New Boy book review

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
Published by Hogarth on May 11, 2017
Pages: 188
Goodreads

From the New York Times bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring comes the fifth installment in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, a modern retelling of Othello set in a suburban schoolyard
Arriving at his fifth school in as many years, a diplomat's son, Osei Kokote, knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can't stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players - teachers and pupils alike - will never be the same again.
The tragedy of Othello is transposed to a 1970's suburban Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime, and practice a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers. Peeking over the shoulders of four 11 year olds Osei, Dee, Ian, and his reluctant girlfriend Mimi, Tracy Chevalier's powerful drama of friends torn apart by jealousy, bullying and betrayal will leave you reeling.

I read New Boy because it was the library book club book of the month and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It is a part of the Hogarth Shakespeare collection and each book is a fiction retelling of you guessed it a Shakespeare work. This one was based on Othello, one of which I have never read, and I am so glad that I didn’t before diving into this story. It was nice that I had no idea who the characters were supposed to be or what they were supposed to be representing. It almost felt as though it was a completely separate entity to Shakespeare which I definitely think that it is but it was nice to not have anything to compare it to or have the stigma that Shakespeare carries along with it. I’m not sure how it’s going to go for the rest of them because I have read and LOVE Hamlet so that will be an interesting read when I get to it.

So this retelling is based in an American middle school playground over the course of one day and we gt to meet the various different children that go to this school. The story focuses on the new boy, Osei and his blossoming friendship/relationship with Dee. What I will say is that the characters themselves were very interesting and I enjoyed learning about the different personalities and the way the society worked on the playground. Now for the slightly negative part, I couldn’t work out how old the kids were supposed to be, I’m British so the school system works differently than the USA but still based on their behaviour I couldn’t get my head around it. One minute they were playing jump rope and running around like kids and then the next they were getting embroiled in fully-fledged relationships, it just didn’t seem to sit right with me and the way the children acted.

I loved watching all the interactions throughout the playground and working out who was who and what their different roles were within the storyline. I didn’t expect for New Boy to have such a political storyline, and I think if I had read Othello it would have made much more sense. But I really loved watching them all deal with the consequences of their actions and how easy friendships are to break. I thought this book really highlighted this point and it was interesting to be looking in from the outside. Definitely one of my favourite parts.

For me and I’m not sure if this was dictated by the play or not but I thought that everything felt a little rushed. I would have loved to see the friendships develop over the course of a couple of days and learn more about each other. The way it currently stands everything felt a little more insta-love which is one of my pet peeves! I wanted to see them really get along and work out each other with time to spare rather than being pushed along at speed. My only problem with the book – it was too short for the story.

I would recommend New Boy, it managed to keep my attention and I really appreciated that. Not having read Othello it gave me an insight into the play without the difficult language and play format. I am looking forward to jumping into the next one in the series and see if this success follows on!

Are you a big fan of Shakespeare? Would this feel like a betrayal of the original or would you be excited? Let me know!