“Kill Shakespeare” by Andy Belanger, Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery is a very cool two book saga. It takes place in a parallel universe where
Shakespeare lives in a magical world with all his creations. The main character
in the story is Hamlet. It is foretold by the witches from Macbeth that Hamlet
will become the shadow king and overthrow the evil King Richard. He wants Shakespeare’s magic quill that makes what you write come true.
WARNING. The next paragraph contains massive spoilers. If you don't want to have the book
spoiled for you, skip over the next paragraph. Things turn out differently than in the original Shakespeare plays.
Richard tries to trick Hamlet into killing Shakespeare himself, but then Falstaff finds Hamlet and tells him of Richard's treachery. They meet up with General Othello, Iago & General Juliet. At the same time, Richard joins forces with the even more treacherous Lady Macbeth and murders her husband, Macbeth. After a while, Iago betrays the heroes and is cast away. At the end, Hamlet convinces Shakespeare to fight with them. The heroes win, Othello gets his revenge against Iago, and Romeo & Juliet are reunited.
WARNING. The next paragraph contains massive spoilers. If you don't want to have the book
spoiled for you, skip over the next paragraph. Things turn out differently than in the original Shakespeare plays.
Richard tries to trick Hamlet into killing Shakespeare himself, but then Falstaff finds Hamlet and tells him of Richard's treachery. They meet up with General Othello, Iago & General Juliet. At the same time, Richard joins forces with the even more treacherous Lady Macbeth and murders her husband, Macbeth. After a while, Iago betrays the heroes and is cast away. At the end, Hamlet convinces Shakespeare to fight with them. The heroes win, Othello gets his revenge against Iago, and Romeo & Juliet are reunited.
The art in Kill Shakespeare has lots
of straight lines instead of curvy ones. I really like how the illustrators drew
King Richard. They really went into depth with his hump and deformed hand. The
hand is my favorite. It’s horribly ragged and skinny. The way he holds it shows
how he has no control over it. I also like how you only see Macbeth’s face
once. All the other times there’s a shadow cast over it.
Kill Shakespeare is very bloody. There is lots of fighting between characters. If you are a parent, I would suggest that you proofread this book to make sure that it’s okay for your child. Apart from that, it’s really fun to read. Every time I read it, I see something that I missed before. You do need to be familiar with a few Shakespeare plays to enjoy this book. I would give Kill Shakespeare 41/2 out of 5 magic quills.
OK--I've never read a graphic novel before, but your review makes these two sound fascinating. I'm a Shakespeare fan and would like my nephew to get more interested in his work, too. Do you think a 15 year old boy would be interested in these? And might it spur him to read Shakespeare? (I know I sound like an old auntie, but I just want your point of view).
ReplyDeletei dont know, i've never met your son. i would suggest giving him graphic novels of the classic plays
DeleteI'm very interested in the Shakespearean aspect. The bloody not as much but my kid would like the parallel universe aspect. Hmmm. I was just gonna order last reviews choice. Now what?
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome sounding series! I love the idea of the various Shakespeare villains banding together in some way. Hey - did you see that they recently found the bones of the real Richard III? He really lived, he was really hunchbacked, and he really died in battle. Well done on this review - makes me want to read it, which is what a good review should do.
ReplyDelete