I really enjoyed the prose in this novel, the characters were enchanting and strong and I loved it how it was the "back story" to TWELFTH NIGHT and that Shakespeare was one of the main characters. It took me a while to read, just simply because it requires a bit more concentration to read than a light romance. I learnt so much from it, and I think it'd be great to read if you were studying TWELFTH NIGHT too! The romance was great too, and the involvement of Shakespeare's life was very clever!

One of my favorite free-time activities is to surf on the database of my city's library. From there you can see all the different books they have on the different libraries of this city. The Fool's Girl was among the new books which had arrived to the library. What I love is the fact that you are able to pick the book online and then you can fetch it from the library you want. My mother works at one of the city libraries so it is easy for me to send the books to her workplace and she then brings the books home for me.

I think I tried to read 'Witch Girl' by Celia Rees in Finnish years ago. I never finished with it, if I remember right. The city library does not have that many YA books in English, so nowadays I am open for almost everything. And the cover of 'the Fool's Girl' looked so beautiful I just had to give a change for it. When I got it from the library I noticed that it had something to do with William Shakespeare. At that point my interest towards the book rouse hugely.

Violetta, a beautiful young girl, has traveled far away from her home from Illyria to London with a clown called Feste, her only friend at that point. They are in London with a great task. Violette wants to get back an object which belongs to her, the Duchess of Illyria, and to her country. Without that object she is not able to save her country from the hands of her enemies. She seeks out help from William Shakespeare, a playwright and actor, working at London. Violetta tells her story for Will. Will feels bad for the young girl lost in a weird place for her, and decides to help her. With Will, Feste and new friends Violetta starts and adventure with a goal to earn the object back to the rightful owner. The adventure spreads from London to Stratford and all the way to Illyria. During her journey Violetta meets friends from the past, falls in love and fights for the future of her country.

I visited both Stratford-Upon-Avon and London about a month ago. At Stratford I saw 'Romeo&Juliet' performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company and at London I saw 'Macbeth' at Globe. In this book the milieu streched from London to Stratford and the characters of the book even visit Oxford, the third city I stayed at while I was in UK. It was interesting to read how Rees defines there cities during the 1600.

The beginning of the book was quite boring and I even though about giving up with the reading. But after the boring start the book gets a lot more interesting. New characters are introduced and the story starts to built up. The presence of William Shakespeare was one of the main reasons why I kept reading this book. Like Rees says in the author's note at the end of the book, this novel introduces William Shakespeare as Will, the playwright before his success. It was interesting to read Rees's portrayal of this great man who had an impact on the whole English language.

I suggest this book for the fans of William Shakespeare, but also for the ones who do not know anything about Shakespeare before hand. This book tells the story of Shakespeare's 'Twelth Night' in a other way, so for the lovers of Twelth Night, this is a great read. I myself haven't read 'Twelth Night' but after reading this book I think I will pick it up at some point and read it.

While I do not necessarily agree with all of the decisions Rees made in her composition of this novel, I do think her interpretation was incredibly interesting. Her analysis of the hasty marriages between Viola & Orsino and Olivia & Stephano at the end of the play certainly seems spot on to me. Her use of Malvolio and Sir Andrew Agueface as harsh villains I have more trouble accepting. As I know the play so well, I have trouble picturing Malvolio without cross-gartered with yellow stockings and Sir Andrew as capable of using a sword.

Rees does a good job creating some of the atmosphere of the play and its characters (Feste in particular is spot on). The book is definitely less comedic though, so do not expect it to be just the same. Rees conveys the spirit of the time fairly accurately in most instances, although sometimes I wish she had not; I have trouble escaping my silly modern sensibilities, which feel that first cousins should in no instance have a romantic relationship (Oh wait, they're not silly: hemophilia). Cousins aside, this book is a great choice for any Shakespeare fans. I think Rees tackles of writing a sequel to the bard without being overly silly or overly pedantic. Check this one out, thou of good taste!

This was boring.

I know almost nothing at all about Shakespeare. Apart from wading through Macbeth many years ago at school, my experience of the great bard is almost zero (should I have admitted that?). This in no way affected my enjoyment of A Fool’s Girl and in fact, I found it fascinating. I’ve heard of Twelfth Night, but until reading this book, knew nothing about it. Rees bases The Fool’s Girl around the famous play, in that the events that happened in Illyria were real, and Shakespeare is inspired to tell the story, known as Twelfth Night, after meeting and helping Violetta. Rather than feel alienated by my lack of knowledge I felt I actually learned from the book and also had my interest in Shakespeare himself piqued. I actually WANT to go and see/read some Shakespeare straight away! I was also able to pick up on some references to some of the plays, such as the three old herbalists who I presume later become the witches in Macbeth.

Where Celia Rees absolutely excels is bringing history to life. Descriptions of sights, sounds and smells all create such imagery that for a while I actually was in seventeenth century London. She doesn’t shy away from the grisly truth so at times the book is violent and slightly disturbing, especially in her descriptions of the fate of prisoners and betrayers. But this makes the book seem all the more authentic. Seventeenth century London wasn’t the nicest of places after all, with the heads of criminals hanging from London Bridge and the lack of sanitation.

Violetta is an inspiring character. She’s strong, determined, loyal and proud so even in hard times she never loses sight of herself. I found myself really routing for her and sympathetic of her plight. However at times I did feel that the emphasis on Shakespeare was too much and Violetta became a little lost. The book is told in an alternating third person narrative and then first person from several characters. I would have preferred a little more from our heroine herself, as I thoroughly enjoyed her voice, and the story was, after all, hers to tell. Feste provided a humorous and fascinating character and is complex with his moods and personality, although his devotion to Violetta never wavers.

The book is full of action, myth and romantic legends, which I absolutely adored. In particular, Violetta’s retelling of her parent’s life in Illyria is captivatingly beautiful. Rees’ writing is incredibly readable, while remaining extremely intelligent and I read the book very quickly. There was enough mystery and intrigue to keep me gripped and I finished the whole 320 pages in just over a day.

There was one area I was a little disappointed. There is a romantic thread that begins in Violetta’s childhood and continues throughout the book. I found it a little lacking, in that it felt slightly contrived and without real passion, which was a shame. Perhaps the reason for this goes back to what I said earlier, that Violetta’s voice could perhaps have been used more and thus made the romance more believable and exciting? I still enjoyed the book very much, but felt if this had been developed a little more, it would have been amazing.

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.