Juno and Juliet by Julian Gough

The blurb on the back of this book reads "Juno and Juliet are beautiful teenage twins embarking on a degree course in Galway. So beutiful they are, in fact, that men cannot resist them, and the girl spend much of their time fending off the amourous advances of various reprobates, with often hilarious consequences. 1a modern, at time brilliantly ironic reworking of the classical fairytale, with nods to Shakespeare, Austen and Beckett. J+J is an intelligent look at the magical banality of student life which achieve that all too rare sunthesis of piercing observation and the feelgood factor"

When I picked this book up I initially thought I was going to be reading some typical chick-lit with the generics of "Single girl/woman looking for boyfriend, goes shopping, does housework" which I actually happened to be looking for (how is this going to be an eclectic book review blog without some chick-lit?) but I was slightly wrong. Yes it steers more towards chick-lit that your general fiction but it can also appeal to the male audience also.

J+J is written in a first-person perspective which I prefer as it can add more emotion or personal views to the reading. We are introduced to the two twins of the namesake, Juno and Juliet, the former who is considered by the latter to be the cleverer and wittier of the pair, despite them being identical and from the first page we get an insight into the personalities. From here on it flies through a tale of two students in university with the sex, drugs and alchohol playing a bit part to the story with some love and a stalker thrown in for good measure.

The twins are just like you'd imagine where they comfort each other and do everything (bar a few activities) together, very much like the end of the video at the end of this review.

Gough has a skill of writing which I've not read before and it is clear that he writes from experience and with much truth. This helps us to "connect" with the characters better as well as making it hard to put the book down. It is one of those books which you can get completely buried into where the words turn to pictures and you completely lose track of the time and your surroundings. I spent many hours over 3 days sat on my bed buried in this book desperate to know how it would end and would Juliet end up with the person she fell in love with.

Juliet can get a little irritating near the end, but only slightly and not enough to you want to tell her to just STFU(!)

I haven't quite read a novel this well written in a long time and it is one which I'd recommend to anyone interested in reading general fiction. This is a feel good read which, although slightly more feminine, would be good for a male audience also.

I'd rate this book at 4.5/5. It would make it to 5 if the aforementioned issue with Juliette was changed a little.