Book Review: The Players Act 1 by Amy Sparkes

So! Much! Melodrama!

This is a gently funny (and slightly tragic) romp with a band of travelling vagrants actors as they attempt to ply their renditions of Shakespeare to an indifferent 1700ish audience. There's a lot of charm to the characters and the plot is relatively straightforward.

The characters are a bit one-note. The baddie never actually twirls his moustache - but you'll instantly picture him doing it every time he appears. The others very much stay in their lane; the feisty woman who would rather wear trousers, the wide-eyed idealist, the grumpy father. It's rather like they're stock comedia dell'arte tropes come to life.

While there are some lovely lines (and excellent swearing), the story meanders back and forth a bit too much for my liking. I'm possibly not the target audience as I guess this is aimed at the older teen crowd.

I appreciate the book being made available without DRM. How refreshing to pay for a book and receive an unencumbered ePub; no need to liberate it from the clutches of Adobe!