sunsetxcocktail

I received a copy from Netgalley.

Shakespeare retellings caught my eye immediately. I see a lot of fairytale retellings, but I don't think Shakespeaer retellings other than Romeo & Juliet parallels is something I've seen before.

The ones I liked were Star Crossed Lovers. Romeo & Juliet with a sci fi twist. Visually striking, and entertaining, if the dialogue and some of the scenes were rather silly. I did quite like the actual lines from the original mixed in.

The Scarf - Othello - I really loved this one. Twisty backstabbing high school drama. Great characters, great story building. Would have loved to see a full fledged novel for this one.

A Gargoyle's Prom Night - A Midsummer Night's Dream - Loved this one too. Very funny. Snappy and entertaining, did a really good job of putting its own spin on the original.

The other stories I just didn't like. Comedy of Errors - annoying, boring. Didn't like it, skipped after a few pages. 

Macbeth - written in dialect. This spoiled it, and it was hard to understand, I could have quite easily got the Scottish feel without the dialect. Wound up irritated and skipped after a few pages.

Merchant of Venice. I got the idea this one was trying to be dark and edgy. It didn't work for me, it was flat and I had no interest. The dialogue was annoying and cheesy.

I'm also wondering if this was a 'clean' YA anthology because I saw no swearing. Even in the club scene one, it was more annoying and eye rolling to see characters using "eff" in stead of saying the actual words, and "heck" when it popped up in one of the stories was annoying.

Certainly, I commend the effort, it must be incredibly difficult to put together a batch of short stories with an original twist when retelling from such a literary icon.

Thank you to Victory Editing for approving my request to view the title.

Indie Author Square for Story Sprites Challenge