Cover Image: Shakespeare for Squirrels

Shakespeare for Squirrels

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Member Reviews

This is a bit of a take off on Midsummer's Night Dream on crack. Pocket and his group have washed up on Greece's shore and is soon going to perform at the Duke's minister's daughter Hermia and Lysander. But she doesn't want to marry him. The Duke decrees that she will be executed. Unfortunately Pocket declares the Duke's decree is stupid and causes them to escape with their lives and goes into the fairy realm by accident where even more craziness happens. It was a fun read. But if you dislike cursing you will not like this as the work f..k is used many, many times. But I was fine with it.

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I have long been fascinated with Shakespeare and loved his plays for many years. Shakespeare for Squirrels was a wonderfully irreverent, perfectly lovely, treat of a book. Though this is the third of Christopher Moore's books to feature Pocket the Fool, and in my opinion you do not have to read the other two to understand and enjoy this one, I did feel that I was able to gain more enjoyment from Pocket with a little more understanding of where he came from. I do think a lot of that understanding came from knowing Shakespeare's works more than the previous books in this series, however. This third book is my favorite of the three. Midsummer Nights Dream and the nods to other Shakespeare plays in this story is easy to follow and fun to explore. I loved that this was not a carbon copy of the play, but instead pulled in enough side characters as main characters to make me see the original in a new light and not get bored with this telling of it. None of the three Fool books have pulled from my favorite Shakespeare play yet, so I am eagerly looking forward to the possibility of more.

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A crude but funny mash up of Dashiell Hammett and Shakespeare, this book was everything I expected in Moore's latest. I appreciated the twists he applied to "A Midsummer Night's Dream," one of my favorite plays. Moore is an excellent satirist, and while this didn't end up being one of my favorite adventures with Pocket, the snark and scurrilous behavior of each character was great.

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There's no denying that Christopher Moore has a style and voice all his own. Shakespeare for Squirrels is an uproariously funny example of that. If you are looking for a read of absurdity, this mysterious and of times strange tale of murder, mayhem, and yes, even love, may just be the one you are looking for. Serious Shakespeare fans will be horrified, which makes it all the more fun!

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Typical Christopher Moore oddness and hilarity. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a bit of humor in their reading.

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Take a bit of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" and add a bit of murder mystery and humor, and you get a recipe for a great book. Pocket is a great character who was fun to revisit. I had fun reading this and it made me laugh out loud a few times.

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Yes, there are squirrels in this novel by Christopher Moore. This is the third novel in the Fool series, which follows Pocket, a fool, his monkey and Drool the fool in training.

You don’t need to have read the other books in this series. With that, there is a very dry, very crass, wit throughout this entire novel. If you don’t like either of those, do not read this.

If you do, be prepared for it in Old English style writing that you will either have to accept as is or enjoy bisecting it (I know I did).

Christopher Moore is a master of what he does, and this book was a lot of fun to read. This is not for kids though, alright?

Overall, a fantastic read, and it was hilarious to read as Pocket stumbled his way through the ‘real life’ version of a Midsummer’s Night Dream. The, hands down, silliest of Shakespeare’s plays.

I did receive a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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I read my first Christopher Moore book, Lamb, when I was probably too young to have read it. Still, it managed to excite in me a love for this author and I have read many of his books since then and will probably continue to read many more in the future. The way his humor plays into the books is so captivating, and Shakespeare for Squirrels is no exception.

In keeping with the rest of the Fool series, Shakespeare for Squirrels is a retelling of a Shakespeare play, this time A Midsummer Night's Dream, featuring many reoccurring characters from the other books such as Drool, Jeff the Monkey, and of course, Pocket. Pocket finds the body of Puck aka Robin Goodfellow, in a meadow and must solve the mystery of what happened to him, what happened to the "object" he was carrying, and what the hell is going on in Athens anyway?? With the cast of characters from AMND along for the ride, Pocket solves the mystery once and for all!

This is where I confess... I can't remember reading the other books (I might have, I just can't remember them if I did) so this book was my first foray with the characters. And I must say, for being the 3rd book in a series, I was able to keep up very well and wasn't left behind at all! So if by some crazy happenstance like me, you start reading on this book, you're fine! I'm sure there are jokes that I missed due to not remembering the other books and/or having read them, but there were also plenty of jokes that stood up alone and had me laughing out loud. I also think the length of this book really works in it's favor, because it keeps up a nice, steady pace.

My three star rating is largely based on my enjoyment of the book: I had fun and it made me laugh, but it also wasn't anything special and I found myself skimming large paragraphs of fighting, moving from place to place, etc. I think some of those could have been cut or at least bridged with some sentences, but again I thought the length worked really well. In reality, my 3 star rating says that this book was "good." And this is coming from, again, someone who wasn't attached to the characters before or knew about the other books so really, that's saying something.

Ultimately, if you're a fan of this series, you're going to enjoy this book. It has a lot of Christopher Moore's signature elements and is a good romp through the zaniness that is A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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I was so excited to go back to Pocket. His story is incredible and Christopher Moore is always a favorite. This time it's Midsummer, and fairies abound!

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I love Christopher Moore, but I don't love Shakespeare. My fault for choosing this book. It has Shakespeare characters in what is a parody of Midsommer Night's Dream. It is much easier to read than Shakespeare, but is written in the same style. I read it in small bits, which seemed to be easier to digest and enjoy.
Thank you to Netgalley for giving me an ARC to review in exchange for my review.

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The jokes that land are excellent. Some of the humor was a little over the top and juvenile for my personal taste, but I would recommend it for YA boys.

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This is A Midsummer Night’s Dream mixed with murder, sex, and a mystery that no one seems to be focused on solving except Pocket. As the author states in his acknowledgements, AMND is a lot of people’s favorite Shakespeare work, including his and mine. This is an easy book to follow along with, even if one has not read other books in the series. Be forewarned: the story is pretty ridiculous, and that’s not even including all the squirrel shagging.

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Lucky for Bard fans, Christopher Moore strikes again. This time, his favorite fool, Pocket of Dog Snogging, is entangled in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" -- the bawdier Moore version, of course.
My take-away quote: "The powerful hold nothing but contempt for those who toady to them, all but the toadies know this."
Not to all tastes, but lots of fun to those who appreciate frolics, fairies, bloodshed, medieval hats, and shaved squirrels.

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From first word to last, this return to Pocket's darkly humorous world of Shakespeare is a rollicking ride. This Midsummer Night's Dream is like no other you've ever had, or been had by.

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Pocket and his companions return in a scandalous and scurrilous re-do of Shakespeare's A Middsummer Night's Dream that only Christopher Moore could deliver. Nearly anything else I say about the novel will be a spoiler, and since we cannot have that, I shall only urge anyone of you who is convulsed by broad humor, the overuse of the f word to the point of ridiculousness, or the most unlikely takes on the traditional imaginable to waste no time in acquiring acquiring a copy of Shakespeare's Squirrels and reading it immediately. If you're not laughing out loud by the end of the first paragraph, Your sense of the absurd is in question.

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Another silly entry into the series. Pocket keeps stumbling into ridiculous situations and then using his wit and companions to get out of them.

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It looks like I am late to the play with this book. There have been two previously funny books with a retake on Shakespeare. This one is a “remake” of A Midsummer’s Night Dream and it has been made into a murder mystery. On the second page you get the jist of the seriousness of the story when a monkey reaches for its rear to make a bum-baby and throw it at someone who has been making fun of him. Yep, It is a parody. And when this wild group of pirates end up on the shores of Greece there’s lots more mayhem in this very clever story.

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I was so excited to read this book and I was not disappointed. I love Christopher Moore and this book made me laugh out loud. Pocket is hilarious and I'm always amazed that no one hauls off and kills him for his smart mouth. This is a book I will definitely read again.

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This was a really quick read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as Christopher Moore's other titles. While the re-tellings have been fun, I wish he could get back to stories like A Dirty Job, Lamb, etc.

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This is the 3rd outing for Christopher Moore's Pocket the fool/jester in this parody of yet another of Shakespeare's plays.. This time, he finds himself shipwrecked just outside Athens, where he soon encounters Robin Goodfellow (the Puck) and the rest of the cast of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Mayhem ensues when Puck is killed by an arrow and Pocket is arrested for the crime (even though he doesn't have a crossbow). To save himself and his apprentice Drool, Pocket agrees to carry out tasks for the king, the Amazon queen, the night king and the fairy king (quite a lot of tasks) while trying to unravel who murdered Puck. Fun and witty with lots of references to Shakespeare's plays. Moore does use the f--- word at least once a paragraph, as well as many sexual references, so be aware of recommending it to anyone who is bothered by vulgar language or gestures.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in return for a review.

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