The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life by Dani Jansen is a super fun, relatable read that mixes drama, self-discovery, and, of course, a little bit of Shakespeare. The story follows Avery, a high schooler who’s already struggling with the typical teen stuff—friend drama, family problems, and navigating her own feelings. But when she gets stuck working on a Shakespeare project with the guy she can’t stand, everything starts to spiral. Avery is funny, sarcastic, and real, definitely someone you’d want to be friends with.

The pacing is quick, and the book doesn’t drag at all, making it perfect for when you want something lighthearted but with a bit of depth. There’s a lot of humor, but it also touches on deeper stuff like identity, friendships, and growing up. The whole story is one big rollercoaster of emotions, but in the best way possible.

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is a perfect pick. It’s a fun, easy read that’ll make you laugh and maybe even think a little about your own life.

I think this book just wasn't for me, and Shakespeare related YA is not my genre. I would recommend this to a teen who reads the synopsis and finds it to be interesting.

A fun and lighter read. Great if you need to get out of a slump as it is quick and nothing too heavy to take in. All in all, would recommend!

Beware, stress makes you say Yes to a school play!

Alison dreams of being Valedictorian. She certainly has got the grades for it, but an extracurricular activity wouldn't hurt. Hence, why she agrees to produce the next Shakespeare play at school. It is only then that she realizes how difficult it is to maintain a cast, guide a teacher into acting, deal with relationships feuds, and most importantly, develop a new relationship through it all. Would Alison be able to retain her sanity?

I enjoyed a lot of the quirky moment. The only reason for my 3 stars rating, is due to my Shakespearean expectation. I'm a big fan of his plays, and would have like to see both plots intertwine together.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book. Pretty quickly I could tell this writing was not going to be for me. There were also a few things that just didn't make sense to me. For example, the main character asked a teacher to consider her for Valedictorian, but that is not how that works. I just knew that would bother me throughout the entire story, as well as a few other details.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

Alison Green is an overachiever, and can't say no to anything which may help her become valedictorian. So when her English teacher asks her to take charge of the school performance of A Midsummer's Night Dream, Alison jumps at the chance. However, the production is more work that she ever imagined it could be, and her crush on leading lady, Charlotte, is becoming harder to hide.

A backlist book which I had forgotten about, The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life was an enjoyable read. I really appreciated how Alison was so focused on her studies, but felt like her actions towards her friends and family were unkind at times. She needed shaking at times, and was very self focused, at least in my opinion. Her relationship with Charlotte was messy, but very real, and I liked the way this book was so inclusive. It had a solid premise, and was a nice read, but I felt like it needed to be developed more to be a really good book.

This book wasn't really for me. It brought nothing new to the table, and the plot was quite predictable. I found the characters to be bland as well, and I could form no connection with them.

Alison Green, desperate Valedictorian-wannabe, agrees to produce her school's disaster-prone production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her second big mistake is accidentally saying yes to a date with her oldest friend, Jack, even though she's crushing on Charlotte, the star of the play.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I read this as part of the Queer Lit Readathon to fulfill the prompt of "Brings You Joy" because I was such a huge theatre kid in my youth (and still am, although I miss doing multiple shows a year with incredibly talent folks). The stress this teen was under was so relatable, as so much can be thrown at you in this atmosphere, and I honestly just wanted to let her know it would all be okay.

Alison Green is a dedicated student, doing everything she can to earn the valedictorian title at the end of her high school career. Her dedication leads to her saying yes to directing her school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Alison has also come out to her parents as gay but has not told most people at her school. She does not want her love life to become a distraction from reaching her goal of being valedictorian.

One major positive of this book was the characterization. Everyone in the book had distinct personalities and the side characters did not become a walking stereotype as they so often do. It also felt realistic--as a high school teacher, I can imagine this happening in my school. While I enjoyed most of the characters, I found it hard to root for Alison, a girl who made so many mistakes but did not seem to learn from all of them. Seeing her making the same mistakes over and over became so tiresome that by the end of the book when she did have a major life lesson, it was hard to care.

Overall, this was a fun read with a lot of relatable drama, but it just felt short with the main character.

I DNF this book in 68% of the book.

The main reason I decided to DNFing this book was the main character, Allison. She's the worst main character that I have ever read. She's on the same level as Devi ("Never have I ever"). I was hoping for character development but as I was reaching 70% of the novel... I was just sick of it. Allison is very selfish, a horrible friend and a big sister.
Moreover, the writing doesn't make me feel anything. It was like reading a person's diary with so many incoherent phrases,

I wasn't a huge fan of the story. Maybe I've outgrown these types of stories. I just felt the plot was not very original and the writing was pretty simple.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

This was a cute high school story. I have been straying further away from YA recently, especially contemporary but really wanted to read this book because it's been on my TBR for so long. It follows Allison who is gunning for valedictorian and finds herself getting roped into directing the school play. This story has a some rep for lesbians, pans, and gays, and I think honestly it does a pretty good job of just incorporating it into the story. It didn't feel like the focus, which was more the play and being the top of the class. It felt more natural like it should (other books don't necessarily focus on heterosexuality...it's just there and that's what this book did imo. there are queer characters but it wasn't the focus...there were just there!). I really liked all of the theater stuff even though I wasn't in theater in school. It's so entertaining!

I couldn't personally connect with this book. I think maybe I was a little too old for it. I thought it wouldn't an issue because I've read other YA books while out of the intended age bracket with no issue, but I couldn't get into it. It wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't for me.

This cute LGBTQ story will resonate with a lot of high schoolers! Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC.

2 stars

I legitimately forgot that I read this book...so that says a lot.

Considering that I am a Shakespeare nerd and a recovering high school theatre kid, I thought I would definitely be higher on this book than I actually was. While I enjoyed the theatre aspects of the book, there wasn't really anything else for me to grab onto. I don't think the main relationship was developed practically well and I cared more about the side characters than I did about Alison. The fact that there is more than one occasion where a LGBTQIA+ character is pressured to be more "out" or to come out before they are ready without the author taking a firm stance through the characters on why that is not okay also rubbed me the wrong way.

There was definitely glimmers of potential, but it ultimately didn't coalesce for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Second Story Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

This book didn’t hit the mark for me. DNF @ 20% as I just wasn’t enjoying it. I know it’s labelled as young adult but I found the story quite immature, like it was targeted for a much younger audience. Maybe I misunderstood and it’s not YA and it’s Childrens. Definitely recommend for younger readers though!

This book was alright to me. I didn’t quite connect with the characters as I would have liked too. It felt like there was something missing for me. Absolutely love the cover though.

Not really my cup of tea. Felt like the way everyone acted was a little melodramatic and far from how highschoolers really act. The pacing was odd and the ending felt pretty rushed.