Noor Qureshi

For my final project, I was really struggling to come up with an idea to use, when I suddenly remembered I had read a book a while back called “Two Wrongs Make a Right,” by Chloe Liese that was based on “Much Ado About Nothing”, by Shakespeare and was put into context with a contemporary romantic-comedy in the New Adult genre. This got me thinking about how Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted into modern novels across different genres. It was from there that I discovered Shakespeare’s plays also inspired two books that I had previously read. I had unknowingly read and enjoyed Shakespeare adaptations! This helped me narrow down which books I would focus on in my final project, which were “Two Wrongs Make a Right” by Chloe Liese (as explained previously), “These Violent Delights”, by Chloe Gong, as fantasy/supernatural novel inspired by “Romeo and Juliet”, featuring ex-lovers who are in rival gangs in 1920s Shanghai, and “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, by Suzanne Collins, a young adult/fantasy/dystopian novel inspired by the play “Coriolanus”. 

I knew I wanted to compare and contrast the previously mentioned novels with their Shakespearean play counterpart but I just wasn’t sure what the best way to go about it would be. At first, I thought of doing a podcast, but then quickly realized if I wanted to do it individually a podcast wouldn’t necessarily be the right format. Ultimately, I decided to do it in Tik Tok form, to make it more casual and engaging as if it was a discussion at a book club or a conversation with a friend, as I find Tik Toks to be the perfect amount of time to support my limited attention span while also being entertaining. I also used to make Tik Toks about book reviews and recommendations a few years ago so making Tik Toks for this project was something that came naturally to me. So, I created three 3-minute long Tik Tok videos for the 3 books, recommending them as well as comparing and contrasting them to the plays they are inspired by.

Works Cited:

Collins, Suzanne. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Hunger Games Prequel. Scholastic, 2020. 

“Coriolanus - Entire Play.” Folger Shakespeare Library, www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/coriolanus/read/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2023. 

Gong, Chloe. These Violent Delights. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020. 

Liese, Chloe. Two Wrongs Make a Right. Berkley Romance, 2022. 

“Much Ado about Nothing - Entire Play.” Folger Shakespeare Library, www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/much-ado-about-nothing/read/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2023. 

“Romeo and Juliet - Entire Play.” Folger Shakespeare Library, www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/romeo-and-juliet/read/. Accessed 18 Dec. 2023.