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aviery's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Grief, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, and Mental illness
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
flavoredfaeman's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Murder
armontheroad's review
emotional
sad
fast-paced
4.0
As a Hamlet lover, I rather loved this!! I do wish that Syd had kept their own language and reworded the direct Hamlet quotes. I also would like to have seen a little more of a retelling element in the second half of the novel. This was still a quick, fun read. If you want Hamlet fanfiction with a University AU, this is for you!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Grief, Murder, and Death of parent
Moderate: Abandonment and Sexual content
beforeviolets's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
CW: death of father (offscreen), grief, death, death of loved one (onscreen), murder, poison
This book read like Hamlet/Horatio AO3 fanfic in the BEST way. It felt like Hamlet meets Dead Poet's Society with a sprinkle of Ouran High School Host Club. It was such a joy to read, and I found myself in tears despite having read/seen Hamlet many times before. The romantic tension was palpable in every scene and though I didn't find the characterization of any of the characters to be particularly accurate, I found them perfectly suited for this interpretation.
I do think the insertion of lines directly from Hamlet was a bit jarring and made the material difficult to process switching back and forth so drastically, and I wish there was more original material, especially later on in the work. By the end of it, we were essentially just reading the original Hamlet with a couple extra descriptors. I just wish the author had stretched it out a bit and added more of their story between the scenes we know so well, especially because I really did enjoy what they had to add to the world.
Overall, I wouldn't praise this as scholarly commentary - the author spoke of Horatio in the author's note as though he is often discarded as an "unimportant role" and implied that thinking of him as a significant character is revolutionary on their part despite this actually being a VERY common concept amongst Shakespeare fans and students alike. I mean, he's the storyteller and the only one to survive, after all. However, I think this is a beautiful love letter to a beloved and complex character. I see this becoming a comfort read for me for sure.
This book read like Hamlet/Horatio AO3 fanfic in the BEST way. It felt like Hamlet meets Dead Poet's Society with a sprinkle of Ouran High School Host Club. It was such a joy to read, and I found myself in tears despite having read/seen Hamlet many times before. The romantic tension was palpable in every scene and though I didn't find the characterization of any of the characters to be particularly accurate, I found them perfectly suited for this interpretation.
I do think the insertion of lines directly from Hamlet was a bit jarring and made the material difficult to process switching back and forth so drastically, and I wish there was more original material, especially later on in the work. By the end of it, we were essentially just reading the original Hamlet with a couple extra descriptors. I just wish the author had stretched it out a bit and added more of their story between the scenes we know so well, especially because I really did enjoy what they had to add to the world.
Overall, I wouldn't praise this as scholarly commentary - the author spoke of Horatio in the author's note as though he is often discarded as an "unimportant role" and implied that thinking of him as a significant character is revolutionary on their part despite this actually being a VERY common concept amongst Shakespeare fans and students alike. I mean, he's the storyteller and the only one to survive, after all. However, I think this is a beautiful love letter to a beloved and complex character. I see this becoming a comfort read for me for sure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent
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