A brilliant, inventive and absorbing collection which is incredibly well executed. I thoroughly enjoyed this foray into Shakespearean worlds and would welcome a multitude of new stories if possible! Brilliant!

This book is delightfully weird. It took a few reads because it's complex, but in a good way. I don't think I quite knew what to expect when I first encountered it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it in the end. It paired well with The Autobiography of Red, in its ephemeral and kind of loose hold on reality.

This book is unique and delightful to read. It is difficult to describe; one just has to experience it. Think of Shakespeare plus magic plus weirdness and it might give you an idea. I highly recommend it.

Monstrous Little Voices is a collection of short stories written in a Shakespearean style that utilizes characters from his plays. The stories are written in Acts like his plays and are an elaborate form of fan fiction.
Characters from A Midsummer's Night Dream, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and others are skillfully woven into a series of stories that the final story 'On the Twelfth Night' uses to explain them all.
I especially enjoyed 'Coral Bones' and 'The Course of True Love', but all of the stories are wonderful. Shakespeare fans will enjoy this great collection.

I struggled with reviewing this, not because it was bad, or because I didn't finish it, but because it defies explanation. At least, any explanation I can give it. It was gorgeous and the thread that ran through each story made it a cohesive but each offering was completely different.

Would 100% recommend to everyone who loves The Bard, and to those who don't.

This collection is made up of five Shakespearian-inspired short stories written by Jonathan Barnes, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Newman, Foz Meadows and Kate Heartfield. While each story is written by a different author with its own style, focus and characters, they are all linked by the same setting and an over arching story. The Mediterranean is being torn apart by war as every lord from Navarre to Illyria is embroiled in the fray for the throne of Tuscany. This human trouble has even boiled over into other worlds bringing witches; the fairy court; a bewitched Scottish knife; Prospero, the feared Sorcerer, and William Shakespeare himself into the fight too.

The first story, Coral Bones by Foz Meadows reunites us with Miranda from The Tempest. She has found no happiness in her new life in Ferdinand’s palace and hatches a plan with her childhood friend Ariel to escape forever. The second, The Course of True Love by Kate Heartfield sees Pomona, a witch, and Vertumnus, a fairy, united as pawns in the strife between Duke Orsino and Oberon, King of the Fairies. The third, The Unkindest Cut by Emma Newman follows Lucia de Medici as she tries to fulfil the prophecy that she will marry her cousin Francesco and together bring peace to the land, however the sorcery Prospero seems to have other ideas.

The fourth, Even in the Cannon’s Mouth by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a magical farce that brings together characters from All’s Well That Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Twelfth Night and As You Like It in a disastrous mission to bring an end to the war. Then the fifth and final story, On the Twelfth Night by Jonathan Barnes sees things come to head and start to bleed over into other worlds, including one where William Shakespeare didn’t even become a playwright. Seen through the eyes of his wife Anne. I wasn’t a huge fan of the second person narrative of the last story, but otherwise I thought style, plot and characters were brilliant in all these stories.

Overall, I thought Monstrous Little Voices was a wonderful collection of stories with elements of war, romance, magic and deception, and although they were written by different, modern authors all these stories (bar the last perhaps) did feel like they could have been Shakespearian tales. This was also a perfect read to squeeze in when I had a moment or two. Great read.