Drawing on William Shakespeare’s iconic play Romeo and Juliet, the tragedy of two star-crossed lovers trying to love in a world of hate, Sharon M. Draper’s Romiette and Julio (1999) tells the story of two Cincinnati high school students whose interracial relationship (as 16-year-old Romiette “Romi” Cappelle is Black and 16-year-old Julio Montague is Hispanic) raises the ire of the gang that rules their school. In addition to examining gangs in inner-city high schools and the toxic logic of racism, the novel celebrates the power of young love and friendship.

Written early in Draper’s award-winning career that includes more than 30 young adult (YA) titles, Romiette and Julio draws on her many years teaching English in the Cincinnati, Ohio, school system. The novel, a New York Times bestseller, was praised for its investigation of the toxic influence of gangs in schools. In 2014, Rolling Stone named Romiette and Julio among the 40 most influential YA titles of all time, a listing that included Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) and J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951). That next year, Draper was awarded the prestigious Margaret Edwards Award, an annual lifetime achievement award for YA fiction writers presented by the American Library Association. The citation recognized Draper’s career-long commitment to creating complex, sympathetic teenage characters who face complicated real-world issues.

This guide is based on the 1999 Simon Pulse paperback version.

Content Warning: Romiette and Julio mentions and depicts racism, including the use of racial slurs and racially motivated violence.

Plot Summary

Before high school junior Romiette “Romi” Cappelle, an African American girl, meets the new transfer student at her school, a Mexican American boy from Corpus Christi, Texas, named Julio Montague, her life is uncomplicated. Her father is a successful local television news personality, and her mother is the owner of a high-end fashion boutique that specializes in African artifacts. As for her school life, Romiette’s grades are strong and she has friends, but she feels the pressure of a particular gang at her school—the Devildogs, a gang of Black students who all wear purple hoodies and terrorize both students and teachers. Still, her only phobia is open water because she never learned how to swim. She has a recurring nightmare in which she is drowning—she cannot breathe or move her arms and legs—but then she hears the faint sound of a male voice calling her.

Romi is immediately captivated by transfer student Julio’s charisma and good looks. For his part, Julio hates everything about his new home. He misses his friends, his grandfather’s ranch, and the warm weather of coastal south Texas. He resents his parents’ decision to move to Cincinnati, which they did to get him away from the gangs in his old high school. On the first day of school, an angry Julio punches a white student for brushing too close to him in the crowded school corridors. The white student, Ben Olsen, a boy whose eccentric personality has always made him a misfit, refuses to turn Julio in to the principal, and the two become friends. That night, a lonely Julio, using the name “spanishlover,” joins a teen chat room and chats with another logger named “afroqueen.” After a few sessions during which they find out they go to the same school, they agree to meet in the cafeteria. “Afroqueen” turns out to be Romi, and she and Julio quickly become enamored with each other.

However, the Devildogs threaten both Romi and Julio not to continue their interracial relationship. Julio shares his dilemma with his parents. His mother is sympathetic; however, his father’s first girlfriend was killed by a Black gang, so he warns against pursuing a relationship with Romi. Romi and Julio are uncertain where to go for help and enlist their closest friends: Romi’s friend Destiny, a romantic, and Julio’s friend Ben, a misfit. The four friends hatch a daring plan to expose the Devildogs: They plan to record the members’ threats and deliver the information to Romi’s father at the local news station. Romi and Julio plan to lure the Devildogs to a remote section of their neighborhood park and encourage their threats for recording purposes. Destiny and Ben will wait in a nearby parked car, ready to step in if anything goes wrong. However, unbeknown to Romi and Julio, Ben’s car runs out of gas. Romi and Julio are kidnapped by the Devildogs and pushed out to London Woods Lake.

Destiny and Ben head to Romi’s house and alert her parents. Romi’s parents go to the police, and Julio’s parents are notified of the kidnapping. Over the next tense hours as the police search for the missing teenagers, the two pairs of parents, who initially blame the others’ child for getting their child in trouble, reconcile. With the help of Romi’s father, the local news team gets involved—although incompetent local newscaster Nannette Norris doesn’t comprehend the severity of the kidnapping. As a storm rages, the police follow a Devildogs member’s lead to a boathouse. Just before lightning hits Romi and Julio’s boat, they manage to slip free of their bindings and jump into the freezing lake. Julio helps Romi to shore, where the two collapse and attempt to use their body heat to get warm. The couple’s fathers find them the following morning. Romi and Julio recover, and the leaders of the Devildogs face felony charges. Romi and Julio commit to each other as soul mates.