Carmen By: Walter Dean Myers

Title: Carmen
Author: Walter Dean Myers
HARDBACK
Amount of Pages: 160
Release Date: April 26, 2011
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Geared Towards: Older Teens
From: Publisher (ARC)
Extra Info: Based off the Bizet Opera, Carmen.

"I've got to be the old Carmen again. Too hard to hurt, too hard to fall in love."

Summary (From B.O.B): In the heat of Nueva York's el barrio, Spanish Harlem, Carmen, a gorgeous chica with a temper to match, is used to getting the guys she wants. Right now she wants Jose. He seems gentle-not like the gangsta types she's known before. And even though he already has something going with Michaela, a sweet girl who is opposite of Carmen in every way, he falls hard for the streetwise beauty.

But Jose has his own problems. He's a tipo duro-the type of tough guy who has to get his own way. And no one tells Carmen what to do.

When a charismatic rapper-turned-producer enters the scene and hooks up with Carmen, Jose is left with nothing. Things spin out of control, rivalries flare into violence, and the consequences will be deadly.

Wdebo's Review: I have personally never watched Bizet's Carmen or actually known the synopsis of the opera so I thought the story would be hard to understand or hard to get into or both, but it wasn't. It made the plot line of opera accessible, mainly to teens (Well, that was who it was aimed for). I read the synopsis of the opera and Myer's version followed it exactly, which was cool, it actually made me really want to watch the opera.

The book was in play form, so I should start calling this a "play" but I like saying "book" better. It had a very interesting story, but so so so dramatic, my goodness, well, it has a good reason why it's so dramatic (Seeing as how it is copying the opera) but I wasn't sure whether to laugh or pity the character's "pains". To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure what to comment on, since it was in play form so there was not that much actual writing-writing, but the dialogue was good, a little over the top, but good.

I wasn't fond of any of the characters, they were extremely all over the place, the two main characters, Carmen and Jose, bothered me, they both proclaimed their love the first moment they saw each other and yet they continually flirted with those around them, quite disturbing if you ask me. And the "rapper-turned-producer" was no better, he didn't feel very charismatic he just seemed like a pig.

Cafe Cover Chat: I think the cover is ok, I like the layout and the model's hat. (B-)

All in all, a quite well written take on the Bizet's opera, which I'm sure the younger generation of Carmen lovers will enjoy, and even if you've never watched or heard anything about the opera, like me, I'm sure you can find something enjoyable in it also ^^

Grade: B+

Wdebo :)