Twelfth Knight

Viola's maintenance setting is annoyance. She's ultra-organized and anyone not like that is fodder for contempt and harsh words. She knows how unlikable she is, but when her suggested campaign for her tabletop gaming group is met with a less than enthusiastic response from the other players, including her only real friend, she withdraws into an online game where she plays as a male because of the prejudice against female gamers.
In her real life, she is becoming increasingly frustrated by the lackadaisical attitude of the student body president who's also the top player on the football team. When he's injured and football's off the table for a long time...maybe for good, he starts playing the same game. Neither is initially aware that show more they've teamed up to complete a series of challenging online quests, but the more they play, the more of that growing camaraderie seeps into their prickly real life relationship. The romance that ensues is uneven and messy, but great fun to follow. show less

All Vi Reyes wants is to be respected, and in the game Twelfth Knight, where her avatar is Cesario, she is. But in her offline life - her ConQuest game with her best friend Antonia and a bunch of dudes, at school where she's the student body VP but does everyone else's work - she's frustrated and angry.

Jack Orsino is a football legend, a running back who can't wait to clinch his senior season and then swan off to Illyria - but an injury in the first game of the season sets him on an unexpected path. He starts playing Twelfth Knight as DukeOrsino, and meets Cesario there - but he doesn't know it's Vi.

*Spoilers*

In exchange for Jack "doing his job" as president, Vi agrees to find out from his girlfriend, Olivia, why she has been distant show more lately, and eventually, Olivia reveals she fell for a girl last summer, and might have feelings for Vi as well. Vi doesn't return the feelings, but the two remain friends.

As Vi and Jack begin falling for each other, Vi's twin brother Bash (Sebastian), who's into band and theater, urges her to tell Jack the truth, but Vi delays, even trying to get Bash to play Cesario in a Twelfth Knight event at school. Eventually, Vi comes clean, and Jack forgives her.

A really fun twist on Shakespeare's Twelfth Knight, with a Black Orsino, Latine-cued Viola and Sebastian, and Muslim Olivia. It goes deep into the world of gaming and also football - a unique combination!

Quotes

...I don't actually need to be liked. What I want is to be respected... (Viola, 100)

"There's a version of your life where you do other things. Infinite versions. And when you make a choice, you cast off one possible outcome, but then, I don't know - ten more pop up in its place. And you just keep going like that, choosing a path and watching new paths branch off in front of you. Even if the old ones disappear behind you, it doesn't have to be sad." (Vi to Jack, 162)

...if I'm the kind of person who is never allowed to get angry, then Vi is never allowed to be sad. (Jack, 201)

Sometimes it feels like there's a cliff-edge, the right moment for the truth, and you either pull yourself back from it or you sail headfirst into a crevasse. (Vi, 209)

She's this fingerprint on who I am and what I do and where I go... (Vi, re: Antonia, 267)

I got close to Vi without knowing she had a window into me that I've never had with her. (Jack, 277)

From the Acknowledgments: "Writing this book was like passing a kidney stone." show less

While Shakespeare's play serves more as a reference point than plot framework, this YA enemies-to-lovers romance is completely delightful on its own merits.

Padua, high school, gaming, Shakespeare--this really has it all. Many characters are recognizable in their place in Taming of the Shrew. Vi has a twin instead of a little sister, but that's ok, this isn't a linear take of the tale. Vi faces a lot of misogyny in the gaming world, so much so that her main character in the famed Twelfth Knight game is male. Enter football great, ACL torn Jack with a lot of time on his hands and no idea that his new quest partner is the prickly Vi from the school board.

I picked this up after (greatly) enjoying Masters of Death, but this was not nearly as enjoyable to me as that one.

I love the nerd x jock trope, but Vi's character felt less like a nerd and more of an antisocial mean girl, even to the characters that supported her, yet she was instantly friends with Olivia?

Additionally, the romance was cute and has some sweet moments, but it felt a little off how heavy is came from Jack, as he has had far less interaction with Vi (that he knows of) yet he seems to instantly switch from Olivia to Vi and it caught me very off guard. I would have enjoyed to see it developed more, or even Vi being the one to make the first move as she knew him much more intimately.

Overall, the book was enjoyable but nothing show more to write home about show less

Both of the main characters were frustrating at times but their struggles and conversations felt genuine and for the most part not forced. There were a few things that felt a bit overdone (like the first few chapters) and the romance didn't quite work for me but overall I had a good time reading it. Though there's a side character that I wish Vi had ended up with instead.

Hated the characters. Vi is horrible, but also everyone is horrible to her as well, so I get why she hates everyone. Her 'friends' are jerks and her best friend defends the random ADULT man who is being inappropriate and creepy to her.