“Waking Romeo” by Kathryn Barker: Losing The Love of Your Life (BOOK REVIEW)

Losing The Love of Your Life

Hey, Alex! What have you been reading lately?

I am nothing but an open book. Give me a stunning cover and a bold concept, and I will simply fold. Waking Romeo by Kathryn Barker caught my eye immediately – a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, wrapped in sci-fi, time travel, and post-apocalyptic chaos? Say less.

Reading it felt like a return to a former version of myself. Before university, I devoured sci-fi and fantasy, and lately I’ve been very deep in general fiction. Picking this up felt like stepping back in time (which feels appropriate, in context). A nice change of pace, a genre palate cleanser, and a reminder of why speculative fiction can be so fun.

Tell me more. What is the book about?

The year is 2083. Travelling forward in time is possible, but when the world is at its end, there is nowhere left to go.

Romeo has been in a coma for two years. Jules is desperate to wake him up. Cue in Ellis, a secret time traveller, a “Deadender,” who can go backwards and save him. As Jules and Ellis jump back and forth in time together, the dynamic shifts. Jules begins to question everything she thought she knew about Romeo, about love, and about herself. Maybe she never loved Romeo at all. Maybe waking him up isn’t what she wants. And maybe fate isn’t something you can rewrite… no matter how badly you want to.

What are some strong and weak points of the book?

Waking Romeo has a genuinely cool premise. Romeo and Juliet meets Wuthering Heights in a post-apocalyptic, time-travelling world full of suspense, moral dilemmas, and constant movement. The book is fast-paced and drowning in plot twists. While the opening introduces a fair amount of new terminology, it never feels overwhelming: everything fits neatly into the bigger picture.

I also loved how Barker reimagines Romeo and Jules as 21st-century teenagers. They aren’t Shakespearean archetypes frozen in time; they feel modern, impulsive, emotional, and flawed in a way that makes sense for the world and the times they inhabit. The story feels fresh rather than reverent, and it’s not trying to worship the original, but to interrogate it.

That being said, not all elements landed well for me. Ellis, a Black Deadender from the 19th century world of Wuthering Heights, is a fascinating character that I found underdeveloped. Beyond a few archaic phrases thrown out and a heavier use of slurs, I struggled to feel the weight of his centuries-long existence. His background – particularly as a person of colour from a deeply oppressive era – is barely explored, and that felt like a missed opportunity. Writing a character who has lived for 300 years is difficult, true, but I wished for more reflection, more nuance, more acknowledgment of what survival across the ages would actually mean.

I also found myself confused about the target audience of the novel. The characters are mostly teenagers, and while the language includes occasional swearing, the emotional maturity of the text reminds me of an unfiltered middle school story. Jules, in particular, comes across as childish. She swings from obsessing over Romeo to emotionally detaching from him overnight. The shift is rushed and overdramatic, and some “big reveals” are introduced so early that they lose their impact.

For a story rooted in tragedy, it also leans surprisingly heavily into romance. I wanted more grief and discomfort. The stakes were there, but they weren’t pushed far enough for me.

Any final thoughts? Should I read it too?

Waking Romeo is far from perfect, but it is undeniably engaging. It’s imaginative, fast-moving, and genuinely intriguing. Shakespeare plus time travel is a strong hook, and Barker executes it in a way that’s accessible and original.

I do think it would have benefited from deeper character backstories and more thoughtful exploration of its minority representation. And while I enjoyed the ride, I also thought I am slightly outside the intended audience.

Still, if you’re looking for a sci-fi retelling with romance, a romantasy, if you will, this is worth picking up. Think doomed love, rewritten fate, and the question of whether you are allowed to want something other than the story you have been chosen for.

Waking Romeo will intrigue you. And sometimes, that’s all you need to pick up a book.

Thank you so much!! Are there any similar books that you can recommend?

🖤 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë — a timeless story about giving yourself away to love, obsession, and emotional devastation.

⏳ The Time Machine by H.G. Wells — a classic exploration of science, empire, and humanity’s desire to escape (and maybe return to reality).

📲 limaistyping…

rating: ☀️☀️☀️
tropes: ❤️ high school sweethearts | ⛔️ forbidden love | 🪢 dual POV | 📖 story within the story | 🤺 enemies to lovers
read if you like: theatre, time travel, Emily Brontë, apocalypse, pretty covers
look out for: 💀 human debris | ⌚️ an available pod | 😷 the man with the gas mask | 💉 cat-9 | 🐣 the secret in the crypt
Reading this feels like you break your grandma's teapot and try to glue it together before she sees and then you hear her say that she hates tea anyways.