I love a good retelling. Love love love, and, I am especially fond of a good Shakespeare retelling. Have been, in fact since I first watched 10 Things I Hate About You about 20 years ago and wow I hate working that stuff out because it makes me feel old.




Anyhow. Hogarth have a Shakespeare series wherein famous writer type peeps pick one of his plays and put a new spin on it, so you’ve got Margaret Atwood doing The Tempest and Anne Tyler doing The Taming of the Shrew and, the one I am going to chat about now which is Tracy Chevalier (The Girl With the Pearl Earring) doing Othello.

WHAT FUN.


If you’re unfamiliar, Othello is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. I shall give you a VERY QUICK rundown of what it’s about. In a nutshell it is thus: there’s this dude, Iago, who’s annoyed because his commanding officer – Othello – has passed him over for promotion and given the job to a soldier with no experience – Cassio - and this other dude, Roderigo who’s found out Othello has secretly married the woman he’s in love with (Desdemona). They’re both a bit bitter. Iago in particular is harbouring a boat load of resentment as he also thinks Othello has been having an affair with his wife, mostly though he just really wanted that promotion and he’s reals angry at Othello and Cassio for taking it away from him. He makes sure Desdemona’s Dad finds out about the secret marriage through Roderigo, and then tries to bring Cassio down whilst he pretends to be loyal to Othello. He’s not loyal, at all. He spends pretty much the whole play trying to make Cassio look bad and lying to Othello, even telling him that Cassio’s been sleeping with Desdemona which is obvs a lie but hey this is a Shakespeare tragedy and people are stupid. Seriously, so many stupid characters in Shakespeare’s plays. Eventually, after all the shenanigans, and thanks to Iago’s plotting, Othello demotes Cassio, promotes Iago and kills Desdemona.
Holy overreaction, batman.

Also super regrettable because in the end Othello obviously finds out none of it was true, hunts down Iago for a fight (but doesn’t kill him) and eventually kills himself for optimum dramatic effect.


Oh Will, how we love you. Although actually I think this play’s a bit nuts because who kills their wife over a hanky? But then, aren’t all of Shakespeare’s plays a bit nuts….
So that’s that – basically.

Tracy’s book is called New Boy and it’s a retelling of Othello set in a school, with a cast of 11 year olds, and mostly, I liked it. I wondered how it would work because Othello is intense and I wasn’t sure how that would transpose to a schoolyard setting but actually if you think about it, it’s kind of genius, particularly the whole Iago/Cassius/Othello dynamic because let’s be honest, in the original play it’s pretty much just Iago spreading rumours to try and make Othello fall out with Cassis and if that’s not schoolyard politics then I don’t know what is.

Anyhow. I was intrigued.


In New Boy, Othello becomes ‘O’ the son of a Ghanian diplomat and the new boy of the title; Desdemona is ‘Dee’, schoolyard princess and Iago is ‘Ian’ the schoolyard bully.
The action takes place over one school day which is actually really clever because things are SO INTENSE when you’re 11, a day feels like a lifetime and you can fall in and out of love by lunchtime, and then in a neat twist, Chevalier approaches the story not from the traditional standpoints of passion and revenge and DEATH, but from what it feels like to be on the outside – there’s a theme running through this book of being an outsider, each viewpoint is that of being on the outside looking in and wanting to find a place and it’s really cool because you have sympathies towards the characters that you don’t have in quite the same way in the play.

The writing is stylised and flowing even though she’s kept her story simple and I LOVED that, that the story doesn’t try hard, it’s simple, but the writing is just lush. I mean if I’m going to be brutally honest then ok, it didn’t necessarily ring true to it being a group of children: I’ve never met an 11 year old anywhere near that articulate but it was so lyrical and easy to read that I kind of didn’t care, it worked anyway, and the ending is TENSE. SO TENSE. Does it end like the original? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I’m not telling you, but I’ll tell you this: I WAS SO TENSE.

This was a quick read for me which is always a good thing when my to read pile is the height of Everest and I liked it a whole lot. Hurrah for retellings.

I've always found reading Shakespeare to be hard work and sometimes a thankless task, so I know that reading this book in school would have been the perfect starting point before reading the original. It's all the same politics and manipulations, but set in a scenario we're all familiar with - the playground.

The kids in this book are ruled by their schoolyard alliances and habits, throw in racial prejudice and this book is an exceptionally well written train crash waiting to happen. Chevalier is a distinguished author at the best of times but I really think that this book is destined to become a classroom classic.

Each scene in the book is told from the perspectives of the main characters, so you get a glimpse of their feelings and motivations during the course of the story. It gives plenty of opportunities for the reader to consider why the characters do the things they do.

Thought provoking and bringing a Shakespeare classic forwards into a more accessible package, I really enjoyed this book.

'm not going to write a long review on this book. I wasted enough of my time reading it. Osei is starting his first day at a new school, he is the only black boy there and in 1972 racism is still a huge deal. It could have been a good story, showing how difficult life for him was surrounded by white kids and teachers that didn't want him in their school, but, in short, it was about a few kids arguing over a pencil case. I kept reading thinking this has got to be going somewhere, but it didn't. The only link between the Othello story is that the kids have similar names to the Othello characters, that there is disagreements that end in a tragedy. Most books have that but don't claim to be Othello rewritten.
#NewBoy #NetGalley

Did not finish. Interesting premise but the first chapter did not hook me. The characters were well written and the timeliness of the story is apt but I have read better written books regarding racial issues.

"NEW BOY" is the third book in the Shakespeare retold series from the bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Last Runaway, Tracy Chevalier. I appreciate the effort that has been made in order to modernise the Shakespearean tragedy, Othello, capturing a new audience of readers in the process.

NEW BOY is set in an elementary school playground in Washington DC in 1974 and the whole story takes place in a single day. At the time, the political landscape was looking pretty bleak, as a result of the Watergate scandal, the impeachment process against Richard Nixon was nearing its conclusion, and due to this there was a climate of racial tension throughout the United States.

I feel that the novel may have been more convincing had it been set in a high school. Othello explores topics surrounding sexuality and conflict, here the characters of Othello, Desdemona and Iago are just eleven years old. This is too young, in my opinion, to be believable and realistic. Even 13-14 year olds would be more appropriate in these circumstances. Also, having read the original, Chevalier has pushed the racial element to the forefront in NEW BOY, race does not play such a large part in the Shakespearean Othello. I do understand why she did this, it reflects the time period in which the retelling is set.

This is a well-written and emotionally resonant read. However, I cannot understand the idea behind such young children (11 year olds) being favoured over teenagers with the issues that feature in the book. It just doesn't work for me, I am perfectly willing to suspend disbelief over most aspects of a novel that I am enjoying, but this is even too much for me.

I would like to thank Tracy Chevalier, Random House UK - Vintage Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so much. Retelling the story of Othello in a one day, schoolyard setting it explodes from the first sentence. The Modern Othello is a Ghanian boy starting in a new school as the only Black in the playground. The story is of love, jealousy, rage and despair. The scheming of Ian the school bully intervenes in the developing friendship between Dee and Osei. The characterisation is excellent and the emotions jump from the page. I feel this book would be a powerful conjunct to any school study of Othello it brings the story home in such a powerful and novel way

A compelling read that certainly focuses on the issues of jealousy, bullying and betrayal whilst also raising concern about the level of racism prevalent amongst the main character's new school friends and his teachers. Whilst children of this age do undoubtedly begin to develop sexually I felt there was too great an emphasis on the sexual desires and emotions for children of this age - perhaps focusing on a slightly older age-range would have made this more believable for me. Overall a powerful read and one that left me wanting to re-read Othello.

A darkly compelling retelling of Shakespeare's Othello that I couldn't put down and read in less than a day despite other time commitments.

Not for me. It probably didn’t help that I don’t know the story of Othello but even so this story was just unbelievable. Everything happened in one school day and they were supposed to be 11 years old. I have an 11 year old and they do not talk like that or kiss on the playground. Didn’t enjoy it.

Very cleverly written book - I was unfamiliar with the plot of Othello before reading this, but, as expected if such a good author, it’s a great read without having any knowledge. Only afterwards looking at the parallels did I realise quite how clever it was - down to the characters’ similar names, and every person in the story.

It’s quite a short book, and all the events take place over the course of one day at a primary school in 70’s USA, retold by the different characters - some immediately sympathetic, others less so.

I’m a big fan of Tracy Chevalier - such a good writer, whose every new book is so surprisingly different than the last. Recommended.

I gave up on this book at 50% and it's only 180 odd pages. The story of Othello is retold using 6th grade school children. It is overly sexualised for 11 and 12 year olds and not something I care to continue reading.

I couldn't get to grips with this book at all. I found the time line of one day difficult and impossible to really know the characters. I also struggled with eleven year olds supposedly consumed by sexual passion and jealousy while worrying about their pencil cases and skipping

I’ve read and enjoyed all of Tracy Chevalier’s novels up until now. However, ‘New Boy’ is so wide of the mark that it’s difficult to believe that she is the author. Based on Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, there are a number of modern parallels – names, key objects etc – that remind us of the novel’s genesis. Chevalier clearly knows the play! However, the fundamental problem is that it’s set in a primary/elementary school and the characters are pre-pubescent children. Thus, the relationships, sexual jealousy and power politics are never going to have the same resonance as in the original and so the novel does nothing to either enhance or complement the play. I’m really surprised that Chevalier was not advised to add a few years on to her students or to abandon the school setting entirely. It simply doesn’t work at any level.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth Press for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

I thought this transposition and retelling of the story of Othello to a Washington school in the 1970s worked really well. Set across the course of one day it sees the arrival of a new boy - O - at the school, and the machinations of the school bully, Ian, as O makes friends with the most popular girl in class. I found it tense, atmospheric and I really wanted it to have a happier ending than the play! I could have spent a lot more time with these kids. Good, accessible, thought-provoking.

A very well constructed modern take on Othello which all ages can relate to. It took me back to the playground of my youth where hierarchy rules and bullies or manipulators had to be avoided.
I thought that the author managed to convey the workings of the individual minds in such a way as to make the story believable and frightfully possible.
I would recommend any student reading Othello to read this version too.

The format of this book just didn't work for me. I struggled to relate to main characters who were sixth grade, and the casual racism grated. So I gave up before I finished the book. It may suit other readers though.

I really liked this book. It was a wonderful retelling of Othello. The contemporary setting gave the possibility of writing about topics like racism and bullying.
The book is well written, dark, and atmosperic keeping you hooked since the beginning and giving a lot of food for thought.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to Random House UK and Netgalley for the ARC

I struggled with this book & it takes a lot for me to be beaten by a book. It's a retelling of Shakespare''s Othello. I found it really slow & didn't connect with the characters. This one wasn't for me.

I'll start this review by saying honestly, and with a little bit of shame, that I've never read Othello. I've also never seen or read any of the hundreds of other retellings of the story. Apparently it's one of the most retold stories ever written, which is interesting because it's largely a story about prejudice and how destructive it can be.

The book is set in 1970's USA, which is a perfect setting in my opinion as it was a time when racism was rife and normal people were still trying to get to grips with the changing face of America, and integration of many different cultures and ethnicities that just didn't exist in their communities prior to that. It's difficult for me to imagine what that would be like, but I felt like it was important whilst reading this book to try to understand it. I don't agree with racism or discrimination in any way, but a lot of people back then couldn't deal with such a big change and there was a lot of misunderstanding and misplaced anger. It didn't make them bad people necessarily, but they did sometimes make bad decisions and bad things could happen as a result. And that's basically what this book is about.

The plot follows Osei (or 'O' for short) and his first day at a new school. The most popular and pretty girl at the school, Dee, is instantly taken with him and they fall for each other almost at first sight. Unfortunately, because of his race, this is shocking to pretty much all of the other students and teachers, and one boy in particular decides that it is unacceptable and that they must be stopped. Then follows a series of underhanded moves by this boy, Ian, as he weaves a web of lies and deceit in order to take the couple down.

The story is narrated by a few different characters. They all have different pieces of the story that are needed to understand what is happening. They also all have different opinions about the couple and the new boy, which is interesting because every single person in this book is racist in one way or another. Nobody, not even Dee or O themselves, can think of the others as just other people.

This is quite a short book. It's very well written and interesting to read as well as being gripping. I would definitely recommend it and from a cultural perspective it was a really thought-provoking read.

I enjoyed this book. As I retelling of Othello it was interesting to see it transferred to a playground in 1970's America when desegregation was still relatively new. The lies and playground relationships were believable and the ending true to the original.