The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

This month’s Saturday Spotlight theme is retellings! Last week I shared the Once Upon a Time series by Cameron Dokey, and you can find that post here.

This week I am sharing Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth. I read this book last year and I absolutely loved it!

Twelfth Knight is a retelling of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Admittedly, I have never read it, but I do love the She’s the Man movie, which is also a Twelfth Night retelling.

This is a grumpy x sunshine book, with tabletop roleplaying games. Unbeknowest to me before I read this book, tabletop gaming is male dominated. Viola is one of the few girls in her group, and is strong-willed and serious, which causes her friend to tell her she should work on being more “likable.”

The main male character is Jack, who is the star of the football team and in general likable. After he injures himself and cannot play football while he heals, he finds solace in an online role playing game.

Violet also plays this online game using the alter ego Cesario. In this game, Violet and Jack’s alter egos- Cesario and Duke Orsino- are shockingly well-matched. After many late nights of playing they begin to get to know each other on a deeper level.

Jack is definitely the sunshine character and Violet the grumpy character, though I do understand Violet’s frustration. Violet learns throughout the novel that everybody has there struggles, which I really enjoyed. And Jack also goes through some struggles. He has to learn who he is outside of football, which I also enjoyed.

The biggest issue I had with this book was there were a lot of things mentioned but never resolved. Hints were given for racism and LGBTQ+ issues in this world, but nothing really came of them. I think the book could have done without these, since they were just hinted at.

I really enjoyed this book when I read it. It is cute and fun- a perfect summer read. I love how this was retold in a modern setting, while also talking about some issues women face as they enter into more male dominated spaces.

Summary:

Viola Reyes is annoyed. Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaigni was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her―girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself. But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos―Cesario and Duke Orsino―are surprisingly well-matched. As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realise they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline…