This was such an interesting read! John Snodgrass compiles an intriguing viewpoint of Shakespeare's incorporation of Goddesses in his works; using them to discuss the people and events of his era. Through the research by someone whose area isn't specifically Shakespeare, the outside perspective to Shakespeare's work that Snodgrass brings gives each chapter special attention to individuals and scenes.

Although Shakespeare's Goddess is Shakespearean Criticism, I think this leans more towards general Literary Criticism as Snodgrass' book looks at the characters and scenes in Shakespeare's works and the prose, form and placement in the literary canon. I thoroughly enjoyed Snodgrass' Shakespeare's Goddess and recommend it to anyone interested in Shakespeare and seeing his work from a new perspective.

Thank you, NetGalley and Independent Publishers Group | New Idea Press for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun read! This focused on Shakespeare's references to Goddesses in several of his works, mostly centering on Greek Goddesses, how Shakespeare uses them to substitute people from his current time period, and what those substitutions REALLY mean.
With Snodgrass being more a researcher of a wide range of topics there is a lack of in-depth understanding on Shakespeare in this work. While this could be viewed as a negative, I don't think it lessens the enjoyment of the work if you approach it with the right mindset. (he does spend an inordinate about of time on Ovid's Metamorphosis) I do believe the description and cover of the book leans towards the genre of Literary Criticism and that isn't how I would categorize this book at all.
This is comedy and satire through and through. While the author is surprisingly ignorant of even a basic understanding of Shakespeare, anyone with a below average 10th grade education will see the falsities and will be able to add them to the ensuing comedy! He also does a wonderful job of making many intimidating aspects to Shakespeare's work accessible to people with a passing understanding of Shakespeare's plays. I would recommend this book to people who read Shakespeare in high school but have felt too intimidated to continue exploring his works on their own.

Thank you to NetGalley, City of Light Publishing, and J. Snodgrass for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

In the sequel to his book <i>Supernatural Shakespeare: Magic and Ritual in Merry Old England</i>, Snodgrass turns his eye from religion and ritual to representations of the divine feminine in Shakespeare. This is an ambitious project in size and scope, covering 10 of Shakespeare's plays.

This book is straddling the fence between literary criticism and comedy writing. Snodgrass, though having done quite a bit of reading on Shakespeare, doesn't appear to be a literary scholar, but a comparative religions one. Without a degree in the field (and the peer-review process) to back you, the best lit crit tends to take more of a memoir angle--how did Shakespeare and his representations of women affect you? How is Shakespeare still relevant? Someone who does this kind of writing very well is Ted Scheinman (see <i>Camp Austen</i>). Scheinman oscillates between sections of history / lit crit and personal anecdote. Snodgrass, on the other hand, is trying to juggle multiple styles and narrative voices simultaneously; he does them all moderately well, but that means that no individual aspect is particularly impressive.

Some of this may be a marketing issue. The cover--which is definitely gorgeous--does not indicate the sarcastic tone at all. The description does note that this book "will appeal to scholars, but its playful and engaging tone also makes it accessible to anyone who appreciates Shakespeare." I appreciate that this is in the blurb, but there needs to be some indicator of this either in the cover art, the title, or both. As it is now, this book presents as pure literary criticism. That does the book a disservice, because it established my expectations for it to be something it's not.

I would like to thank J. Snodgrass and NetGalley for providing me this ARC!
I absolutely love both mythology and Shakespeare, so this book instantly appealed to me. I liked the structure of the book and going through how Shakespeare used the goddesses in his works; I found it to be very insightful and interesting. It was written in an accessible way and I did not feel like I needed a degree to understand what was written. The text had a good flow and was easy to read - it was also easy to pick up again after a break. With other books similar to this, I find that it can be hard to take a break mid chapter as it's harder to get into again however I definitely did not have this issue with this book.

I particularly liked the chapters on Medea, Circe and Hecate, and how Shakespeare's interest in them could have been linked to the witch-hunts at the time in England. The English Witch-Trials was one of my favourite things to study at university, so this chapter was just a personal favourite of mine.

Also, the illustrations throughout the book are stunning and I found myself looking forward to them.
Reading this has made me want to look into Snodgrass' other works in the future.

Thank you Net Galley and author J. Snodgrass for giving me a chance to read the ARC! This book was enjoyable to read and easy to follow through; an incredibly accessible but at the same time engaging work about Shakespeare. Like any good biographical book, there were a lot of historical context and cultural references discussed. The topic of "Shakespeare's Goddess" also encompasses how he wrote women, and I personally can't compliment this book enough for doing that. Women are often underanalysed in literature and when they are, they are not given enough credit or depth. It is refreshing to see these characters be taken apart and analysed, and that certain themes in the Metamorphoses (rape, objectification, persecution, etc.) be discussed as they are in this book.

It's a book you'd like to pick up if you read Madeline Miller and/or Jenniffer Saint, you love reading about women, and especially love Shakespeare.

This had everything I was looking for and a non fiction book about Shakespeare. It had everything that I was hoping for when I read the description and I thought the concept was interesting. I never really thought about the femininity in Shakespeare's work. John Snodgrass has a great writing style. And you could tell he research this perfectly. I was engaged with what was what I read, and I kept wanting to read more.

I would like to thank J. Snodgrass and NetGalley for providing me this ARC! I loved everything about this book. Just the concept of the book made me predict that I would really love it and it did not disappoint. I learned so much more about Shakespeare's work and about mythology. I really liked the structure of the book. I'm not familiar with Shakespeare's whole body of work, so this book ended up making me quite curious about reading the ones I haven't read yet. I'm now going to read them with all this context in mind. The book is such a comprehensive study that it felt like reading a doctoral thesis. I needed to read the book with a notebook next to me and I took so many notes so I could retain at least a small percentage of the information. At the same time, it is written in a simple and accessible way so it was very easy for someone who doesn't have much background in this area to understand it. I really liked the excerpts chosen and the illustrations. My favourite part of this reading experience was realizing how much of a fan Shakespeare was of Ovid (I am also an Ovid fan). My favourite chapter was the one about Egypt because it was the topic I knew the least about and learned the most about. I will definitely return to this book as a reference many times.

This was a great read about Shakespeare's insights and makes a great book up for discussion! I think this is incredibly amazing for a book club that's into classics.

This was a fascinating insight into how Shakespeare presents the non-mortal feminine figure in his plays. While I did not agree with all of Snodgrass' readings, I still think that this could be a valuable text for class discussion, for both folks in Renaissance Studies/Shakespeare explicitly, or drama more broadly.
Rounding 3.5 to 4 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author and publisher for access to the eARC.

I found ‘Shakespear’s Goddess’ really interesting it was a good read and I enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it to anyone

Rating 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️