Firstly, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a really well-crafted retelling of Romeo and Juliet. It is changed in some really smart ways to make it a great and joyful queer retelling. It avoids some of the pitfalls of the original and tries to stay true to Shakespeare's intentions, which is more than I can say for some English teachers.

The pacing is really solid, only having a few moments of being a touch slow. The characters are fun and I loved the banter between them. I also love the changes related to Mercutio and Juliet's character. So, while I had a general idea of where things should be going they were twisted just enough to keep me entertained.

Overall, I think fans of the original will enjoy this. But I also think readers with some problems with the original will enjoy some of the twists and changes here. It's a cute, fun, read.

I follow this series because I'm always curious where the selected authors will go with the original story and this one provided a fresh take on Romeo and Juliet that's more Romeo and Mercutio's younger brother Valentine that Romeo and Juliet, though Juliet herself makes some solid moves in the story as well.

The feud of the Montague's and Capulet's exist. And it's wrests control of the (as explained in the notes and what Roehrig wanted to do) to take the play away from a message for adults and making it a solidly teen story because the teen's become the one's making the decisions rather than the puppeteering adults where the teens get caught up in the drama too.

It's creative enough to feel more reinvigorated than some of the others in the remixed series. Ironically I was just having a conversation about Romeo and Juliet with my teen son because he's reading Bullfinch's mythology and talking about the Romeo and Juliet of mythology and how these stories are "tales as old as time"!

Thank you to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends, Caleb Roehrig, and Max Meyers (audio narrator) for the opportunity to read and listen to the audiobook of Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo and Juliet Remix in exchange for an honest review.

So as the title suggests, this is a remix of Shakespeare's classic play, but remixed to be gay! Now, I suppose the twist I mention in the blog title isn't quite unexpected. It's not Roemo and Julian or some such thing one might suspect, but as mentioned in the book blurb, it's Romeo and Valentine, Mercutio's brother!

While holding true to many of the major plot points, it is Valentine that Romeo meets at the Capulet party, and Romeo knows what his feelings are telling him. Despite Benvolio's push for Romeo toward this woman or that woman, the guy is definitely interested in boys.

Tybalt remains a key player as an antagonistic Capulet, but Juliet is more of a friendly ally and defends Romeo against her cousin. We have inquiries with the Friar and duals in the streets--all the things that make the plot of Romeo and Juliet. There are some different twists and turns throughout, with some unexpected marriages, expected deaths and exiles, and a plot to save Romeo and Valentine's relationship.

For those familiar with Romeo and Juliet, I won't spoil all the differences in detail. It is fun to compare the two, but also to have a different story told with an LGBTQ light as a novel instead of play format. An excellent retelling/remix version of the original play perfect for fans of LGBTQ fiction.

I've been reading these classic remixed series for a while now, and the results have always been mid. I generally find that even when classics make me want to bash my head against a wall, I can always understand what gave them their longevity. (Save for Great Expectations, which I think carries only because of it's authors name, and should have been left to waste away in Dickens' trash.) When they are taken and spun into young adult tales I have found them patronizing, and lacking any charm of the orginal story. There had yet to be one that I didn't think would have been better off if it was just a story on its own instead of one with a giant looming over it's shoulder. Until now. I adore Shakespeare. I have read Romeo and Juliet more times than I can count. And Teach the Torches to Burn gets Shakespeare, in a way only a chronic theater kid could ever. It doesn't feel like this is Romeo and Juliet because the assignment was, but because the author had a genuine love for the story they were remixing and the story they were telling. My biggest critique is I want to read this as a play. I want to see this story on stage. I wish there was a script to go along with it because it feels unjust for this to only be a book. And when I started, I was thinking 'you better still kill them in the end, coward' but by the time their lives were on the line, I was furiously turning pages because I could not reconcile if this turned out to be a tragedy after all. And I think the author's note is more than right, we have told plenty of queer tragedies. I adored this book.

This was a delightful queer retelling of Romeo and Juliet. While it has been years since I last read the original, I felt this retelling was true to the story in the feud between the Montagues and Capulets, the large cast of characters, the nod toward suicide by poison, and even the language which, while certainly not Shakespearian levels of archaic, gave a nod to the style.

The story was very complex and I was pleased to see that, while Juliet is no longer the love interest in this version, she is still an important character. I liked that all three of the main characters in this queer tale of rash teenage decisions were able to get a happily ever after.

A beautiful take on a classic Shakespeare.

The writing was lush and stunning, painting a gorgeous picture of love and hurt.

This was a cute queer YA retelling of the original classic Romeo and Juliet.
I liked that Juliet wasn’t simply replaced by a man, instead there was a new love interest and Juliet still existed and had her own story and motives. It modernised the story a little, where the females sole interest wasn’t getting a guy.
I liked the characters and the story itself still made sense with the changes.
If you read the original it was a little too predictable though and didn’t really grip me.

I loved this book! I’m a sucker for any retelling and even more for a Romeo and Juliet retelling. I loved how diverse this one was and the interaction between Romeo and Juliet. I would definitely read this one again!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Teach the Torches to Burn is a delightful queer reimagining of Romeo and Juliet that went in a direction I didn’t quite expect, especially upon initially reading the blurb. I fully expected it to be more optimistic, given the trend these remixes have been taking thus far in revising the source material, but I didn’t know what to expect when it came to central characters or the romance.
While Romeo is still pretty similar to his Shakespearean counterpart, not being overly dynamic, I liked that he had some more layers, being something of an artistic soul. And while the pressure to marry well was solely on Juliet’s shoulders in the original, there’s the question of when Romeo will settle down too…only he doesn’t feel any desire too, as he’s not attracted to girls.
Valentine, to my surprise, is not a 1-to-1 replacement for Juliet, but an original character in his own right. He’s Mercutio’s brother, and that does give him and Romeo some history by association, but their romance does proceed in other respects as quickly as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet do. The high stakes, from the danger of being a queer young man in a time period that was hostile toward queer people, to the general plot beats resulting from the familial blood feud, present realistic complications for them being together.
The most wonderful surprise was the depiction of Juliet as aroace. It allows her conflict at not wanting to marry Paris to remain intact, while changing the dynamic of her interactions with Romeo in an intriguing way, as both of them (and Friar Laurence, who is also confirmed as aroace) are outsiders in their society.
Apart from the end, which is subverted, I like how Roehrig either recreates or pays homage to all the major plot beats of the original, while also fleshing out the narrative with his own ideas.
This is such a great read, and another fabulous installment for this series. I recommend it to fans of the original looking for a queer retelling, as well as anyone looking for queer YA historical fiction.

A really nice Romeo and Juliet remix retelling. This has more insta-love and is a little slow to get into, but definitely a great read once it picks up. A great and enjoyable retelling, and the cover is gorgeous!

Romeo and Juliet gets an LGBTQIA+ YA makeover in Caleb Roehrig’s Teach the Torches to Burn. The premise is irresistible. Who doesn’t love a classical retelling that features two boys finding love against the odds? Roehrig’s treatment of the star-crossed tale is a gentler version of the oft-reworked play that stays true to its emphatic optimism about the uncompromising power of young love.

Roehrig chose to not wander far from the Shakespearean canon in many ways, which on one hand activates the reader’s engagement with familiar characters, and on the other, introduces some challenges with mixing contemporary and fourteenth century themes. The original players are present and accounted for. The bitterly opposed Montague and Capulet patriarchs. Vengeful Tybalt. Convivial Benvolio. Sentimental Friar Laurence who shelters the young lovers from the fray, and the stalwart Prince of Verona who doles out equal blame and punishment to the warring families. Roehrig focuses on tweaks to the story that offer resonance to today’s young LGBTQIA+ audience.

Romeo is the first person point-of-view narrator, and he’s an alienated seventeen-year-old who wishes to be an artist against his father’s demand that he take up the family trade and marry and produce more Montagues. He’s also coming to the realization that he’s different from his girl-crazy cousin Benvolio, and both enlivened and abashed by the way his handsome family friend Mercutio makes him feel. Thus we have a Romeo recast as a closeted gay male teen who yearns to be left alone so he can sketch landscapes, and I suspect that readers will be polarized in their opinions of the portrayal.

YA fans will likely take in stride the young hero’s modern sensibilities and perhaps even his oddly highbrow British vocabulary, meant to give a nod to the source material, or approximate how teenagers spoke at the time, one supposes. Readers hoping for transporting historical romance may be less enchanted by the author’s choices. Well, Shakespeare himself took artistic liberties in rendering the time period, so one might forgive Roehrig for some questionable details and try to consider the bigger picture. It’s not a story that endeavors to illuminate how gay teens in medieval Verona might have lived from a culturally informed perspective. More so, it’s a retelling crafted to uplift queer representation, and readers of all stripes can likely agree the world could use more of that.

Happily, Romeo is not alone in feeling like he doesn’t fit in. When he goes along with Benvolio to infiltrate a Capulet costume party, he meets Valentine, the younger brother of Romeo’s secret crush, Mercutio, and the only character missing from the Bard’s original story. Valentine has recently returned to Verona after living with extended relatives for several years. The two boys share a private moment by the courtyard fountain outside the party, where they realize they’re two of a kind in their disinterest with boy/girl courtship rituals. A mutual fascination sparks.

Later, Romeo stumbles upon Juliet, who is reimagined as a young woman wise beyond her years who can spot a gay boy from a mile away, even when he’s wearing a mask. Juliet is also beset by the weight of family expectations and sees in Romeo a sympathetic friend and an ally in her pursuit to live a life beyond heterosexual conventions. Then Romeo is recognized as a Montague, and his cozy confessional with Juliet is misinterpreted as a roguish pass. Tybalt wants to kill Romeo for crashing the party and dishonoring his cousin. Romeo flees with Benvolio and Mercutio and later runs into Valentine during the chase. The two boys make their escape through the wooded grounds, and after reaching safety, have more time to flirt and take cautious steps toward getting to know each other physically.

Another queer character is a reimagined, hunky Father Laurence, who serves as a confidante to both Romeo and Juliet as they’re figuring out who they are and how to find freedom with their identities. Laurence shares with Romeo that his vow of celibacy is a lifestyle choice due to his lack of romantic or sexual interest in people of any gender. As someone who has eked out a life beneath the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, Laurence understands Romeo’s plight and is instrumental in the solution for Romeo and Valentine (and Juliet) overcoming the bonds of tradition and moving onward to happily-ever-after.

A sweet and comfy retelling of Shakespeare’s tragic play, with affirming messages for gay male and aro/ace young readers.

Reviewed for Out in Print.

2.5 stars

This is the fourth Remixed Classics book that I have picked up and probably the one that I was looking forward to the most. As a Shakespeare scholar and performer, I have always stood by the idea that a great many of Shakespeare's characters are queer and was super excited to read a book where that subtext was made canon.

Roehrig clearly knows his Shakespeare and there are a bunch of great Easter eggs sprinkled throughout a narrative that delightfully subverts the well-trod beats of the source text. The crowning achievement of the novel, in my opinion, is in how he affirms once and for all that Juliet is an vastly intelligent, witty, and capable woman who is driving the story of her own life even when the forces around her are trying to close in.

This book also affirms the overwhelming passivity that characterizes Romeo in the original play, which made the pacing of this book absolutely drag at points for me. In addition, I had hope that the retelling would update some of the issues surrounding the quick timeline of the central love story. However, Romeo and Valentine truly speak together three times before they are declaring their love for one another and while I completely understand why they would fall so hard, I longed for a little more development in the relationship.

While some aspects of the execution didn't land for me, this book is bringing Shakespeare to the next generation in a completely new way and that is so important. I hope that this book gets into the hands of the readers that need it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel and Friends for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Ok after sitting with this one for a second I have thoughts, some of which are me learning some of my own personal preferences when it comes to retellings.

This was my first of the Remix canon that I have read and I find the concept interesting. I love a retelling (Song of Achilles being one of my all-time favs) so I suspected this to be right up my alley. In this case, however, I almost felt the writing was held back by the Romeo and Juliet frame story. After thinking about it I really enjoyed the authors writing style and voice I just felt that it might have been better suited to an entirely original work. Like I said you could chalk this up to personal preferences, but I found that especially the language used by the characters too staunchly conflicted with the formality I've come to expect from Romeo and Juliet. I'd almost have preferred a story from this time period and with all the modern sensibilities that didn't use Romeo and Juliet as a framework. I do want to add that after reading the acknowledgments I do believe the author was successful in putting a spin on this tale that kept the focus on the feelings of the children involved rather than keeping the main theme of being a warning to parents and how there own petty biases are what lead to the destruction of their own families. And for this storyline that makes a lot more sense as it's about the queerness and love story of Romeo and Valentine.

On that note, this book gave me all the butterflies I look for in a queer romance. I got so caught up in rooting for them and their happiness. I will admit that the frame story did add to the unsureness I felt about how it would end as the original Romeo and Juliet is famously a tragedy. In this way, I enjoyed this story. It had all of the swoon-worthy romanticness I was looking for from something set in this context.

All and all I really did enjoy this one and would only be curious what this author could do with a completely original concept because I did love the writing style.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Teach the Torches to Burn is a Romeo and Juliet remix in MacMillan's Remixed Classics series. We follow Romeo Montague as he grapples with his destiny as his father's heir, all while trying to navigate not having romantic feelings for women in a world where that seems to be his only option. Then, at the Capulet's ball, he meets Valentine, and everything changes.

WOW did I love this book! I'm always partial to a Romeo and Juliet retelling, and I especially love retellings like this that so beautifully maintain the spirit e story while freshly reinventing it. Seeing tale from Romeo's perspective is always a treat, and his sweet romance with Valentine had my heart fluttering. But what I loved more than anything was that, in introducing Valentine as the love interest, we didn't lose Juliet either. I was so happy that she was still a vibrant and well-developed character, and I loved how her role in the story was transformed in this book. Also shoutout to my babies Benvolio and Mercutio who, though different in many ways here, were also a highlight of this read, especially since I didn't have to watch either of them die. In fact, the happy ending of this story really is what ties it all together, because while the original centered on tragedy, it was always about the hope and peace that sprang from that tragic event.

In all, I think this has quickly become my new favorite of the Remixed Classics. 10/10 would recommend, especially for any Romeo and Juliet lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for the eArc of <i>Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo & Juliet Remix</i>. All opinions are my own.

I have been an English teacher for 20 years, and probably about 17 of those have taught Shakespeare's <i>The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet</i> at least twice a year for all those years. One of my stupid human tricks is that you can read nearly any line from R&J to me and I can tell you the act and the scene that it comes from. So obviously I know this play inside and out.

Nervous as I was to read this book, I was utterly delighted by this queer remix of R&J. Caleb Roehrig took all the best qualities of the characters and instead of making them their fatal flaws, turned them into something that made them acutely likable and terribly human. Even though Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt and Benvolio, Friar Laurence and Lords and Ladies Capulet/Montague all appear in this book, they do not necessarily play similar roles. While Tybalt is still the unlikable aggressor, Juliet is independent and actually gets to express her own thoughts, Friar Laurence, though still the "responsible adult" Romeo most trusts, actually gives good advice, and Benvolio is footloose and fancy free, much more a Mercutio than Mercutio actually is. And of course there's the original character Valentine, Mercutio's brother, who catches Romeo's attention one night in—where else?—an orchard, of course. And our star-crossed lovers' journey goes from there.

Roehrig clearly knows the play well; he took many of the familiar trappings of the setting and conflict and tipped them just slightly, shook them up just enough that the core elements of the play remained while slotting both new and old characters into different roles. Seeing a queer love story play out while in the presence of some of my favorite Shakespeare characters was satisfying in a way I didn't think I needed.

I can picture my students making a beeline for this novel after we finish reading Romeo and Juliet, especially the students who generally lack representation in 400-year-old pieces of literature.

A queer reimagining of Romeo and Juliet where Romeo is gay and in love with his best friend's brother and Juliet is aro-ace??? YES PLEASE. Romeo is an aspiring artist, just looking to pursue his passion and be freed of the demands of his family to marry because he has a deep dark secret, he is not interested in women at all. Romeo has tried putting off all the marriage proposals and prolonging it for as long as possible yet when his best friend's brother Valentine finally comes back into town, Romeo knows he's found the one. Romeo knows that his love for Valentine is forbidden and with the tensions in the city rising and the Capulet and Montague families rising, blood will be spilled. Then there is Juliet, the counterpart to Romeo, a girl who wants nothing more than to be freed from the arranged marriage to someone she doesn't want that her family is forcing her into. Juliet is willing to do anything to be freed even come up with a very insane plan for both her and Romeo to make it out of Verona with their lives. This was such a fun take on the classic story and I loved the queer take on the classic. The ending was perfect and I would definitely recommend this for anyone who is a fan of the classic or for anyone who ever thought that maybe Romeo and Juliet should have ended differently!

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Feiwel & Friends for the #gifted ALC and e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I have recently discovered i love and eagerly looking for retellings. I loved this mm twist and had no idea its part od a remix series which i immediately went and downloaded on libby. I loved the charactera and the narration was done very well

Thank you NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for the ARC! Teach the Torches to Burn is a Romeo and Juliet retelling with a twist (a remix, if you will). The book is expertly crafted by Caleb Roehrig whose prose breathes new life into this classic tale. Romeo is being pushed toward his future and he feels dreadfully ill-prepared and unfulfilled. He knows he is expected to take over for his father and that he will be forced to marry, but to do so will be to lie to himself. While crashing a costume party at the Capulet estate, Romeo is reunited with an old friend, Valentine, and new feelings spark within him, but after he dances with a girl to appease his friends (a young girl who turns out to be Juliet Capulet) rumors fly and tempers soar. What follows are several familiar events mixed with some new twists and turns, resulting in an epic love story that plays out more fulfilling than the orginal. Shakespeare fans should enjoy this retelling and leave smiling rather than sobbing.

Unbelievably sweet and poignant. I loved this queer take on the classic story! I've been loving this remix series and it is so wonderful to see LGBTQ representation throughout the different novels. Love it!

I enjoyed Teach the Torches to Burn.
This is actually the first book I've read by Caleb Roehrig, and it definitely won't be my last as I was a fan of his writing.

I thought this book was written really well, as were the descriptions, they transported me to the time.
I also really liked the story and the characters!

Romeo and Valentine had a really sweet romance, and while it was insta love, I surprisingly didn't mind it that much.
I also really liked Juliet, and I thought she was a great character

I definitely highly recommend this book, especially if you are interested in a queer Romeo and Juliet retelling!