Tag Archive | Shakespeare

T is for TWELFTH KNIGHT, her online game territory, not his! by Alexene Farol Follmuth (YA fiction) #AtoZ

Apr23
Book cover of Twelfth Knight, by Alexene Farol Follmuth. Shows a Latina teen dressed in ornate black armor holding a sword toward a Black teen wearing a high school football jersey, jeans and fancy sneakers, using crutches with one knee in a brace. Several gaming icons are lined up above their heads.

Such a slacker!
More work for her,
more need to escape into the game.

What did Viola ever do to deserve a tabletop game group that doesn’t appreciate her well-crafted campaign? Or a student body president elected because he’s California football royalty, leaving all the hard work to her as vice-president? Or having to pretend to be male in Twelfth Night battle game online so she’s not harassed for being a confident, competent Latina?

Injured on a touchdown play, Jack’s PT regimen still leaves the Black teen too much free time – might as well try that Twelfth Night game his buddy recommended.

As Cesario in-game, Vi immediately recognizes Jack’s avatar (a knight armored in their school colors – ha!) and eventually partners with him in quests, some chat between battles.

Working together at school on Homecoming Dance plans, Jack asks Vi to figure out why his girlfriend Olivia is growing distant…
Vi’s closest friend Antonia decides not to volunteer at MagiCon fantasy conference, and Jack is her substitute…
College scouts are asking if Jack’s knee will be ready for the playoffs and his future with them…

After in-game chat veers into personal stuff and Jack’s growing attraction to Vi, she allows Jack/Duke to believe it’s her twin brother that he’s befriended in the game (Renaissance Faire actor, non-gamer Bash is horrified).

Bash and Vi’s mom is seriously dating now, Cesario and Duke are closing in on the game’s ultimate prize, and there’s a senior night activity to plan… argh!

Told in the alternating voices of Jack and Viola, this rom-com blends online battles, hidden identities, self-discovery, and real-life relationships – with strong echoes of Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night.

Have you ever adopted an online persona that’s you-but-better?
**kmm

Book info: Twelfth Knight / Alexene Farol Follmuth. Tor Teen, hardcover 2024, paperback May 2025.[author site https://www.alexenefarolfollmuth.com/twelfth-knight] [publisher site https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250884909/twelfthknight/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

May the Fourth be with you! TRAGEDY OF THE SITH’S REVENGE, by Ian Doescher (book review)

May4
book cover of William Shakespeare's Tragedy of the Sith's Revenge, by Ian Doescher, published by Quirk Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Today is Free Comic Book Day, so find your nearest participating comics store here and get there fast, before the excellent selection of free comic books runs out!

It’s also Star Wars Day – a good opportunity to point you to another volume in Ian Doescher’s Shakespearean retellings of the Star Wars movies… read ye now the Tragedy of the Sith’s Revenge (movie episode three).

Yes, our valiant Chewbacca appears in this volume (farewell too soon, actor Peter Mayhew), as do many characters good and evil from the episodes in this series before and after this one:

The Phantom of Menace (part 1), The Clone Army Attacketh (part 2), William Shakespeare’s Star Wars  (part 4), The Empire Striketh Back  (part 5), and The Jedi Doth Return (part 6).

Doescher has also penned part 7 The Force Doth Awaken and part 8 Jedi the Last, all Shakespearean and all faithful to the movies.

And as I wrote in 2015:
Why speak just now of this most-worthy tome,
Why note it not upon its natal day?
Mark well today’s harmonious date, kind one,
And may the Force be with us all, I pray!
**kmm

Book info: William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of the Sith’s Revenge (Star Wars Part the Third) / Ian Doescher. Quirk Books, 2015. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

O is Ophelia in A Wounded Name, by Dot Hutchison (book review) – “Hamlet” in boarding school

Apr17

book cover of A Wounded Name by Dot Hutchison published by Carolrhoda LabSeeing ghosts,
hearing malevolent spirits,
trying to keep steady for Dane,
as his madness spirals down, down…

Newly-dead headmaster Hamlet will not stay in his grave, “the ghost that walks, that challenges, is the fury that murmurs through his son.” (p. 129)

Yes, we know how this story ends, but the journey to disaster is richly retold by Ophelia in this eerie 2013 version of Hamlet.

Find it today at your favorite local library or independent bookstore, and travel to Elsinore Academy, if you dare.

**kmm

Book info: A Wounded Name: A Tragedy / Dot Hutchison. Carolrhoda Lab, 2013.  [author site]  [publisher site]  Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My book talk: A mourning son, Hamlet’s rageful ghost, a widow remarried too quickly, the banshee songs tormenting motherless Ophelia – Elsinore Academy’s secrets will soon undo all under its roof.

The sudden death of Elsinore’s headmaster sends his son into deep depression; when the headmaster’s widow marries her brother-in-law hastily, Dane’s rage grows murderous.

Calls to end her worries by drowning, as her mother did, echo from the lake fae – if Ophelia takes the pills which block their siren song, how will she stay awake enough to show Dane the ghost of his father who demands revenge?

This lyrical retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet  brings all the tragedy’s characters together in a boarding school where deception and murder seem to be family tradition. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)