Take Her Down is a queer YA retelling of Julius Caesar. Set at August Magnet School where scheming is creative and loyalty ever-changing, the story follows Bronwyn St. James, a girl who goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon overnight and lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader. Life gets even worse for Bronwyn when her ex-best friend and lesbian powerhouse Jude Cuthbert ostracises Bronwyn from the queer social elite when she starts dating a boy, Porter Kendrick. As Bronwyn and Jude battle for student body president, war breaks out between the girls. But after Bronwyn, Porter and Cass share a video of Jude in a compromising position, Jude suddenly goes missing. No one has seen or heard from her in weeks and it might all be Bronwyn’s fault. Will Jude be found? Or will Bronwyn have to reckon with what she’s done?
I would bet money on the fact that Take Her Down will split readers into two camps: those who will DNF it and those who will devour it based on how they react to the themes in the novel. Me? I landed somewhere in the middle.
Let’s get to the good parts first.
The setting of the novel was fantastic. Beyond Augustus Magnet School, this was set during the months after the 2016 election. Honestly, it was as horrifying as it was validating to read a novel describing the time after Trump became president without ever naming names in the story. Whalen powerfully shows how teenagers were impacted by the 2016 election and how scared they must have felt to have been robbed of a female president who understood their plights and instead faced with someone in office who wanted to very much take away the rights of anyone who wasn’t like him. This time period really influenced a lot of the actions of the characters in the novel and I loved how that reflected trying to regain power in your own vicinity when you’re too young to do anything about it in the large scale of things (I merely mean voting here, we have all seen that young individuals are amazing at taking up political torches and making the world a better, safer place).
I also loved that we have a main character who identifies as demigirl and uses she/they pronouns. Antonia becomes a bigger part of the story throughout the chapters and I enjoyed watching them going from a side character to someone who figuratively brings the whole house down. There is also Cass who’s contemplating her own sexual orientation and while this isn’t a focus, I think it added a lot to have someone try to figure out who they are but not being able to because literally everything around them is crumbling. We also have some great moments of internalised (and externalised) biphobia that show how harmful it can be when sexual orientation is presumed to be something solid when it—like any part of us—is up to change. Jude basically ostracises Bronwyn because she considers Bronwyn a traitor to the lesbian community and while it isn’t easy reading those parts of the novel, it was…interesting to see what causes these harmful misconceptions. Though I will say that if you’re triggered by the biphobic lesbian trope, this book won’t be for you.
That being said, there were some things about Take Her Down that didn’t quite work for me. Due to the nature of this story, there is quite a lot of telling and little showing which is fine since this is literally a student writing down an account of what happened. However, the pacing dragged incredibly up until the halfway point. Of course, we have to get to know all the characters and set up and there are bound to be repetitions when you’re looking at the same narrative from so many different POVs but sometimes it was annoying to get the same information three times from three different perspectives with little to no variations instead of using this opportunity to show inconsistencies or even unreliable narration. However, this was somewhat remedied by the shortness of the chapters that kept the pace moving more swiftly in the second half of the novel.
I also think that there was a lot of potential in this story but whether readers will like it really depends on how much they can stomach—there’s quite a bit of biphobia in here and discussions of mental illness that aren’t always politically correct. I think it’s super vital to see teenagers engage with biphobia and how much of that often comes from people in the LGBTQIAP+ community itself and how it can feel like a betrayal—Whalen really hammers that home in such an emotionally impactful way. But of course, there are moments where it feels utterly devastating to read the reactions from young teens who many consider to be more open-minded than adults. The story is very much intended to be from the view of teenagers so some of the phrasings and reasonings of course make sense but if you’re easily triggered by self harm, sexual assault, or biphobia, be aware of that being big parts of the novel going in.
Lastly, without spoiling anything, there is a range of tough topics included in this novel and while some of them —especially during the Trump era—are addressed in detail, there is one that is the driving force behind and plot twist of the latter parts of the novel and I wish it would have been resolved better. For lack of a better way to phrase it, the stakes that are set throughout the novel are incredibly high and yet, there seem to be almost no consequences for any of the characters who do wrong in this novel—neither those who do it with good intentions nor those who are nefarious and should be put behind bars (you’ll get who I mean once you read the story). But I guess that, too, was supposed to reflect that people don’t always get what’s coming to them.
Nevertheless, if you’re a fan of queer retellings, up for some backstabbing and scheming and feel like Gossip Girl meets Carrie set during the Trump presidency is up your alley, then Take Her Down might be the perfect read for you!
Take Her Down is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
In this queer YA retelling of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, stakes at Augustus Magnet School are cutthroat, scheming is creative, and loyalty is ever-changing.
Overnight, Bronwyn St. James goes from junior class queen to daughter of an imprisoned felon, and she lands in the care of her aunt and younger cousin Cass, a competitive cheerleader who Bronwyn barely knows. Life gets worse when her ex-best friend, the always-cool Jude Cuthbert, ostracizes Bronwyn from the queer social elite for dating a boy, Porter Kendrick.
Bronwyn and Jude are both running for student body president, and that means war. But after Bronwyn, Porter, and Cass share a video of Jude in a compromising position, Jude suddenly goes missing. No one has seen her for weeks and it might be all Bronwyn’s fault.
Will Jude ever be found? Or will Bronwyn finally have to reckon with what she’s won―and what she’s lost?
