Monday, September 12, 2016

Hag Seed- by Margret Atwood- Book Review

There has been an ongoing series of famous authors reimagining Shakespeare plays called Hogarth Shakespeare. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood* is the latest within this series as Atwood reimagines The Tempest.

Felix was a top notch director at his local theater. His take on Shakespeare were always the best, but his demands have started to become greater and greater, especially with his latest interpretation of The Tempest, so much so that he gets released and is "exiled" within his community. His mortal enemy is given his place as director too!

After 12 years and a new identity, Felix has his opportunity with a prison education program. He teaches Shakespeare to prisoners who can barely read, don't necessarily want to play fairies, and due to Felix's rules cannot swear except in Shakespearean language. 

After a few successes and as his former partners who have now become political figures, he plans to unleash his plan for revenge. He will put on his greatest and long lost version of The Tempest. It will be magic!

At this point in Atwood's career and in her books, it is kind of silly to review things like her writing style, her format, etc, so I am not going to. Atwood is incredible in my book and can almost do no harm, even her misses are better than most.

What I will write though is this is funny Atwood. Even though there is humor in some of her books, I found this one really funny. There is sic-fi Atwood, dystopian Atwood, drama Atwood, etc, but this is funny Atwood. I loved the prisoners trying to curse with Shakespearean language and even the whole idea of getting revenge through a prison play is pretty outrageous as a premise. I loved the play within the play concept too, which could have gone off the rails, but it really worked.

As soon as I found out this was a series, I ran out and got the other two and now cannot wait for some of the future ones! If you are going to read this one, do recognize the series aspect and that it isn't in the Atwood cannon of books. 

I gave this one 5 stars.

Here is your Amazon link- Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

*I want to thank NetGalley and Hogarth for the opportunity to review this book early. I received the book in exchange for an honest review.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.