The Fool's Girl

by Celia Rees and Rees

Violetta and Feste have come to London to rescue a holy relic taken from a church in Illyria by the evil Malvolio, and once there, they tell the story of their adventures to playwright William Shakespeare, who turns it into a play.

• ISBN10: 1599904861
• ISBN13: 9781599904863
• Publish Date: 20 July 2010 (first published 5 April 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 27 May 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

2,5 stars

"What fools they are, if fools they be." (Robin)

I started The Fool's Girl a year ago and lost interest in it a few days later. I decided to take only one book with me on my travels this weekend, The Fool's Girl, and I had no choice but to complete it.

The Fool's Girl feels like a long book to get through. The writing is rich in history and detail, but it makes for a long-winded story that's difficult to read. The Fool's Girl is also bogged down with background info-dumping, but once I got past that, The Fool's Girl became more enjoyable.

The plot is quite jarring and disorienting. There are so many different elements in The Fool's Girl, but most of these elements, which are filled with so much of potential, are written halfheartedly and aren't carried all the way to the end of the story.

I also felt no emotions towards the characters nor was I able to fully grasp their personalities. However, there are two characters that shine:
1)William Shakespeare, the enigmatic bard, a man whose intention is to do what he feels is best. He uses Violetta's story as an inspiration for one of his plays, Twelfth Night.
2)Feste, the mischievous, loyal, vulgar and wise fool.

The Fool's Girl is an intriguing tale that is poorly executed.

"Intuition was right more times than it was wrong."

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Although tedious and slightly scattered, The Fool's Girl is yet another retelling of an old, beloved fairytale.. except this one doesn't trail as far back as Hansel and Grethel or Jack and the Beanstalk - hailing from Elizabethan England, Twelfth Night is comedy, tragedy, drama, and resolution. I found Rees' style frustration - there are characters presented as important who ultimately show know purpose at all (I am thinking of Tod, here), and there is a great deal of talk and travel, what I generally refer to as "filler". It grew tedious. The important plot points felt so few and far between that they got lost and I was distracted from them.

Anyone familiar with Shakespeare will appreciate the references to many of his other plays beside Twelfth Night. Off the top of my head, I can think of four: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and Richard III. In that way, it was charming to see the crossovers and where Rees revealed Shakespeare's inspiration. In many ways, Shakespeare's story in this book is much more interesting than Violetta's.

A certain level of appreciation for Shakespeare is required to enjoy this book on any level, and i would not recommend it to the people who have a difficult time relating to Shakespeare or to his work.