Reviews - Hamnet | The StoryGraph

19.8k reviews for:

Hamnet

Maggie O'Farrell

4.19 AVERAGE

henbirdler's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional slow-paced

zoelou87's review against another edition

3.25

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

earth_person's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lesleyo's review against another edition

5.0

emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

sarahrdgrs's review against another edition

4.0

i was lent this after raving about the marriage portrait and being told i absolutely had to read it. i’ll be totally honest, the beginning was hard work. sometimes it was me zoning out during long descriptions, sometimes i think it was the book.

but looking back, i actually think agnes was written to be deliberately jarring at first and we see her as others did: strange, unsettling, hard to grasp. and then the second half hits and it’s devastating. all the earlier distance makes the grief even more powerful, and i felt so guilty for having judged her.

it’s both sad and beautiful (i cried more than once) and i loved how it reframed the origins of hamlet through a woman’s perspective that history mostly overlooked.

a slower start than the marriage portrait, but so worth sticking with!