Print List Price:	$18.99
Kindle Price:	$1.99 Save $17.00 (90%)
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishers Price set by seller.

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add an

audiobook with Audible narration for $12.99

Audiobook Price: $23.14

Save: $10.15 (44%)

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

Christopher Moore

+ Follow

More books from this author

Shakespeare for Squirrels: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Christopher Moore (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 2,615 ratings

Book 3 of 3: Fool Series

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

Best Price in 30 Days

See all formats and editions

Ignite your imagination with this immersive fantasy read!

New York Times Bestseller!

Shakespeare meets Dashiell Hammett in this wildly entertaining murder mystery from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore—an uproarious, hardboiled take on the Bard’s most performed play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring Pocket, the hero of Fool and The Serpent of Venice, along with his sidekick, Drool, and pet monkey, Jeff.

Set adrift by his pirate crew, Pocket of Dog Snogging—last seen in The Serpent of Venice—washes up on the sun-bleached shores of Greece, where he hopes to dazzle the Duke with his comedic brilliance and become his trusted fool.

But the island is in turmoil. Egeus, the Duke’s minister, is furious that his daughter Hermia is determined to marry Demetrius, instead of Lysander, the man he has chosen for her. The Duke decrees that if, by the time of the wedding, Hermia still refuses to marry Lysander, she shall be executed . . . or consigned to a nunnery. Pocket, being Pocket, cannot help but point out that this decree is complete bollocks, and that the Duke is an egregious weasel for having even suggested it. Irritated by the fool’s impudence, the Duke orders his death. With the Duke’s guards in pursuit, Pocket makes a daring escape.

He soon stumbles into the wooded realm of the fairy king Oberon, who, as luck would have it, IS short a fool. His jester Robin Goodfellow—the mischievous sprite better known as Puck—was found dead. Murdered. Oberon makes Pocket an offer he can’t refuse: he will make Pocket his fool and have his death sentence lifted if Pocket finds out who killed Robin Goodfellow. But as anyone who is even vaguely aware of the Bard’s most performed play ever will know, nearly every character has a motive for wanting the mischievous sprite dead.

With too many suspects and too little time, Pocket must work his own kind of magic to find the truth, save his neck, and ensure that all ends well.

A rollicking tale of love, magic, madness, and murder, Shakespeare for Squirrels is a Midsummer Night’s noir—a wicked and brilliantly funny good time conjured by the singular imagination of Christopher Moore.

From the Publisher

more madcap satire from bestselling author christopher moore


	A Dirty Job	You Suck	Lamb	Fluke	Bite Me	Secondhand Souls

Customer Reviews	4,849	1,209	9,199	1,135	1,176	3,874
Price	$15.99	$14.00	$10.89	$10.44	$13.39	$15.00
More from Moore	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It takes a certain amount of guts and wild abandon to recast a Shakespeare comedy as a hard-boiled detective story, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s master satirist Moore, whose gift for funny business apparently knows no bounds. . . . A welcome return of a fan-favorite character in a romp of a tale that will delight not only mystery buffs but also fantasy fanatics, and, of course, Bard lovers." — Booklist (starred review)

"Moore’s trademark humor is on full display with his cast of strangely lovable characters. This is Shakespeare with an edge and will not only appeal to Moore’s fans but garner new ones." — Library Journal (starred review)

"Nobody writes mystery novels quite like Christopher Moore . . . . As hilarious as A Midsummer Night’s Dream is to begin with, Moore adds a contemporary dose of sly humor that I think would impress the Bard." — Bookpage (starred review)

“[I]n Shakespeare for Squirrels . . . Pocket travels to Athens and gets mixed up with the events and characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and they are fully more fantastical than even Shakespeare imagined. Moore’s Athens is as historically and geographically accurate as Shakespeare’s (which is to say not at all), and it’s filled with not only fairies and a man turned into an ass, but goblins, Amazon warriors, animal transformations, a breathtaking conception of the Fairy King’s Night Palace that could never be realized on any stage,.” — Austen Tichenor, Shakespeare & Beyond, Folger Shakespeare Library

“Buckle in for Shakespeare for Squirrels, an uproarious take on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—transformed into a murder mystery. . . A funny, fast-paced, and wild read.” — Huffington Post

"Christopher Moore has written a wonderful diversion for hard times. Even Shakespeare would have appreciated the jokes." — Wall Street Journal

"A hilariously noir tale of love, magic and murder." — USA Today

“Manic parodist Moore…returns with a rare gift for Shakespeare fans who think A Midsummer Night’s Dream would be perfect if only it were a little more madcap. . . . A kicky, kinky, wildly inventive 21st century mashup with franker language and a higher body count than Hamlet.” — Kirkus Reviews

“This cheeky homage will please lovers of Shakespeare and camp.” — Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Christopher Moore is the author of seventeen previous novels, including Shakespeare for Squirrels, Noir, Secondhand Souls, Sacré Bleu, Fool, and Lamb. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07G13YD3M
Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow (May 12, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 12, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1632 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 293 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #48,509 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #86 in Mashup Fiction
- #284 in Humorous Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- #358 in General Humorous Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.5 2,615 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Christopher Moore

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Christopher Moore is the author of 15 previous novels: Practical Demonkeeping, Coyote Blue, Bloodsucking Fiends, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Lamb, Fluke, The Stupidest Angel, A Dirty Job, You Suck, Fool, Bite Me, Sacré Bleu, The Serpent of Venice, and Secondhand Souls. He lives in San Francisco.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

2,615 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Nic Ridgway

He’s my fav fiction author

Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2024

Verified Purchase

I adore Christopher Moore for his poetic irreverence and ability to convey so much, more than just painting a scene, with well crafted phrases. His books are easy to read because they flow, no choking over strange constructs, struggling through obtuse grammar, just fun effortless, blissful hilarious entertaining reading. If you found RHPS offensive this may not be for you. I forgot myself and laughed out loud many times as I plowed through this book in two days.

Helpful

P. Greer

The perfect escape for everything going on!

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

It's been awhile since I've read a Christopher Moore book and luckily it's just like riding a bicycle, hop on get ready for a fun a ride.

I'm not sure how I managed to get through high school and college with Romeo and Juliet being the only Shakespeare book that I read. I know, I need to remedy that, or just read some more Christopher Moore books and learn the stories from there.

That being said, I think I would probably get a whole lot more out of the story if I had read A Midsummer Night's Dream - what this book is loosely based on. But even without that to go on, I still loved this book.

The combination of bawdy and yet juvenile humor completely appeals to me. It was the perfect escape for everything going on today. Plenty of sex (nothing graphic at all!) since apparently fairies love a good frolic, plenty of humor, and enough Shakespeare that I can say I have an idea of what A Midsummer Night's Dream is about.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Tim Healy

Pocket is back!

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

Another short but fun romp by Pocket of Dog Snogging, formerly fool to King Lear, into the world of Shakespeare. He was introduced in Fool, and then destroyed all sanity in another Shakespeare play in The Serpent of Venice. Now, he's taking on fairies, goblins, Kings, Queens, Dukes, nobles, and all other comers in A Midsummer Night's Dream. This is a frivolous and funny book, but it meets the needs of my sense of humor. If you can handle the blue jokes and blue language, it's a great deal of fun along the way. Oh, and the fairies turn into squirrels during the day...that's where the squirrels come in.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Christopher S.

Exactly right.

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2024

Verified Purchase

GREAT! Perfect condition and got it fast.

Helpful

allison b.

I am enamoured of an ass!

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2021

Verified Purchase

And what a magnificent, hilarious ass he is! Chris Moore never, ever disappoints! This is the third go 'round for Pocket the Fool and his lumbering idiot apprentice, Drool (first met in "Fool", the very funny rethink of "King Lear" - which I've read three times). Warning: If you're not familiar with the Shakespeare plays he's sending up, get thee to a library (or at least watch a video version). I introduced "Fool" to my book club (I know - groan), and no one had read Lear or seen it performed. They still liked the book, but didn't get a lot of the jokes. If you're going to read "Shakespeare for Squirrels", you had better know "Midsummer Night's Dream". Oh, and isn't it quite funny that author Christopher Moore sounds a lot like Christopher Marlowe?

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jason Brown

Meandering

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2022

Verified Purchase

I love Christopher Moore books, like anyone who's ever read a Christopher Moore book.
This book is the exception. For those not completely initiated with Shakespeare (for which I am one of those people), the other two books in this series work absolutely perfectly whether you are a layman in Shakespeare or not. This book seems to rely on the knowledge of the subject matter a little more. For that reason, it felt a little meandering (plot-wise) and it had trouble holding my attention. 3 stars.

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is one of those books that renews my faith not only in books but in great craftsmanship. From the first page it was a laughstorm. And it didn't let up. Christopher Moore makes bawdy beautiful. He certainly makes it behave the way bawdy is to behave, and with Shakespearean nuance. But the hilarity belies an exceptionally gifted writer. This is my first book by this author. I wasn't familiar with his work, but the title of this one got my attention. I needed redemption in my reading life. This book has salvation in't. As is my habit, I will devour all he has written, and anticipate moore. If this book is an indication as to his skill to amuse, inform, and entertain, I am in for a good long season of delicious reading.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Scott Conrad Baker

A Fun Frolic with Faeries and Fools

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

I like reading things by authors obviously smarter than I. And, I love satire and playing with an already popular theme and twisting it. Christopher Moore does all those things.

If you are a Shakespeare purist this book is not for you.

If you like plot twists and chaos; if you like a resolution to conflict that comes out of nowhere; if you are a fan of Christopher Moore and Pocket...then this is a very enjoyable and fast paced read.

However, I liked 80-85% of the 2019 Film version of CATS, which (if Rotten Tomatoes can be believed) it appears 80-85% of the rest of the world did not; so there is that.

31 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

PL

Excellent book

Reviewed in Canada on October 21, 2023

Verified Purchase

Excellent read. Awesome author.
Funny, entertaining and easy to read.

Lotusgav

gloriously original

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2023

Verified Purchase

Except it kind of isn’t but that’s by the by. It’s a great read with irreverent buffoonery and just the right amount of swearing. Pocket is a grand fool ie a most excellent character. I did thoroughly enjoy it, thanks!

Jean-François

Bof!

Reviewed in France on April 3, 2023

Verified Purchase

En principe je suis fan de Christopher Moore, mais là... Je n'ai même pas fini le livre tellmeent c'était pénible, ça doit venir de moi, ce n'est pas possible autrement.

Translate review to English

Dave K

Pocket is the best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

I love Christopher moore. But pocket is a genius. The delivery is perfect. Time to read this again. Its just been long enough.

Timothy Atwood

Humorous take on A Midsummer's Night Dream

Reviewed in Canada on May 21, 2020

Verified Purchase

I have always liked Christopher Moore's irreverent humour. Shakespeare for Squirrels lives up to his previous work (mostly). If his "Lamb" would be rated a solid 5 stars then I would say this book comes in at 4.8 or 4.9. Definitely well worth the read but with a few boring patches.

In general I find all three of his novels set in twisted Shakespeare land, of which this is the third, to be some of his weakest work. Perhaps this is because I am not the greatest fan of Shakespeare. (I now await the angry mobs at my door). If you love Shakespeare and A Midsummer's Night Dream you may find Shakespeare for Squirrels the good solid 5 stars I couldn't quite bring myself to give it. On the other hand if you can't laugh at the things you love then maybe you should look to another novel.

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

Shakespeare for Squirrels: A Novel Kindle Edition

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Christopher Moore

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries