Explanations + Reviewing: Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

You may have noticed that after Day 5 my community service posts stopped happening. Well, I'll tell you why. First of all, I forgot to do Day 6. I got too busy to do Day 7. I had no wi-fi Day 8. And by Day 9, well-- I gave up. It's not like there was a lot to talk about-- if you'd read all my past posts they withered down to complaining about the heat, Windex getting in my mouth (had I mentioned that? if I hadn't, it's terrible), sore feet, waking up early, and having to be social. Also, doing the exact same thing every weekend. It's great knowing exactly what to do and how to do it (I'm very much a control freak-- at least, I am when it comes to a situation I'm in), so it's not all bad. It's actually gotten to the point where I don't mind it.

But enough about community service. I have other topics for this post, one of which is a book I recently read called Juliet Immortal.

It was another recommendation by my sister, who had been torturing me to read it for months (minor exaggeration) and I finally got around to it.

I liked it. I liked it lots.

Fans of Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver and Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush will relish this intense paranormal love story featuring Romeo and Juliet, literary history's most tragic couple, who meet again, not as true lovers, but truly as enemies.
The most tragic love story in history . . .

Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love.

"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume."
—Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Okay well let me start off by saying it is not like Shiver or Hush (thankfully, because Shiver was just okay and Hush, well... I did a review on that). And even if I loved both of those books, it still was nothing like Juliet Immortal.

Ahem... Quick Tip

This is one of those books that is very hard to review without giving away major spoilers, so in preparation for that, spoilers will be shown as [  ] with variating spaces between brackets. The type between them is white so you'll need to highlight to read them.

The Main Characters

Juliet wasn't immediately like-able. I didn't really enjoy reading about her until the last half of the book, and even then she was just okay. She seemed naive, love-sick, and indecisive, and then we suddenly see the darker side of her-- the side of her that grew in response to Romeo's betrayal. But if we're being completely honest here, [it wasn't actually Romeo's fault. Juliet killed herself, and he didn't anticipate that she would].

Romeo has got to be one of the best villains I have ever read. I was constantly questioning if he was a villain or not. If he still loved Juliet or not. If he was just insane or not. And that's what villains are supposed to do. They are supposed to make you question. Not just to question them or their goals, but yourself. In fact, I'm still not sure that he was the villain. I'm sure that he didn't start out the villain all those years ago when he was still Romeo Montague-- naive and innocent. Maybe he became one through all the choices he made and all the torture he went through.

About the Ending...

Not only was it kind of abrupt after the endless possible endings the author was offering, it was way too neat. Way too neat. Everything just fit together perfectly, and to be honest [the whole alternate universe thing made close to zero sense to me]. However, I didn't hate it. It was okay, and it wrapped things up, thus completing its assigned job. 

Final Judgement 

Things I Liked:

Romeo. Shocker here. I thought I would hate him (not as a character but as a villain. Does that make sense?) but turns out he was one of my favorite characters.

The creepy factor. Call me twisted. The creepiness honestly is one of the things that kept me tied to the book.

How Juliet [fixes the relationship between Ariel and her mom] < super minor spoiler. I liked this part because it shows what Juliet's job really is. To bring hope and love to people's lives. Also, it was just super touching.

Ben. I didn't like [the insta-love that happens between him and Juliet and how he ends up being Benvolio (how convenient, amiright?)] < this is NOT a super minor spoiler-- but he was so nice that I couldn't help but like him.

Contemporary Romeo and Juliet with a dark twist. Need I say more?

Things That Were Just Okay OR I Hated:

Juliet. Juliet could have been better. For me, who thinks the story rides on the characters-- especially the main character-- she was a little bit of a let-down.

Gemma. So bitter and angry and her mood-swings are cray. (I understand that half the characters in this book are supposed to be damaged people, but Gemma...)

Nurse. Nurse made me very mad. That is all. 

How convenient the ending was. With the amount of tension leading up to what I assumed would be a huge finale that would leave me clapping like an elated seal (that is a thing, by the way) this was also a bit of a let-down.

She will fight for light, and he for dark, 

Battling through the ages for love's sweet spark. 

Wherever two souls adore truly, you will find them, lo, 

The brave Juliet and the wicked Romeo.

Community Service Day 5

(Sorry for being a day late.)

Okay, so, I showed up a little before 8, as per usual, and got busy doing the exact same thing. I said "Good morning," to the lady who sits at the desk, then dry-mopped the basketball court. Pink-Ponytail-In-Overalls asked me how I could tell where I'd been, and I told him I followed the lines. It requires a lot of focus, actually. 

After I was done dry-mopping (the old lady who uses the track every Saturday wasn't there for some reason), I cleaned the windows by the exit and entrance. 

Then I took a small break and cleaned the track windows. No one came in until a red-haired dude who was dribbling a basketball and staring at his phone while wearing headphones.

It turns out you can do a lot of people watching through the track windows. Call me a creeper, but nothing gets me bored like cleaning windows for one hour.

Welcome to my hometown, where every guy over the age of eighteen wears a baseball cap and grown men race their golf carts.

It's very amusing.

I ate chocolate while waiting for my mom to pick me up. It was delicious. 

When I got home, I danced in my room for a while (around 30 minutes, which is pretty short compared to how much I've been dancing recently) then ate. And then I watched Youtube for a few hours. And then I danced some more. And then I wrote for one of my WIPs for a little while. And then I danced. And then I ate and watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier with my dad and sister. 

IT WAS PERFECTION. I swear, Marvel keeps getting better.

Before I end this post, I want to apologize for not talking about books in a really, really, really long time. I've been super busy with school and such. My only free time is on the weekend, and those are usually spent chilling with the fam. I'll try to put up something book-related soon, but I make no promises.

Community Service Day 4

So I've already been drowning in regular school and now I have to take a college course while participating in group projects and doing community service and ASDFGHJKL.

But that's okay because I can do this.

Maybe.

Ahem. So, today went fairly well, except for the part where I got blisters on the backs of both of my feet and I could barely walk. 

I did the exact same thing today as I did for the past two weeks. CLEANING CLEANING WALKING CLEANING WALKING SWEATING.

It's getting very tiresome, but it could be worse.

I'm getting pretty comfortable with minimal socializing now, so that's good. A weird thing I noticed about myself is my voice just goes like an octave lower when I talk with strangers.

Good news is I listened to music while cleaning today so it wasn't as boring. 

I hate my alarm.

It's all high and screechy and SUPER DUPER loud even though my volume was turned way down and I was worried I wouldn't hear it.

My mom burst in the room and was all like "WHY IS YOUR ALARM SO LOUD"

And I was trying to open my eyes but they were refusing so I kinda just turned my face towards her with my eyes 1/3 opened and groaned bewilderedly (that is a word now), which, translated, means: why are yoU SO LOUD.

My brother was super happy to see me when I got home so I was all like YAY and did a dramatic hug and spin thing the movies. 

Yes these are k-pop gifs. I have no regrets.

Community Service Day 3

At first I was going to skip. I mean, c'mon, I have a cold and a my sister is just coming back from college for the weekend. I don't want to wake up at seven and go walk until the back of my feet get blisters. No.

Just no.

Anywho, I went and did the exact same thing as last time. I dry-mopped the basketball court, cleaned windows, and then cleaned more windows. I have six hours of community service now, which doesn't feel like a lot. I have so much more to do. Ugh.

I got there at around eight. I walked in and got started. There were five people in the basketball court/indoor arena at one time. It was distracting. 

They were all quite old (over sixty, atleast), and one old guy came in with over-alls and a baseball cap and a pink ponytail.

There was one couple that had walked the track yesterday that was there again today. (read: guy of said couple was the one who said all I needed was to be taller while I was cleaning windows last week) 

Anyways, he's all jokey and jolly, and the lady snorts and makes some dry comment to everything, and he just chuckles and grins and she sort of smiles and they keep on walking.

I make up stories sometimes because it can get really boring. It's usually some twisted version of High School Musical. What team? WILDCATS.

Pink-Hair-Man said that my purse was gonna weigh me down. I said "yeah, I'll probably set it down soon." 

I didn't. 

It's getting easier to converse. Instead of just standing awkwardly until someone takes notice of me, I've worked up the nerve to get the conversation rolling. 

(Making noise works, too. Just set something down near them as hard as possible and act innocent when they jump in surprise.)

I really wanted to listen to music, but sound carries like everything in that building. One lady had earphones on later on in the morning and every time she walked past me while I was cleaning the track windows, I could hear rock/jazz music blasting from her earphones. One time, I heard a really malicious laugh and was worried.

A guy that looked 12/13 came in to the basketball right after she left.

I was super hungry so I ate half of one of my granola bars. 

The bathrooms creep me out because they make weird noises. (for example: I'll think I hear someone walking super quietly but there's no one there. there are occasional clicking noises.)

I watch too many creepy shows.

My sister picked me up and brought my little brother.

I went home and ate lots because I was starving.

Quick Note: I might not be posting next week (except for Saturday) as I am going to be extremely busy with school. I really don't like my English teacher.

Community Service Day 2

Community service stinks. Quite literally, when you're standing out in the sun cleaning windows and getting more and more dehydrated by the second.

When you've been homeschooled your whole life up 'til the past two years (and you did online school then) human interaction is a legend of sorts. You hear about it. You know the basics-- you've lived with other humans after all, and think you've got there mechanisms down-- and then you're staring at a real live stranger adult person, and you go mute.

What if I sound stupid? What if I look stupid? What if I start sweating and I get all tomato-faced? 

These are all good examples of what goes through my head when saying in a loud, clear voice that I am very proud of, "I'm here for community service."

Good.

Lord.

I walked everywhere. I sat down for ten minutes, then got up and walked around a track cleaning windows. I'm short. I'm really short. That became painfully obvious, both to me and the passerby, when I was cleaning big windows.

Below the track (it's a little track. it doesn't even look like a real track.) is a basketball court. At first it was just me mopping the floor, then it was me cleaning the track and a guy playing basketball. I was so glad he was playing on the side opposite of me because it was so loud and my nerves were already on edge. I was scared that if I got to close and the ball slammed into the board thingy behind the basket I would leap a foot in the air.

There were like twelve windows.

Who the heck has twelve windows in one darn room?

Too much sunlight for a hermit like myself. If I don't have a good tan at the end of all this, I'm going to be very perturbed.

And then THREE MORE GUYS CAME IN. And it was the stuff of nightmares. My heart was doing some weird bouncy thingy that popcorn does in the microwave. So many basketballs slammed into the board thingy that I was sure I was going to die of a heart attack.

Plus, can I just say awkward eye contact because awkward eye contact.

I was being very judgmental. Can you tell? Guy 1 seemed like a fairly good player but the other three were just lunging at the basket with all they had. Lord. It might've had something to with the fact that one of them was, like, seven, and the other one was thirteen or something. The dad was okay. He threw too hard.

I'm pretty sure that when you throw a basketball you don't throw yourself forward and hurl the ball with one hand. It looks awkward. And painful. I'm pretty sure you could dislocate your shoulder throwing like that.

And then MORE PEOPLE.

And MORE AWKWARD EYE CONTACT.

An old couple was walking the track, and when they came across me, the man chuckled and said, "All you need is to be a little taller, eh?"

My face laughed.

My heart did something else.

I think maybe it died.

Anyways, when I was done, I jogged down the steps with a super ginormous roll of towels that was WAY BIGGER THAN NECESSARY. It was as wide as the distance from my wrist to my elbow. SO HUGE.

I walked out looking as dignified as I could under the circumstances and walked up to the lady at the desk to let her know I was done.

I left and paced outside the building. Just ten minutes. Ten minutes, and then I would be on my way home. Oh, black jeep, where are you?

These are some of the thoughts I had while waiting to be picked up by my dad:

Basketball seems interesting when you're right there. Football does too. Eh.

I need a new cellphone.

It's really hot today.

I'm not sweating. My entire face is crying.

My feet hurt.

My arms are sore.

I'm so short. Why am I so short? Curse you, DNA.

Dude. I can still hear thumping from inside the basketball court.

I'm mad.

I set off across the parking lot because I was getting bored and started to walk around the outdoor track because clearly the solution to the bottoms of your feet burning is to WALK MORE.

I was just about to reach it when my dad drove up.

I was so happy that I giggled and hopped all the way to the jeep.

This was my second day of community service.

I don't like it.

At all.

Sigh.


I have community service once a week every week. If you want me to continue to do updates, let me know the comments. If there are no replies, I'll probably do it anyways because I need to vent.

I drank Gatorade and I think I'm in love.