I have always struggled reading the “classics”, and I’m including Romeo and Juliet in that group. The play was assigned in a high school English class, and I don’t remember reading it. (Cliff Notes maybe???) So I have really enjoyed many of the retellings I’ve found. I have a more meaningful connection to the story in more “modern” times (Demon Copperhead, for example). I’m being exposed to the classics, but in a way that is more interesting to me as a reader.
I do appreciate the creativity of the authors and the way they can reimagine and retell, BUT at the same time I can’t help feeling they are taking a bit of a shortcut-building on someone else’s ideas instead of creating something brand new. I don’t want books to be like movies; we have sequels and then prequels, and then 150 years in the future. At some point I fear the power of the original may be lost. So, I’m a little conflicted!