Book #10: "West Side Story"...Finished!!

Book #10 "West Side Story" - Irving Shulman: So I personally wasn't overly thrilled with this book. I mean sure, maybe it is better as a musical I wouldn't know.
    The part that probably bothered me the most out of anything was the whole, 'oh these two random people end up going to a dance and see each other and immediately fall in love with each other and then in less then 48 hours he is talking to her about marring him' thing.
   Does this not bother anyone else?
   And then as if the whole marring a complete stranger thing doesn't bother you at all then you start to realize that the whole story has a very Romeo and Juliet kind of feel to it, both Maria and Tony come from to different worlds and they are pretty much forbidden to be together but they vow to make it work anyways (when has that ever worked for anyone?).
   As the story starts coming to a close it gets crazy, still keeping with the whole Romeo and Juliet thing that they have going on, and then before you know it people start dying right and left. And maybe it ends differently in the musical (don't worry I'm not going to give the ending away) but the way that the book ended was just really abrupt, and in my opinion, kind sorta lame and stupid. Shulman just kind of drops you leaving you wondering to yourself, "what the heck?". 
   Like I have said before, I have not seen the musical so maybe I have no room to judge but my final thought on "West Side Story" is that it is just a more modern day rip off of the Romeo and Juliet story. And let's be serious for a moment, how many times has that story line been redone now?
   Didn't really hate it but didn't really love it either. However, I would be interested in seeing the musical even if only for the sake of seeing how it compares to the book.
   Okay so I am going to be doing something a little different. I am going to be reading two books at a time, mostly cuz I have more time now that it is Summer but also cuz I really need to pick up the pace if I am going to have any chance of finishing all these books by the end of the year. So book #11 is going to be "Heist Society" by Ally Carter and #12 "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. I will be posting about each once I get to the halfway points. That's all for now.
   Until next time,
    Michaela Jane