It can be incredibly easy to finish a book or movie and think it should have ended differently. On the other hand, some books leave the ending to its readers, finishing with an open ending. In Choose Your Own Adventure books, readers take some decisions off the author’s hands and dictate the way the story goes. Choices aren’t always what they seem, however, but readers—or players—can always go back. In Romeo and/or Juliet, by Ryan North, the tragedy often held as the greatest love story of all time is modified in the modern world. 

The one constant of the adventure are the characters: Romeo, a 15-year-old romantic, and Juliet, a boy-obsessed 16-year-old gym rat living under her strict parents’ rules. The first real decision readers make is determining which to play as—or rather, which to start as. As the story progresses, certain choices lead to opportunities to become other characters. Romeo and Juliet aren’t the only characters, however. Not only are readers able to make decisions as other characters(Juliet’s Nurse for example), but readers, as the title references, can be both Romeo and Juliet at the same time, and there are side stories such as the plot of a book Romeo finds in a library in one path, or in Romeo and/or Juliet’s detailed dream. 

Though the Shakespearean play was mostly set in the present and it’s based on a love story, some pathways led to Romeo and/or Juliet traveling through time and not all endings were ‘happily ever after,’ some ending with the characters marrying other people or alone either by ending up independent or death. 

On the downside, the story could be repetitive, over-the-top, and had several inappropriate references as an attempt at humor. Though(especially considering this) the audience is more adults than children, the writing, while mostly nice, can come across as very dramatic and somewhat immature at times. The author constantly addresses the reader which, while entertaining at first, gets tiring fast. 

Romeo and/or Juliet was perfectly named, and while it was not-so-perfect in execution, when not taken seriously it’s a fun way to pass the time and go on multiple different adventures in one sitting. So whether the story of Romeo and Juliet was written to be the greatest love story of all time or isn’t really a tragedy as some readers claim, readers in this book are given the power to choose between it all.