out.

I really liked the narrator, for what it’s worth. I’m pretty sure she’s the only reason I liked the protagonist as much as I did.

<b> 3.5/5 Stars</b>

<i>What I liked:</i>

- The representation. Lesbian main character. Pan love interest (something I particularly appreciated because books have a tendency to not differentiate between bi and pan). Additionally there was a diverse cast of side characters

-The main characters struggles with being out, but not necessarily wanting to actively come out to her entire school. This was definitely something that I related too. I spent years telling myself that the reason that I wasn’t actively out at school was because it never came up in conversations or that I just didn’t want to make a big deal about it. So I defined related to that struggle that the character has.

-The book was fun and fast paced.


<i>What didn’t work for me: </i>

-The book felt really rushed at times, especially near the end.

-The fundraising plot line was just dropped. It didn’t seem like there was sufficient closure.


<b> Overall, I did enjoy the book and would recommend it </b>

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced listener copy in exchange for a review.

Alison is aiming to be Valedictorian so, in order to score points with a teacher, agrees to produce the high school play, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the process, she has to come out to her larger group of friends, has a fight with her best friend, then another fight with her sister, falls in love, and enters her first relationship with one of the coolest girls in school.

I loved this audiobook. I was a bit weary at first because it is high school and, as Alison is awkward in the way all teenagers are but probably mostly the way I was at her age, I was afraid of the second-hand embarrassment. I am incapable of seeing someone get embarrassed, wether it is in real life, on television, or in my head. I shouldn’t have worried, because something about the compassion in Jansen’s writing softened the cringe factor. The characters Alison pulls together to be the cast and crew are interesting in all the complexities that make them misfits: the Korean actor who always dreamed of a leading role but wasn’t cast because of his appearance, the artist hiding her sensitivity behind a goth look, the openly gay kid with a closeted boyfriend, the misogynistic jerk who has real acting talent, and even the misguided but passionate drama teacher who takes himself much too seriously. Getting to know these characters and seeing beneath their image was fun and sometimes moving.

As a recovering Shakespearean scholar, I liked the nod to the conversations about cultural appropriation happening in academia with the director’s clueless and insensitive suggestions to create “exoticism”, and the way the ideas he thought were so original and fresh were basically every production of this play since the second half of the twentieth century. I also found the personalization of the red binder (the book with all the instructions on how to produce a play that Alison mentally agrees with) very amusing. As someone who tends to convince myself that inanimate objects are fighting me, I felt a indeed spirit in Alison.

I don’t think you need a familiarity with Shakespeare or with theatre to enjoy this book, but it may add to your enjoyment. I miss theatre so much after a year without it that the ending brought tears to my eyes. Despite the title, it was a very uplifting book.

Auerbach’s narration is light, lively, and she genuinely sounds like a teenager, which is great.

Thank you to NetGalley and EWC Press for the digital ARC of this book.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t for me. In general the story was interesting, but I had a hard time connecting with the narrator, so it was a DNF for me. She sounded too young for the age group, and too whiny for the story. I think the story was also more Middle Grade than YA.

3.5 Stars

Thank you to Netgalley and ECW Press Audio for an alc of this book.
Content Warnings at end of review.

Alison is recruited to produce her school's play of Midsummer Night's Dream, and hopes that it will help her win her ultimate goal of becoming valedictorian. Along the way, basically everything that could go wrong does, and Alison will have to learn not to be so much of a perfectionist if she wants to keep her friends and her sanity.

This book was pretty cute and fairly interesting. There were definitely some funny parts that had me laughing, and I loved that the setting was a high school play. I didn't really like the main character because I felt like she was just...too much. What I mean by that is there wasn't a lot of subtlety in her personality and she basically was an overactive caricature of a straight-A student. This was also a problem I had with some of the other characters, who all kind of just felt like one thing, or a stereotype, and didn't really have fully-fledged personalities.

I definitely would have liked this more if it had more character development, but I liked the diversity and thought that some good lessons were learned!

Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying and Homophobia

I heard the audiobook of The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life, and Rebecca Auerbach did a fantastic job narrating and getting all the sarcasm. I was originally intrigued by this book because I'm looking for comp titles for my own young adult-theater-romance-LGBTQ+ book.

In my opinion, we need more young adult books like this one. It might've read a little younger than senior year but it was wholesome, it contained the dramatics of high school, and it navigated friendships and relationships and awkwardness well. It was an easy read and not too complicated.

With that however, I think some characters could've been fleshed out more and shown on the page more. I just finished another book where the love interest doesn't say what they're thinking/feeling and that gets addressed, and I think that needed to happen with Charlotte in this book. I think their relationship could've been developed a bit more, but again, when you think on high school relationships, maybe it's accurate and we're expecting to much :P

Alison was relatable to me because I also kept school and extracurriculars my priority, leaving little time for anything else. Mr. Evans was great, though I didn't love the plot with the competing theater....there were a few things in this story I could've done without, and I think the LGBTQ+ rep could've been handled a little better, and some subplots could've been developed more, but overall it was a good read.

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life was released in paperback and Kindle in 2020, but I’d like to thank NetGalley and ECW Press Audio for the opportunity to listen to the advance copy audiobook.

I expect I would have enjoyed the print version as well, but I LOVED this narrator. Rebecca Auerbach convinced me that she was a teenage girl, and a male teacher, and everyone in between! I shall definitely be looking for more of her work.

Alison Green is a high school senior who agrees to co-produce her school production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” because she thinks it will help her become valedictorian.

As a bit of an actress myself, and the mother of a musical theatre major (who played Theseus/Oberon in her senior year), I really appreciated all of the theatre bits. Just the idea that someone with no previous theatrical experience would produce and stage manage a play was amusing. I think that readers who participate in theatre would really enjoy this book.

Did I mention that Alison is gay? Her family and best friend know, but does that mean she’s really out? Does her crush know? Apparently not everyone knows—her oldest friend Jack has asked her out on a date!

From leading rehearsal warm-ups for the first time to running into her parents while on a first date, Alison’s senior year is a wild ride.

The audiobook narration was fantastic. Wonderful performance that kept me interested and entertained.

I thought this was a really cute coming-of-age, coming out story for high schoolers. For the most part it was pretty predictable and stress free. The characters were fun to get to know and they felt real and three dimensional. Overall this was a cute and sweet book without heaviness or anxiety about what would happen. A few funny parts too!

Would recommend to middle grade readers and young high schoolers.

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is so much more than a teen high school drama. It will make you smile. It will make you think. And at the end, you will miss all the characters who, somehow, became your friends. You might even want to try out for a play! Highly recommend!!

Alison's biggest goal is to become Valedictorian and she will do anything for it, including producing the school play. Along the way she finds many personal and academic challenges thay she will have to learn to deal with if she wants to achieve her goals.

This was a very cute coming of age book that teaches you not only to accept yourself but accept life for what it is and adapt at what's thrown at you. It has LGBT+ representation and I loved how it was pointed out that not everyone in the community has the same experience. I wish we had more time to dive into the characters personalities and their dynamics, but I enjoyed it very much.

Also I listened to the audiobook and I was pleasantly surprised to hear the acknowledgements being read. That's the one thing I dislike of audiobooks, how that's always left out, and I was very happy to see that wasn't the case in this one.

Advance copy of the audiobook received thanks to NetGalley and Second Story Press.

This book focused on Allison, a senior in high school who faces a year of heavy change and increasing responsibility, with producing her school play, navigating friend drama, getting ready for college, and coming out and dating her first girlfriend.

Rebecca Auerbach did a fantastic job reading the audiobook overall, and had a great tone and cadence across the course of the book. Would absolutely listen to another book narrated by her.

This book was advertised towards a YA audience, but I honestly think it would serve better being marketed down to middle grade audiences. Though I know I'm starting to get a little older than the target YA audience now, I still enjoy reading them on occasion, and still even thought this one might be a little immature for a teen to early 20-something audience. It's overall not a horrible story, but the conflicts are fairly simple and the protagonists are maybe a bit unrelatable to an older high school reader. This book wasn't bad, but I think I would point it out to a 11-15 year old audience rather than a 15-20 year old audience.

The only thing I liked about this book was the lgbtq+ representation. That being said, I am definitely not the target audience for this book. This is said to be a young adult book but I think it would definitely hit home with older middle schoolers/young high schoolers. Everything was just very stereotypical and almost a bit cringe. I could see some younger readers really identifying with this and the high school drama but that just wasn't my experience.

Thank you NetGalley and ECW Press Audio for an advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is an LGBTQIA YA romance novel that centered about an overachieving senior high school student, Alison. Her biggest goal is to be named valedictorian, and she's focused everything she has on her grades and extracurriculars to achieve it. The running for valedictorian is tight, which is why she agrees to produce the school play, even though she has no background with the drama club. It helps that Alison's crush Charlotte is in the play.

I really enjoyed this cute read, which is a good option if you're looking for a fun and low pressure storyline. While Alison has some flaws and makes some poor decisions along the way, she is someone you want to root for and hope she learns along the way.

I listened to this book on audio and thought the narrator did a good job of matching the tone of the novel and the main character.

This book is a fun and easy read. Even though this book is marketed as YA, I personally think that it should be middle grade. The plot was about 16-18-year-olds but it read more like late middle school early high school.

I enjoyed most of the characters, but Allison annoyed me a lot of the time. Her actions made no logical sense and she regularly disregarded and hurt her friends/family and then got mad when they wouldn't forgive her. Even the f/f romance that I was excited for barely made an impact on me. Their first date was cute but then Allison acted strangely and made both her date and her sister upset.

I appreciated aspects of the queer rep, but there was way too much of a focus on 'being out'. Every queer character in this book who wasn't fully out was constantly pressured to come out, to be more out—and everyone else was just fine with it. It was really strange and I was uncomfortable with how it was handled.

The ending was disappointing. A lot of the side plots were basically ignored and never wrapped up, and the ending felt out of place. I was really excited about this story but it just fell flat for me. I liked the side characters a whole lot more than the main character, the conflicts felt forced, and there were a lot of fake woke moments that interrupted the natural flow of the story and didn't really add anything.

From the moment I saw the cover, I wanted to read this book. As a big Queer Shakespeare nerd who loves stories of misfits and weirdos, the summary sounded right up my alley and I am so pleased to have been so right. At its heart it’s about Alison learning to be more comfortable in her own skin, to be more comfortable being fully out while also balancing her expectations for herself and learning that not everything is so simple, and finding the joy in complicated messes. I loved the weird cast of characters. I got invested in the whole gang, from Jenny the goth set designer to Ben who has more to him than meets the eye and of course their delightfully bonkers theater teacher/director. There was real love and life between Alison and her friends and family and I really enjoyed the whole wild ride. I like that the author really embraced the play being this big disaster and that that was part of the charm. It was sweet and endearing and definitely won me over.
I think Rebecca Auerbach was perfectly cast for the voice of Alison. She does a good job at capturing the youthful energy of the book but also the eagerness of the character. Alison is very much a full-speed-ahead eager beaver and Rebecca embodies that perfectly. She also does a good job at differentiating between the various different characters so I could always tell what is speaking. Rebecca had good delivery and just the right amount of gumption and spunk. She did a great job at fitting the mood of the voice of Alison whether it was harried or giddy and tongue-tied with a crush or worried and sad. I’ve listened to an audiobook with Auerbach before but I appreciated how differently she pitches her performances to fit the books she’s reading. It’s the details that matter. The production quality was good and I really enjoyed it as an audiobook. I have ADHD so it’s a lot easier for me to process stories through audio and I was very grateful to have been granted access to this advanced listener’s copy. It really is a delightful and fun book that was well-executed.
I basically inhaled this audiobook in a single day and had a very good time doing so and look forward to recommending it to my friends!