Enter the Body

[Trap Room]
(The trap room beneath all the stages, anywhere. The ghost light is perpetually on, but it illuminates very little. Which makes it easier to keep to oneself.

That woman with blood on her hands, for example, always wanders into the same corner, every time she crashes through that great stage of fools to this space beneath. Muttering to herself, but never to anyone else.

The one in the nightgown with strangle marks around her neck -clutching a handkerchief like it ll save her from these men, these men -she usually heads to a corner too, after the fall. But only because she doesn t know what else to do.

It s a room, but there are infinite corners.

Enough for everyone to avoid the zealot in singed armor who reeks of the fire that burned her. Or the wild--eyed queen who looks as though she died a dozen deaths before she drank the poison that brought her here. The sisters who killed one another definitely need their own corners.

They crash through, again and again, these women, while the boards above their heads creak with the trodding of the ones who live, or die in glory.

It gets to be monotonous.

But now comes a girl the others aren t accustomed to. It s not that she hasn t been down here before. In fact, she arrived before the rest of them, a violent splotch of ink from the quill of the Bard so young he hadn t yet mastered his instrument. She is the first draft to his later masterpieces; without her they don t exist. And yet they can be forgiven for not remembering her; the moment they see her, they do their level bests to shove her from their minds.

You would too. Only I won t let you.

The jolt this first--draft girl receives when her body crumples to the ground is the least of her concerns. Those concerns are pretty evenly tied between the blood that gushes from her mouth, and also from the end of each arm, where hands should be. But hands are not.

She doesn t even bother uncrumpling. What would be the point?

But there s

Joy McCullough

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A BCCB Best Book of the Year
A Rise Feminist Book Project Title

At once tender, poetic and ferocious, Enter The Body breathes new life into the Bard s most tragic heroines. More than a tribute to Shakespeare, this kaleidoscopic, ambitious novel-in-verse gives Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, and Lavinia the chance to tell their own stories full of passion, justice, sisterhood, and love. Simply spectacular. Two-Time National Book Award Finalist and Michael L. Printz Award Winner Laura Ruby, author of Bone Gap

"Radically creative... This provocative book could inspire all kinds of fresh approaches to the plays, not to mention lots of engaging writing projects for students." Washington Post

Body turns Shakespeare on his head while honoring h"a radically creative book for young adults who are familiar with Shakespeare s plays. McCullough resurrects the dead teenage girls Ophelia, Cordelia and Juliet and lets them speak in verse and to each other about their fates. (Lavinia from Titus Andronicus serves as a silent witness.) This provocative book could inspire all kinds of fresh approaches to the plays, not to mention lots of engaging writing projects for students. is talent as the girls retells their stories on their own terms.... Truly outstanding. Booklist, starred review

"By innovatively mining feminist themes of autonomy, exploitation, and patriarchy, McCullough boldly reconceptualizes Shakespeare s version of the female point of view for a new generation of Bard enthusiasts." The Horn Book, starred review

"Form as a mode of personal expression is conscious, deliberate, and stunningly effective here and elevates this novel above and beyond many run-of-the-mill Shakespeare retellings to a carefully constructed and emotionally resonant consideration of tragedy and autonomy.... This will be a revelation for teens seeking to claim their own narrative as a distinct