The Invisible Hand: Shakespeare’s Moon, ACT I by James Hartley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was given this ARC by NetGalley in return for an honest review.
A cute story for a more younger audience. I wish I could have read this when I was 16 years old and not already in my thirties. The premise and world building brought Shakespeare’s play Macbeth more to life and the world building was quite nicely done, yet the style was a bit too young for me.
The plot was more elaborate than I initially believed based on the description of the book, which I believed to be Shakespeare’s play retold in a new and creative way. It was a nice little mystery, though.
The main character was well enough developed, but I was rather confused by his romantic interest, whose emotions quite frankly were all over the place. This made for a few eye-roll worthy moments and I enjoyed the sections of the story without her much more than when she was around. I couldn’t quite understand the author’s decision to create such an unstable character.
The writing flowed nicely, although at times the amount of detail describing obvious situations was larger than needed. But, I truly enjoyed the description of the Scottish landscape and it certainly was a treat to an admirer of all things Scotland.
Overall, this story is a good start to a series that intertwines modern day mystery and introducing the writings of Shakespeare in a new and refreshing way that could make them much more interesting to a younger audience. I would recommend this book to anyone of a younger age and who wants a light read.
