"A Midsummer Night's Dream: Modern English Edition" (Manga Classics) by William Shakespeare (original story), Crystal S. Chan (story adaptation), Michael Barltrop (modern English adaptation), and Po Tse (art)

You know what?  I am just going to have to accept the fact that I really don't enjoy the story of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  I get very frustrated with every single character at various points, except Helena.  I actively dislike most of them, actually.  And I don't like Helena enough to want to suffer through the rest of the story just for her.  Unless it's the 1935 movie version, which I enjoy enough for the cast to watch it once in a great while.

However, the artwork is really fun and cute in this Manga Classics edition, so I didn't suffer too much reading it.  I did put it down for like two months because I was so annoyed by everyone, though.  But I finished it at last, whew.  I thought they did a good job translating Shakespeare into modern English, and they even replaced most of his bawdier jokes with more kid-friendly ones.  There's one moment where a character alludes to someone being upset whenever women refuse to open their thighs, but that's the only skanky spot, and it's pretty mild.

Not going to be a manga I reread, but it is very pretty, so there's that.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate it: PG-10 for the above bawdy reference and for two or three old-fashioned cuss words.

This is my 27th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.