I really liked this book! Snodgrass brings solid scholarship and a down-to-Earth voice to the Shakespeare table and does a good job compiling research and publications about the Bard’s use of supernatural elements throughout his work. As a Shakespeare scholar and folklorist, I found the information useful, accurate, and thought-provoking. I will definitely purchase a hardback copy for my professional library!

Snodgrass organized the information well; I particularly liked the focus on holidays and their supernatural connections both in Shakespeare’s work and in the Early Modern period. Snodgrass does have a less formal voice, which is great for the purpose of connecting Shakespeare to the average reader rather than writing solely for other academics. At times, he repeats himself almost verbatim from chapter to chapter and there are a few opinions laced through the text which could have been edited out for a more scholarly take. I also would like a few more citations or notes indicating what is research and what is the author’s opinion or supposition.

What a complete and fascinating book this is!

Seriously, I was quite surprised by the amount of fantasy that Shakespeare managed in his works, but this book has taught me that he went further, and that in a certain way this autir was something from another world.

I love fantasy and I love the few works of Shakespeare that I have read, but after this I want to read everything.

Super recommended!

When I requested an eARC of Supernatural Shakespeare by J. Snodgrass I was hoping for creative non-fiction about the vast mythology and culture behind Shakespeare's classic plays like A Mid Summer Night's Dream. What I got felt like a rather dry undergraduate essay that just barely scratched the surface and provided a lot of information that anyone who has studied the plays at more than a basic high school level would already know. I've seen comments from other reviewers that the author appears to be a relgious expert first, above any literary expertise, and I can certainly see that influence. I did get a feel of bias in regard to the pagan elements of Shakespeare's works and the history behind them. What I will say in praise of this book is that I had not yet read something that devoted attention to oral history traditions in the context of Shakespeare's work quite like this, so that was refreshing and interesting. I wish we could have had more of that!

I found the part about the oral tradition quite interesting and learned something new.
On the other side I found it a bit dry and not always kept my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher afor this ARC, all opinions are mine

I confess that during my time in University studying English, Shakespeare confused me totally. I even read Lamb's collection to understand the plays! However this book by J Snograss is one I wish that I had had at the time. The writing in this book is very refreshing for what would normally be an academic book, the author is light hearted with many amusing asides and I feel it is very accessible to any lay reader with an interest in learning about his plays and more importantly the context behind the writings of Shakespeare. I have read some of the reviews and was disappointed they were not more positive. However I did enjoy this publication very much and will almost certainly buy a hard copy, it will be a useful reference book to have in my very full bookcase. This is a book to 'dip into' but is just as interesting read in entirety as I did. Many congrats to the author, City of light publishing and Netgalley for an advanced copy of Supernatural Shakespeare.

This is a really weird book. Snodgrass appears to be a religion professor, not a Shakespearean scholar, and so his treatment of the plays and the theatre is focused on analyzing the supernatural and pagan elements. The book organizes the plays by season of the solar year and ecumenical calendar. There is a great deal of tracing various plays' plots to their medieval source works, which is great, and a fair amount of response to quotations from Paglia, Bloom, Hughes, Asmiov (who did write a book on Shax way back when), Fraser, Frye, and Graves. However, the tone of the volume is a strange mixture of academic study and casual snark. That's the part where I trip, tbh, because sarcastic commentary undermines what is otherwise a really interesting examination of the premodern seasonal and semi-pagan folkloric context of Shax, the theatre-goers, and the text of the plays themselves...when ghosts were real and queens ruled by divine right. Besides all that, there are some lovely woodcuts illustrating the seasons. I would have appreciated more notes referencing historical sources but the bibliography seems sound.

Supernatural Shakespeare is a non-fiction book about (surprise!) the supernatural elements in Shakespeare and further cultural context surrounding the use of the supernatural in the plays. I am a fan of Shakespeare and folk beliefs, especially from the Early Modern period, so I was excited to give this book a read!

I definitely learned more about what people believed during Shakespeare's time. It was interesting to see how the fantastical elements differ from more modern beliefs surrounding ghosts, fairies, etc. I loved reading about things that are not present in our folk beliefs today, such as Queen Mab, and why she was portrayed the way she was in the plays. I feel like I got more context and like that I have a different lens in which to view the stories.

However, this book felt much more like academic reading than it felt like a standard non-fiction book. I wish that I had this book for a Shakespeare or Early Modern folk belief essay but sadly those days are far behind me. I found the chapters and passages from plays to really drag and I felt like I had to hit a certain quota to fulfil my class requirement. I'm surprised that I didn't write down quotes from a force of habit.

Overall, I recommend this book for academic research or if you are a die hard Shakespeare fan. Three stars from me. Thank you to City of Light Publishing and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I am not sure what I expected from this book but this read like an academic paper in some ways. I enjoy Shakespeare but this was a bit deeper than I wanted to dive.

This was a really enjoyable book! The author offered a fresh and unique perspective on Shakespeare's plays that made me want to reread Shakespeare myself. It made me realize that no matter how well we might know works of classic literature, there is always more to learn and new depths of understanding.

Definitely not for me. From what I’ve read Shakespeare is a hit or miss for me, so I was hoping to find some really good things in this book. Sadly, that was not that case.

Thank you to NetGalley and City of Light Publishing for the ARC. I am not a Shakespeare fanatic by any means but I have enjoyed studying his work in school and attending performances at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. This felt like I was reading a graduate thesis from a university rather than a new exploration of the work but that is my own bias going directly from fiction to nonfiction. It was interesting to learn more about the oral traditions that Shakespeare codified and the author expressed perfectly that it does not matter who wrote Shakespeare's plays but it matters who he was writing for and who was watching it live. If you want to know more about Shakespeare, you cannot go wrong with this book.

The book is an interesting take on the works of Shakespeare. It has categorized various of his plays, dramas and other works into different sections of Witches, Afterlife, Ghosts, Faries, Enchanted forests and more.

After my recent hetric of pretty average reads, Happy to find something with a fresh perspective and an unorthodox retelling.
The overall book pics and translates various phrases.

The book can be an great read for Shakespeare fans who would like to have a quick revist of different characters. But would I ever reread this? Probably not!

I would give this a happy 🤗🤗🤗🤗/5 hugs for reminding of all the Shakespearean memories 💖