If You Choose To Look At The Cover For ‘Romeo And/or Juliet,’ Continue Reading

Back when Ryan North launched his Kickstarter to publish To Be Or Not To Be, a chooseable-path version of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, he made the promise that if it was successful enough, he'd work on a similarly interactive version of Romeo & Juliet. Now, it's happening, and while we've known for a while that it's set to hit shelves this summer, today we have a brand new cover by Noelle Stevenson to go along with it.

And considering that it involves Romeo and Juliet battling a giant robot with buzzsaw hands and laser eyes, I think it's fair to say that once again, North has drastically improved on his source material. Plus, I think there's a distinct possibility that Romeo might become a Batman.

Or at least a Robin.

If you didn't read To Be Or Not To Be, then the idea of doing a choose-your-own-adventure style version of a play that has a pretty well-defined five-act structure might come off as pretty weird. If you have read it, well, you already know that it's pretty weird, but in a good way. It's incredibly well structured, allowing readers to choose to play through the way Shakespeare intended (filtered through North's commentary on the events of the play), or go completely off the rails right at the start by playing through as Ophelia, the Ghost of Hamlet's Dad, or even switching to other characters as the book goes on.

On top of that, there are even more gimmicks in play, including a chooseable-path-adventure-within-the-chooseable-path-adventure (replacing Hamlet's famous play-within-a-play, The Murder of Gonzago), and a chess game between Ophelia and Queen Gertrude. I think it's a safe bet to say that something similar will happen in Romeo And/Or Julit, but what form they might take remains to be seen. All we know is that, much like To Be Or Not To Be, the actual Shakespearean path through the book will be marked, although this time it's by hearts instead of skulls.

Which, when you think about it, is pretty weird imagery for a story that ends in a double suicide. Uh, spoiler warning?

Romeo and/or Juliet will be on sale on June 7, 2016. For more information, check out North's website!