Enter the Body By Joy McCullough

cossette

joy mccullough could write romeo & juliet but shakespeare could not write enter the body

Mallory

This was a very interesting take on Shakespeare and I liked the feminist explorations of some key female characters who didn’t get their due in their stories. I did find the first half of the book to be a bit slow for me, I liked the second half a lot better, but I didn’t love the dialogue pieces as much as the story by poetry. In the second half of the book Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia all get to retell their story with taking control and making some changers and that was super interesting. I liked Cordelia’s the most which was interesting since it was the story I knew least well overall. I don’t always like stories told in poetry, but I think Joy McCullough has a great poetic voice and I definitely thought it was the right way to tell these versions of these stories. Overall I gave this one 3.5 stars which I rounded up for the creative take on retelling some classic stories.

inciminci

I'm going through a Shakespeare phase, lol.

In Joy McCullough’s Enter the Body, the young heroines of his most famous tragedies, - Juliet from Romeo and Juliet, King Lear’s youngest daughter Cordelia, Prince Hamlet’s lover Ophelia, and the raped, mutilated and betrayed Lavinia from The Bard’s most unpopular play, Titus Andronicus - gather in a secret room beneath a stage and chat up about their fates, complain about their fathers and share their dreams and hopes, and the endings they would wish for each other.

This was oddly touching, I have to admit I cried on more than one occasion, especially over Lavinia… Certainly this will be staged itself at some point, and it should.

Grapie Deltaco

In a room beneath all the stages anywhere lies a meeting between all of the dead girls and women from Shakespeare’s plays to gather and to hide.

Lavinia, Ophelia, Cordelia, and Juliet take center stage (ba dum tss) as a collective of teenage girls sharing their stories from their perspective and acting as a bizarre, magical support group for one another.

It’s great a concept that became very quickly tainted at the author’s decision to keep Lavinia silenced and unable to participate in sharing her thoughts and idealized version of events.

If you, as an author, can trust me, as a reader, to suspend my disbelief to accept that the women from the writings appear in this magical, liminal space and flow in and out of Shakespearean and modern language, why couldn’t you also trust me to just accept that Lavinia’s wounds would heal in this space. It actually sticks out as being incredibly odd in a story centering around letting silenced young girls treated as collateral to keep a main character silenced. I wanted to hear what she had to say. I wanted her to be involved in these heated and passionate discussions maintained between Ophelia, Cordelia, and Juliet.

Also, for a book that is intended for other teen girls to consume and enjoy, I think it was quite the choice to make Juliet a sort of punching bag for the other girls (mainly Cordelia) that barely gets an apology over in a single line at the end of the book.

I think, overall, this is a great piece of work to function as a critical conversation-starter for teen girls being introduced to Shakespeare but ultimately leaves too much to be desired when we get to the actual meat of those discussions.

CW: recurring references to/descriptions of violence, sexual assault + rape, mutilation, suicide

Caitlyn DeRouin

this made me feel such a range of emotions, i'm kind of emotionally spent in the absolute best way. a real review shall be coming, but this is a new favorite

Stephanie Phillips

I blew through this book in less than twenty-four hours. Fantastically well written and extremely inventive, a wonderful piece of work in which a few of Shakespeare’s most famous women get the opportunity to claim and change their narrative. Loved it.

bri

Thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

DNF-ing at page 77. (Though I also skipped around a bit later to see some of the conversations develop.)

This book was probably the smallest offender of every book I've ever DNF'd. It wasn't even that bad, it just wasn't strong enough for me to want to continue on. Enter The Body seeks out to reclaim the stories of women from Shakespeare's plays, but seems to lack a central academic thesis pertaining to the "oppressive patriarchy" of these plays that it seeks to criticize. (It wasn't necessarily wrong in its arguments, but felt more driven by a feeling/idea of "wow these women were treated badly, let's talk about it" and lacked a foundation of sources/research that would've provided a lot more nuance and context to sustain this thesis.)

It felt a little too aimless, and without properly defining its critiques before leaping into action, it sort of reads like those high school theatre one act competition plays (you know, the really monologue-heavy ensemble ones that have a sort of a one-word, dimensional theme such as: "love" or "feminism" or "childhood").

I DO think this would be a great book to give to younger Shakespeare fans, especially young teenage girls, to help them connect with these characters. I think, by being set in an odd liminal space, it makes the characters more accessible to a modern perspective. It's a fairly quick and easy text to read and there's definitely an audience out there for it.

(Though I don't think it really helps make sense of the thesis, because I really just couldn't figure out what was attempting to be accomplished in telling these stories in a trap room under the stage in a weird fake space where characters are real people but also not real people who are performing the plays but also living them on the stage, and then have to live in their post-play purgatory before their story starts again? And only the women go under the stage when they die? And why do they exist after they die? Why do they exist at all? Where do the dead male characters go? Are there no actors? Are there actors and these are the ghosts of the characters? Do the people who don't die in the play have their own separate limbo space when their play isn't being performed? Is there Shakespeare-character-heaven? If this is a weird fake space where characters exist to be performed, wouldn't they not exist between performances? Who is at fault for their suffering: the patriarchy of their stories, Shakespeare, the patriarchy of Elizabethan England, the patriarchy of the current world that is performing their plays? I could really go on and on with these questions. The rules of the world were just vague and caused the arguments to struggle to land anywhere because there wasn't any grounded environment for anything to make sense in. I love a good suspension of disbelief, and am happy to accept a weird-limbo-character-space if there's literally any amount of thought to it but there was just nothing to grab onto here.)

Eva B.

Mixed thoughts overall. The prose and poetry were really beautiful at times, but the bits where Cordelia, Ophelia, and Juliet are arguing in script format were far less good and tended to veer into the preachy "now, reader, this is the Point of this book!" territory. The third section in particular veers into a larger issue I have overall with YA takes on tragedies, which is this really stupid idea that a tragedy would be made a better story by having a happy ending. Like no, Hamlet would not be better if Ophelia stopped Hamlet from killing Polonius and then convinced him to tell his mom that Claudius killed King Hamlet--in what world is that a better story lmao please stop. There are ways to do retellings (whether explicitly meant to be feminist ones or just a new take) without completely upending the point of a TRAGEDY and as a certified tragedy lover I'm sick of people diluting them.
I wish that the other women had been a bit more involved (especially Desdemona and, although I'm biased in this one, Joan of Arc) instead of being set dressing and come on, how are you going to do an examination of Shakespeare's women and not include Kate, who is probably the most wronged of them all?
That being said, I still did like this overall and I liked that each of the girls had a distinct style in their poetry. Canon aro-ace Cordelia was nice and I love anything that even acknowledges that Lavinia exists. Not to mention the overall idea of a trap-room beneath the theater where the characters wait in limbo before being brought up to re-enact their lives and deaths is just objectively really cool, and the imagery employed there is stunning.

Sara

4.5 stars—This was beautiful and smart. I loved how the author pointed out what so many of Shakespeare’s female characters had in common—starved for love; let down by their fathers; their deaths used as a plot point or a prop to change a male character’s life. What was most striking to me was the point that The Bard wasn’t the only bard—lots of people told the stories of these characters before Shakespeare ever wrote them, and they told them differently. It was interesting to explore how the stories would have been different if these women had been allowed other choices or small changes in the plays; they don’t turn out completely differently because Tybalt and Hamlet and King Lear are still themselves, but they are certainly less tragic. It was fun and funny to see how these characters interacted with one another. I took off half a star only because I wanted more from Lavinia. I’ve never read or seen Titus Andronicus, so I had to look it up to understand Lavinia in this book, but I also was intrigued by the author choosing to include a character from one of Shakespeare’s earliest and least popular plays.

Whitney

**Thank you to Penguin Teen, Libro.FM & NetGalley for the eARC. This in no way changed my rating**

I really enjoyed this book and I hope many, many readers read and love it. McCullough's book would also be great for teachers, especially ones that do an in-depth Shakespeare unit. I think having a knowledge of Shakespeare deepens the experience, but the only one I was confident in my knowledge was Romeo & Juliet (I've read and seen both Hamlet and King Lear, though). The book is very short as it's a novel in verse. The audiobook was also great and a full cast recording! The book is told in alternating POVs from Juliet, Ophelia, and Cordelia (with Lavinia playing a role, although it's harder to include her in the narrative as she is mute). I liked the idea that the first half is explaining the story Shakespeare gave them and the second half is the women taking their story back and making it their own. I also liked that McCullough explored Cordelia's character in terms of asexuality and included important and often overlooked rep that made sense for the character. It was very well done. All of the prose styles make sense for the character. Ophelia's reads like someone telling a story (fitting because that's largely the narrative framing for her). Juliet's visually looks like couplets, even if they don't always rhyme. She also seems to use the most text from her story. The characters make a point of pointing out that Cordelia uses Iambic pentameter. When none of them are narrating, McCullough uses a stage play style, writing out the narrative like a script. It was very creative and an aspect I very much enjoyed.

Overall, I think this would be best used in a classroom, but I would recommend it as a fun read for those who love Shakespeare or Feminist stories. It was well done.

Sakina (aforestofbooks)

First 5-star read of 2023!!

I will read absolutely anything Joy McCullough writes! Every book I've read by her has left me in awe, not just at her way with words and telling a story, but the messages that come across as well. Though I will say, I was a bit hesitant about Enter the Body, mostly because I have read four of Shakespeare's plays and only really remember Romeo and Juliet, so I was a bit worried I was going to be lost this entire book, but it's written in such a way that you can go in knowing very little and leave knowing pretty much everything you'd need to know without having to read the actual plays. Which...if you're not a fan of Shakespeare to begin with, is kind of nice.

This book follows four of Shakespeare's female characters: Lavinia, Juliet, Ophelia, and Cordelia. I was only familiar with Juliet and despite having read Hamlet, I barely remembered Ophelia being a character in that play. Which honestly goes to show how Shakespeare uses female characters to further the plot for his male characters. But this book is all about taking back the narrative, on speaking out against family members who would rather use their wives and daughters for their own uses, and the injustices and abuse women have faced throughout the years in silence.

Each of the girls gets to share their story in verse (as we know it), and then gets the opportunity to take back the narrative and give themselves an ending they are proud of. Lavinia, with her missing hands and tongue, is unable to share in this storytelling, but we're told how not all stories have to be shared because they're difficult stories not just for the person sharing, but for others to hear. And that there are many ways to share a story if you can't speak or write the words. I think this was beautifully done, and the ending was a perfect closing act to this book.

I really hope one day this can be required reading in English classes everywhere. Sure, we can still read Shakespeare, but I think books like this one show these plays in a new light and highlight some of the problematic aspects that need to be discussed more.

Please please please add this one to your tbrs!

Also, some of my favourite quotes:

Jordyn

I LOVED this book. I wrote a paper on Shakespeare and feminist in tragedies in college, so this was right up my alley. I loved hearing the women give their sides of the story. So so so fun. Written in verse, so a VERY quick read.

Caroline Joy

Ok this REALLY worked for me wow

Stephanie

Uh Oh! Author Who Wrote a Book You Really Liked Now Has a Book Out That You Kinda Hated

Listen, I was not at all against the idea of this story. Shakespeare plays hit that spot in my brain that likes filling in the blank spaces in mythology or fairy tales, even if we get much more human expression in Shakespeare. I’m especially prone to going “ok but what did she feel about all of that?” about fictional women, and I loved Blood Paint Water (a previous book by this author.)

But oh did I not like this one! I started out on board. The conceit is that Shakespeare’s tragic heroines (and a handful from plays of other genres) are stuck in a purgatory space before the next performance of their stories. They tell their stories from their POV then goad each other into saying how they would rewrite things for a better ending.

It starts out strong because Juliet goes first and we hear about the difficulties her mother faced as a child bride. Lady Capulet is definitely one of those Shakespeare enigmas where I wonder what’s going on in her head. So that was cool. This book really quickly peters out once we hit the first intermission and the characters start bickering in modern parlance. I am NOT against historical fiction having characters speak as modern day people. I do have an issue when they all talk like people being Oh So Witty and Correct on twitter, or a YouTube video that goes “plot hole ding! Why are all the mothers dead in Disney movies?”

I just genuinely don’t know what can be found in these sections other than thoughts readers/audiences have had for centuries. Case in point, the ending of Taming of the Shrew (a play that never comes up in this book at all when I MEAN) perturbed some contemporary audiences so much that another playwright wrote a play in response to it called The Tamer Tamed. Shakespeare having offensive and thorny bits has been up for discussion, as detailed in the wonderful book of essays This is Shakespeare. It’s hard to bring new things to this table but lots of productions manage it every weekend. This one just has jokes about how the term problem play doesn’t mean it’s problematic and Cordelia going “oh I’m sure Shakespeare knew he would be remembered forever because he was a white man” which like, yes, works by people of other identities have gotten lost along the way but I feel like this at least should have been the part where a few of those other voices could get name dropped, then. Just as an example of way to make this feel less like a trite tweet.

Also like … authors are allowed to write what they want. This author wanted to explore the tragedies and that’s fine. But there’s a bit where the comedies are dismissed (everyone just gets married at the end!) or the histories (because that’s just depicting what happened.)

Reader, this bit made me lose my mind a little. Some of the worst done by women in all of Shakespeare are in the comedies and that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle if people really like the lead couple. Poor Hero from Much Ado About Nothing for example… I want to know how she saw things and how she felt about having to marry a man willing to ruin her over a vague rumor.

And don’t get me started on the histories being irrelevant for this exercise. Shakespearean histories aren’t “just what happened.” There’s a lot of creative license and oftentimes these plays are all people know of certain historical figures. And history telling itself - in a nonfiction format - also can be told inaccurately or with an agenda. So the characters in the history plays can be wronged twice over! Like how does Margaret of Anjou feel about ……. Everything. She’s a great character but man what a weird legacy to have.

Also other readers have noticed the weirdness of Lavinia not getting to speak (even though everyone else has their wounds taken away in purgatory.) There was probably an attempt here to have her represent the people who aren’t ready to tell their story. Except oops even the text of the book points out she so wanted to tell her story she got a stick in her mouth to write the names of her rapists/torturers.

Just … what are we doing here. I realize that this is YA and I’m not the main audience for this book and for some readers this will probably be a pretty good intro to literary criticism. But also teens are pretty good at spotting “hello my fellow kids” energy, so I don’t know if this will click with them at all.

Shannon

I. AM. NOT. OKAY.

Initially I went into this expecting it to just be a retelling of some of the stories from Shakespeare but from the perspective of the women in them. But it is so much more than that. It gives them a voice but at the same time shows that pain and trauma make it so difficult to picture a different/happier ending to your story.

There were moments where I laughed out loud (usually because of Juliet who initially comes across as childish and a bit silly but ends up being so much more than that), moments where I felt like I had been stabbed in the chest, and yes I cried at moments too.

One of the best books I’ve read this year. LOVE THIS SO MUCH.

P.S. Cordelia will always be my babe.

Shannon

This was a great feminist retelling of some of the most popular Shakespeare plays told from the perspective of the marginalized women. I loved how clever this novel-in-verse story was, giving voice to the feelings, desires and reimagined thoughts of the women (Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia and Lavinia). Great on audio with a full cast of narrators.

Renata

hell yeah this is for me, and for angsty teen feminist theater girlies (of all gender) everywhere

Zadie

3.5

Heather | Nerdy By Nature Blog

*I received a copy of this via the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

Everyone knows the tragic ends of Shakespeare's most famous females, Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, and Lavinia. But what if these girls could rewrite their histories? In a room below the stage where their stories first came to fruition, the four girls meet to form a support group of sorts. Each has been wronged by the ones closest to them, has had their bodies, minds, and souls broken beyond measure, and has decided that enough is enough. They decide to take back their narratives and show the world that a woman's story isn't defined by the words of a man but by her own.

Most of us can remember Shakespeare units in high school English class, and I think many would agree that the females in his plays often got the short end of the stick. I was intrigued to see how McCullough would spin their tales and give them a new voice. The concept was interesting, but the execution was lacking. The meshing of modern speech with verse kept taking me out of the story. There was also a lot of bickering between the characters, and it made them come off as catty instead of trying to empower one another. Also, the whole point was to give these girls a chance to reclaim their narratives, so I was hoping to hear Lavinia's story, but that wasn't the case. I felt like keeping her silent defeated the purpose of the story. That said, if you're a Shakespeare fan or enjoyed the musical Six or the book How to Be Eaten, then it's still worth the read.

Sam - Spines in a Line

Thanks to Penguin Canada for an ARC to review! I highly recommend picking this one up, especially for Shakespeare fans.

I’m familiar with a lot of Shakespeare’s plays but haven’t read or seen a couple that are referenced here (namely King Lear and Titus Andronicus). I think you’d be able to enjoy McCullough’s take without knowledge of the plays but personally I preferred looking up some quick plot points to understand how the author has reimagined these girls’ stories. The main plays referenced are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, and Titus Andronicus so if you’ve got those already, you’re good to go. This book exposes the brutality of these plays, as the blurb mentions that all of these girls die. We don’t see much of these deaths on the page but they are referenced so the reading does feel gory at times.

In McCullough’s telling, these girls are somewhere between character and actor, meeting each night below the stage after their character has been dispatched and prepared to face their death once more when the curtain rises on a new day. But when we meet them offstage, they start to question if this is the only end that could exist for them, if these girls might not deserve something more.

The book is presented almost as a play, or several plays, itself and I would love if it was actually adapted for the stage. It’s poetic and beautiful and devastating, and will certainly give you a new way of considering Shakespeares’ tragedies.

Kayleen

This book was an absolute masterpiece of a novel and I am truly honored to have been blessed with an ARC of. I have always been a fan of Shakespeare so I was very excited to read yet another retelling of his works/characters. ENTER THE BODY was a very unique way of adapting his characters and righting the wrongs that a lot of his women characters have faced.
While reading this book, I was entranced reading each of the main characters, Juliet, Cordelia, and Ophelia, tell their own stories. Even Lavina, who never speaks out loud but who's story is just as important and I think told very well through a lot of subtleties throughout.
I just don't think I can find the words for how beautiful this novel was. I need everyone to read this so I can talk about how amazing this book was.

Dragons*☆4Ever ༊࿐•͙͙✩•͙┄

3.75 Stars
When I read Romeo & Juliet, I thought often about Juliet, thinking to myself, "What about her side of the story?" I wanted to know more about how she felt and how she would have wanted the story to end. Joy McCullough's Enter the Body gives voice to some of the women in Shakespeare's plays and their perspective of the story. As Joy McCullough states, "I believe we can love things and also examine where they fall short." This story examines the trauma that Cordelia, Ophelia, and Juliet experienced and the way they chose to retell their stories and make their own decisions. Overall, an excellent read that felt weak in certain sections but powerful in the poetry and message.

Quotes:
You think me weak
that I would plunge
a blade into my heart
because the boy I loved
lay lifeless at my side.

But love is weakness.
Love is ripping out
your beating heart, laid bare
to the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune.

Or maybe that vulnerability
is a kind of strength.
Hard to say
while the blood
drains from my body.
_____________

One love couldn't change
the course of things,
a seagull's breath
against the ocean's tides/

Could we even call it love,
this spark ignited when palm met palm
and turned to raging inferno that threatened
to incinerate the world around us?

Whatever it was, it drove Romeo to my garden, my heart,
drove me to dream beyond
the hate I'd learned.

Perhaps a seagull's breath
could turn the tides.
______________
11.
Sometimes I thought
that when Mother died
I expired as well and left behind
a ghost, a shell, invisible girl.

Invisible, no one cared
how I passed my days,
what I thought or felt.
Perhaps my throat had closed,
my voice unused for so long.

To be noticed and seen,
spoken to and touched,
my soul slammed back into my self
and I ran in terror of my own flesh and blood.
_________________
16
To the celestial
most beautiful Ophelia—

Doubt thou
the stars are fire,
doubt that the sun
doth move,
doubt truth
to be a liar,
but never doubt
I love

Thine evermore,

Hamlet
____________
25.
He changed like the tide,
one day there and then not.

How he could
light me on fire, then
leave me to burn.

How he could
pen words
of such tenderness

then look through me
as though I were insubstantial
a skeletal leaf.

I did not understand.
I'd lose my mother;
I could have shared his grief.

His melancholy wrenched open my own
brought Mother back to haunt me
with the words she would have said
but couldn't now. The teas she would have made,
balms applied to mend his broken heart.

But I
had only stories.
______________
32.
Each quip
a separate thrust
of the knife

the wounds ripped further open,
jagged bloody tears
each time I laughed
pretended
my screams weren't choking me.

Pretended I wasn't begging
time itself to stop,
back up, hurtle forward,
whatever would release me
from this moment.
_______________
My Dance
He told me that I'm beautiful and smart.
He never asked me who I really am.
He told me that I'll make a goodly wife.
He never asked me what I want to be.
He told me who he is and what he wants
and I'd reflect, absorb, and deify.
________________
☑️🆗PLOT
☑️CHARACTERS

Ally

4.5/5

Got an audio arc from Libro.FM

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this, I was worried it was gonna be either girlbossy or shitting on Shakespeare and it wasn’t either of those. It’s a fast read and the audiobook especially is fun as it’s a full cast production with each of our pov characters having a different narrator. It’s funny, in the way that it says Shakespeare is timeless so these girls have picked up modern slang and use it to poke fun at each other. In that note; I wish that since they’ve picked up things like the word “horny” and the “sweet summer child” meme, Cordelia could’ve been allowed to use the terms aro/ace but I understand that even if you have access to those words, figuring out you are on those spectrums is hard when you’re not stuck in Shakespearean tragedy Groundhog Day.

I wish Lavinia had gotten to tell us about herself, her wants, her ideas a little more because her story is the one I’m least familiar with, but she gets to in the end, in her way, and I’ll take that

If your favorite song in Six the musical is the one at the end where they rewrite their stories and get to live, this is a book for you

Kimberly

Really enjoyed this take, although Lavinia’s character felt limited. Like Juliet ripped the dagger out, Ophelia isn’t drowned, wouldn’t Lavinia’s injuries be undone too? Or because that was before her death she had to stay that way? I guess I just I wish she was given her voice fully given the theme of the book.

Clare Snow

"Not all stories can be told. Some are so dark and twisted, their telling would undo the world. But just because she doesn't speak doesn't mean Lavinia can't share who she is, what she's been through, who she'll be, if given the chance."

I didn't expect Part 2, and of the whole, I am undone

Madison

I really enjoyed the way the author played with different types of verse for different characters and situations. I didn't love the Trap Room interludes as much, but I think this will really resonate with a certain kind of kid who loves Hamilton or Six.

Kenna DeValor

Finished this in one sitting! Amazing and fast-paced play-poetry format unlike anything I've ever seen. Super refreshing would recommend for a hardcore Shakespeare fan/English Major/Theatre Kid !

Sasha

4.5 💞🔥

Janine

LOVED!! Thank you, Natasha, for the recommendation. This was such a fun and different take on some of Shakespeare’s female characters. My one point: I wish it was Desdemona, instead of Lavinia, in the central cast. I get why it’s Lavinia, but I just wanted a bit more there.

Title	:	Enter the Body
Author	:	Joy McCullough
Rating	:
ISBN	:	0593406753
ISBN-10	:	9780593406755
Language	:	English
Format Type	:	Hardcover
Number of Pages	:	336
Publication	:	First published March 14, 2023
Awards	:	BCCB Blue Ribbon Fiction (2023), SLJ Best Books Young Adult (2023)

Enter the Body by Joy McCullough

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