Carol Anne Douglas

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Merlin's Shakespeare sounded like something right up my alley. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into it. Beth as the main character is obsessed with Shakespeare's work and of lately also has some magical powers after a rather wonderful production of A Midsummer's Night Dream. She is then cornered by Merlin who asks her to travel back in order to track down a lost play.

Like I said, these are all things I like. I like time travel, I like Shakespeare, I really do, but I found Beth so annoying. Her obsession is unhealthy and it is weird it is supported by the adults. She acts like a small child, making it feel like it was written for a very young audience, although at the same time there is quite some death and cruelty along the way.

The whole reason for looking for the supposedly lost play was rather thin and the story jumped around a lot, focusing then on these and then on those characters. The characters from the plays were in my opinion the most interesting aspects of the story, only their dialogue was often very cranky (not like Shakespeare at all) and also the rules with which they lived and acted were unclear to me.

I wanted to like it, but it was not for me. For someone who doesn't know Shakespeare, it might be a nice introduction into the subject.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!… (meer)