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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I've read a lot of Shakespeare retellings, and a lot of Shakespeare fan fiction. No other retelling reads like boring fan fiction as much as this one does.
Too depressing and degradation-kink-y and not enough Tom Hiddleston in leather chaps, unfortunately. DNF :( I was really looking forward to a modern Henriad retelling. It's not that it's bad, it's just that, once again, I am not the target audience for this flavor of lit fiction.
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’m imagine my horror when I walked into this book thinking it was going to be a romance novel and it actually was a book about trauma. 😳
maybe my most anticipated read of the year i really did enjoy it! some bits made me giggle and on a sentence level this is really superb.
made me want to be back in london so bad… surprised by how much i ended up liking hal as a protagonist!
made me want to be back in london so bad… surprised by how much i ended up liking hal as a protagonist!
dark
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Maybe if it wasn’t finals season…started reading like fanfiction and I just gave up a little
This is a gay, incestuous, 2010s-set reimagining of Shakespeare's Henriad: let's call it Brandon Taylor meets Edward St Aubyn. As far as it goes, it's good. Bratton vividly imagines young Hal's terrifying self-destructiveness with drugs and drink, and shows it as stemming in large part from historical sexual abuse by his father, which you could argue is a symbolic mirroring of the systemic abuse of individuals by the British class system (I am convinced nothing is so devastating to a person's soul as being brought up in the expectations that surround hereditary wealth).
In another way it doesn't work at all. There are definitely queer and trauma-informed readings of the Henriad, but it isn't about queerness or trauma; rather, it's about succession and responsibility and the cost of duty. Adding those elements isn't a problem in itself, but doesn't contribute much to our understanding of the original story. Also, though I'm not convinced that it's an anti-Catholic novel per se (though I've seen it interpreted that way), the Lancaster family's Catholicism doesn't quite come across as recognisable contemporary Catholicism. Bratton is American, and while that doesn't disqualify him to write this book, his painting of the intersections of British class, sexuality and religion misses some spots. He's produced a very elegantly-turned novel, though. Worth a try if the comp in my first sentence interests you at all.
In another way it doesn't work at all. There are definitely queer and trauma-informed readings of the Henriad, but it isn't about queerness or trauma; rather, it's about succession and responsibility and the cost of duty. Adding those elements isn't a problem in itself, but doesn't contribute much to our understanding of the original story. Also, though I'm not convinced that it's an anti-Catholic novel per se (though I've seen it interpreted that way), the Lancaster family's Catholicism doesn't quite come across as recognisable contemporary Catholicism. Bratton is American, and while that doesn't disqualify him to write this book, his painting of the intersections of British class, sexuality and religion misses some spots. He's produced a very elegantly-turned novel, though. Worth a try if the comp in my first sentence interests you at all.
"Most people only ever love people who are like them. I think that's wrong, I don't think like should go with like, I think there should always be some crucial difference. Otherwise you're just looking into a mirror and admiring your own reflection. And then you turn into a flower."
"People who only love poeple who are like them don't realize they're looking at themselves either. Becuase they think, Well, we're different people. We think we're different people."
"Once a real thing has passed into memory, it was just as unreal as a dream."
Well I had never read Shakespeare's Henriad, but this novel was intense and jarring. And I now need to read the plays to understand the connections. All the Henry characters, wealth, family problems, it was so much and really overwhelming at times. But here I am still thinking about it so there was an impact...
"People who only love poeple who are like them don't realize they're looking at themselves either. Becuase they think, Well, we're different people. We think we're different people."
"Once a real thing has passed into memory, it was just as unreal as a dream."
Well I had never read Shakespeare's Henriad, but this novel was intense and jarring. And I now need to read the plays to understand the connections. All the Henry characters, wealth, family problems, it was so much and really overwhelming at times. But here I am still thinking about it so there was an impact...