The setting is a small liberal arts college where students are so heavily steeped in their "art" that they lose sight of what's the play and what's real life. As the title suggests, these "normal" young people become villains of Shakespeare proportions with dire consequences for all, especially our hero Oliver.
These are stock characters, but very well drawn ones. The "mystery" at the heart of the novel is fairly easily guessed, but still compelling and creepy. Each player's response to the horrible, grisly death is also fairly standard, but again, pretty well written. There are some truly beautiful details and atmosphere. Sadly, Rio relies too heavily on Shakespeare's actual text and the book slows to a crawl in these instances. The heavy handed use of Shakespeare characters and words to further the story left me thinking--why am I reading this and not the original source material?
I suspect that for students of Shakespeare--and I will admit, I am not at all well versed in this area--might find the book more compelling and enjoyable. Then again, I suspect they could just as easily find the book lacking in heft and feeling outside the Shakespeare parts. I don't mind using the Bard's representations of the human experience to infuse an added layer of emotion in a modern setting. 'The Weird Sisters' by Eleanore Brown did this very well. Here, I just kept thinking, I should really read some Shakespeare this summer (and I will). I simply didn't care enough about the characters as much as the parts they were playing.
I hope that Rio breaks out of the shadow of Shakespeare because I believe there is real potential for a beautiful, emotionally complex, and satisfying novel in the writing. In this case, it is good, but not good enough.
Recommended by Cynthia Lambert.
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