About the book:
MEET LIZZY SPEARE……a normal twelve year old girl with a talent for writing, who has a very notnormal family secret. And when Lizzy’s father vanishes, that secret will change her life in ways unimagined. (Spoiler Alert! It turns out that Lizzy, or Elizabeth S. Speare, is the last living descendant of William Shakespeare. Shhh! Don’t tell anybody!)Then Lizzy and her best friend Sammy are kidnapped, awakening in the faraway land of Manhattan. Their host is Jonathan Muse, whose job is to protect Lizzy from becoming the latest victim in a family feud going back nearly five hundred years. Is that why is the mysterious, eye patch-wearing Dmitri Marlowe is after her? (Spoiler Alert 2—he’s the last living descendant of Christopher Marlowe, a friend and rival of Shakespeare’s. But keep it to yourself!) Is Marlowe after Lizzy’s family fortune rumored to be kept in the tomb of that bald guy with the goatee? Does he seek artistic immortality? Or Revenge (with a capital R) for a death long, long ago?In a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, Lizzy and Sammy are thrust into the realm of the mythical and fantastic—from satyrs and Cyclopses to Middle Eastern cab drivers and Brooklyn hipsters in what is truly “an improbable fiction” as the Bard himself once wrote.
My review:
A dynamic story, weaving together YA, Shakespeare and mythology in a new and captivating way.
Each character is unique and well-thought out, with a background story and clear motives. They all stand alone in their own rights, with even the most insignificant of them becoming a clear image in the reader's mind. I found myself particularly attracted to the character of Sammy, Lizzy's best friend and a truly heroic, yet realistic, person. The goodies are believable (even the most mythical of them), and the baddies retain an element of humanity amidst their cruelty.
The plot is driven forward by moments of action, each linked together with detective-like thinking or constructive character building. Nothing feels artificial about this story and it all hangs together perfectly. From the beginning to the end, I wanted to know what would happen next and I was never disappointed.
A definite 'you can't put down' book- I hope that I will have the opportunity to read the others in the series.
Action Reader's Action:
Investigate your ancestors and then share what you find with someone else
What's your view of Shakespeare?
