Lydia Payne

To be quite honest, I did not like this book's plot, but it brings up some topics and ideas which are compelling. While I understand that what they were doing is what the norm was for that era and time period, I simply cannot find a way to sympathize with the characters' impulsive actions. However, I did enjoy Shakespeare's deep dive into the idea that love can be the downfall of many, as it cannot be controlled or contained for very long. I credit the major success of this work to the fact that it is well-written, which serves to draw the attention away from the frustrating hell-hole of a plot which the storyline presents. It may be just that I knew it was coming and was being forced to read this by me English teacher, but the ending felt predictable to me, and at that point I still was not invested in the story, and never became so. I was left very disappointed after reading the "greatest love story of all time," as the love that they had was felt so, almost comedically, strongly that they were blind from any sort of reality or sense of what was right, even between themselves. Anyways, I don't recommend this unless you are either very, very bored or have a strange obsession with Shakespearean works. Also, there's the fact that the word 'death' and the verb 'to die' meant 'orgasm' in Elizabethan English, meaning that death and sex are always connected in the play. Sorry for screwing with your minds on that one, yeah.