Review: Shakespeare Crosswords

 Shakespeare Crosswords: 100 fantastic crosswords themed on William Shakespeare is a stimulating challenge, perfect for those who want to exercise their brains in free moments here and there, but is sold on a somewhat misleading premise. 

  A Shakespeare-themed crossword puzzle is a great idea: you can imagine that lovers of Shakespeare would take an interest in words and language and would enjoy solving puzzles.

Things done well, and with care

    A light softcover book, these 100 crosswords have more than enough material to keep you busy for a long time. Great for crossword aficionados, these puzzles will remind you of Shakespeare's works and the historical context in which they were written while testing your knowledge of everything from soft leather shoes to marsh plants to Japanese beverages (three real clues from the book). 

    The book includes an answer key at the back to check your work or in case you get stuck––though crossword puzzle lovers will get most of their enjoyment without looking at any of the answers. After all, one of the greatest pleasures of a crossword puzzle is watching the letters fall into place at the end to spell that last, tricky clue.

Pleasure sought is good, but given unsought is better

    The title Shakespeare Crosswords is somewhat misleading. Most of the clues have nothing to do with Shakespeare. There is one Shakespeare clue at the top of each puzzle, which gives you certain letters throughout the puzzle (shaded in grey). Those clues vary in difficulty and are enjoyable to solve. But, except for that one question, these are just regular crosswords.

    On a technical level, the crosswords could also include more clues. As you can see on the cover, each puzzle has blacked-out squares that are just keeping space. Those blacked-out squares mean that you have to know every single clue to solve the puzzle, rather than every clue except for one (as in crosswords where all the squares are left open for letters).

Book cover
Photo credit: Amazon

Note: This post contains a link to Shakespeare Crosswords on Amazon. The Green-Eyed Blogger receives no compensation of any kind from this link; it is for user convenience only.