Item: My Name Is Not Peaseblossom
Rating: 2.5
Author: Anjali Kay

Book Review :: My Name is Not Peaseblossom, by Jackie French

My Name Is Not Peaseblossom by Jackie French
ISBN: 9781460709177
Published by HarperCollins
on 2019-06-17
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 240
Source: HarperCollins NZ
Find at Harper Collins NZ
Goodreads

Titania rose to her feet. 'What is going on here, Peaseblossom?' she demanded.
I bowed to her. 'I apologise, Your Majesty. But I'd rather be known as Pete.'
'Pete?' She frowned. 'That's no name for a fairy.'
'No, it isn't, ' I said, meeting her eyes.
At court, he's known as Peaseblossom, a servant to the Fairy Queen.
But as Pete, he prefers pizza to sugarplums and denim to daffodils. He wants to choose his own life too. But how can he when a fairy's sole duty is to obey the all-powerful Queen Titania?
This is Shakespeare's popular and delightful comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream with an added army of Amazons, a sea serpent and a selkie called Gaela, who luckily for Pete makes the best pizza in the world.
It is also a story of the intrigues of the Fairy Court, of vampire plots to dominate the world and of impossible loves that might just come true. Not by enchantment, but when two hearts thread together, making a magic of their own.

Last updated on 14 October 2023

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase with one of these links, I recieve a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read the full Affiliate Policy.
My thoughts on My Name is Not Peaseblossom

While I haven’t read anything by Jackie French before, she sure knows how to spin a Shakespeare play into an interesting retelling. She’s covered quite a few of the plays and characters of the Bard’s, including Juliet and Ophelia, as well as other notable historical figures in her books over the years, but My Name is Not Peaseblossom is the most recent.

It follows the story of Peaseblossom ‘Pete’ as he’s an apprentice fairy to Puck, who we know from Shakespeares’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There’s really three threads to this story: Peaseblossom is awaiting his marriage to the Fairy Floss (the tooth fairy), he’s also flying around with Puck putting magical potions into the eyes of the likes of Hermia, Helena, Demetrius and Lysander, among others, and also making escapades to a pizza store in the future whether he meets a selkie and her vampire boyfriend. Sounds a bit all over the place, right?

And it was, but it was sort of magical, and definitely had me thinking back to the Pop Up Globe’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year. French somehow kept a lot of the original story but added in all these side characters who aren’t really mention (or only once or twice) by Shakespeare himself, and of course, threw in the modern world to add that twist. I really enjoyed how she included lines from the play as well.

Overall, it was a fun wee read (at only 240ish pages), but definitely aimed at a lot younger ‘Young Adult‘ than perhaps I’m used to. As far as retellings go, it was a unique spin on the play, and if you enjoy reading different takes on plays you probably studied in high school, then pick it up and give it a go.

Have you read My Name is Not Peaseblossom? Or any others in this Shakespeare series by Jackie French?

Thank you to HarperCollins NZ for providing me with a free copy in exchange for a review. This does in no way affect my opinion, and all thoughts are my own.