Book 3 Listicle #6

5 Reasons My Life Next Door is the Modern Day Romeo and Juliet

                Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the classic story of forbidden love. There have been many remakes and interpretations of the tale throughout the years, but My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick is strikingly similar. From feuding families to concerned friends, Shakespeare’s great piece of literature shows great comparisons to this new piece of chick-lit.

1.       Jase and Samantha are star-crossed lovers, very similar to Romeo and Juliet.

All her life, Samantha was so very jealous of the Garret family (Jase’s large family). She had always wanted to be a part of them somehow, but her mother did not approve. Just like in Romeo and Juliet, where the Montague's and Capulet’s are pitted against each other, the Reed family had a hatred for the fun-loving Garret family. So naturally, she forebode her daughter to have any ties to the Garret’s. But of course, Samantha and Jase fall in love without the knowledge of Grace.

2.       They had to keep their love a secret from Samantha’s mother.

Similarly to the secrecy Romeo and Juliet had to partake in, Sam and Jase also had to hide their forbidden love from Grace Reed. Throughout the novel, they participated in secret meetings and always met in their hideout spot. This shows parallels to Romeo and Juliet because whenever they were to meet, it had to be in secret. 

3.       Jase and Samantha fall in love very quickly.

Samantha had always known about Jase and the Garret family, but she never had any interactions with them because of her mother’s disapproval. After only meeting Jase a few times, Samantha knew she loved him. While describing the feeling of being with him, she says, “It was as if everything else in the world stops as we lie here in the summer night,” (Fitzpatrick 253). Jase and Samantha had a love very similar to Romeo and Juliet. Even though they knew each other a little bit longer than three days, like Romeo and Juliet, Sam and Jase fell very hard and very fast, in love.

4.       The “incident” at the end of the novel resembles all of the Tybalt-Mercutio-Benvolio drama.

Without giving away too much of the book, the end draws a few parallels to all of the conflict between Tybalt, Mercutio and Benvolio. Also throughout the book, Jase’s brothers are very similar to Mercutio, in a way that they always gave him advice. His brother was a bit of an anchor for Jase and they kept him level-headed. At the end of the novel, they is a large blowout between the families, much like the fight between Tybalt, Mercutio and Benvolio.

5.       Samantha spends a lot of her time on her balcony.

Most of the major scene’s in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet take place on Juliet’s balcony. This is also true in My Life Next Door. Samantha and Jase had been neighbors for their whole lives, alluded to in the title of the novel. Since Sam’s mother never let her hang out with her neighbors, the Garret’s, she was always watching from her balcony window. Also throughout the novel, Jase and Sam spend a lot of time sneaking in and out of Sam’s bedroom window. “I sit up, edge over close to my window, and push it open, then next turning back to Jase, ‘Come on’”(Fitzpatrick 301). This scene is almost identical to the famous balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.

        Romeo and Juliet may have been written centuries ago, it still has its modern implications. Reading its modern day remakes gives us, as readers, a better understanding of classic literature. My Life Next Door may be a fluffy chick-lit novel, but it does draw some parallels to literary writing as formal as William Shakespeare.