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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
Not an ARC review! This was absolutely fantastic to me. It was sold to me as a queer sci-fi hamlet retelling, but what really drew me in was the way this story was told; through interviews, recordings, essays and more. I loved the way it build tension; making use of the claustrophobic atmosphere of the labs.
This one is *weird*, and I loved every weird second as we follow:
- Hayden, who has been researching ways to immortality
- Horatio, the lab’s Operating System/AI, who has a (very intimate) neurological link with Hayden
- and Felicia, Hayden’s ex-girlfriend (it’s complicated)
As they try and survive the lab’s lockdown, with likely a murderer in their midst, and Hayden’s father’s dying wish: to be avenged.
This won’t be for everyone, but it’s one of my top books this year!
This one is *weird*, and I loved every weird second as we follow:
- Hayden, who has been researching ways to immortality
- Horatio, the lab’s Operating System/AI, who has a (very intimate) neurological link with Hayden
- and Felicia, Hayden’s ex-girlfriend (it’s complicated)
As they try and survive the lab’s lockdown, with likely a murderer in their midst, and Hayden’s father’s dying wish: to be avenged.
This won’t be for everyone, but it’s one of my top books this year!
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed Horatio a lot but the rest was so boring! So. I ended up skipping a bit of the middle.
A huge thanks to Netgalley for providing an ARC for an honest review!
I took some time to think about the book before writing this because I just needed time to fully process this incredible book. Anyone who knows me is aware that Hamlet is one of my favorite written works so the moment I heard there was a locked room, queer, sci-fi retelling I had to get my hands on it. It met my expectations and then some.
It did what every good retelling (in my opinion) does and stayed true thematically and in story beats to the original while also expanding it in a unique way into a refreshing new work. Even knowing Hamlet as well as I do it was impossible to fully predict how events would play out. The entire story keeps you on edge and was further aided by the locked room setting and the narration. Written in the future by a researcher who is documenting the past events of this tragedy (though their past is still in the future for the current reader) our narrator is an outsider to these events. They have attempted to piece together what happened but their knowledge is incomplete as they put together the truth from a single written first hand account, scraps of video footage, and leftover data from that one night. I found this to be a particularly unique and interesting story telling method. Even though we have a complete book there is still information that is left uncertain and incomplete.
As for the characters, I loved the depth they were given. Particularly Felicia (Ophelia) and how she was given so much more agency compared to her original counterpart. She has always been the character in Hamlet that I believed deserved more nuance than just Hamlet’s girlfriend who kills herself so it was refreshing to see her making such an impact in this story. The various relationships were also written with an interesting complexity and nuance. I was struck in particular with Hayden’s relationship with his parents and how it’s obvious he loves them it’s also clear that there are also levels of family dysfunction.
Though I will say that I was largely disappointed by the romance. For a book that one of its selling points is being a ‘queer’ retelling I do wish that here had been more depth to it. It felt kind of out of place and abrupt. Perhaps some type of flashbacks could have aided in developing the relationship further to show how they got to this point. Maybe some more exploration into Hayden’s queerness overall could also have helped.
Overall this is a truly creative Hamlet retelling that does an excellent job of honoring the source material while also creating something entire new and unique. I would recommend it to both Hamlet fans and those who aren’t alike if you are interested in a good sci-fi thriller.
I took some time to think about the book before writing this because I just needed time to fully process this incredible book. Anyone who knows me is aware that Hamlet is one of my favorite written works so the moment I heard there was a locked room, queer, sci-fi retelling I had to get my hands on it. It met my expectations and then some.
It did what every good retelling (in my opinion) does and stayed true thematically and in story beats to the original while also expanding it in a unique way into a refreshing new work. Even knowing Hamlet as well as I do it was impossible to fully predict how events would play out. The entire story keeps you on edge and was further aided by the locked room setting and the narration. Written in the future by a researcher who is documenting the past events of this tragedy (though their past is still in the future for the current reader) our narrator is an outsider to these events. They have attempted to piece together what happened but their knowledge is incomplete as they put together the truth from a single written first hand account, scraps of video footage, and leftover data from that one night. I found this to be a particularly unique and interesting story telling method. Even though we have a complete book there is still information that is left uncertain and incomplete.
As for the characters, I loved the depth they were given. Particularly Felicia (Ophelia) and how she was given so much more agency compared to her original counterpart. She has always been the character in Hamlet that I believed deserved more nuance than just Hamlet’s girlfriend who kills herself so it was refreshing to see her making such an impact in this story. The various relationships were also written with an interesting complexity and nuance. I was struck in particular with Hayden’s relationship with his parents and how it’s obvious he loves them it’s also clear that there are also levels of family dysfunction.
Though I will say that I was largely disappointed by the romance. For a book that one of its selling points is being a ‘queer’ retelling I do wish that here had been more depth to it. It felt kind of out of place and abrupt. Perhaps some type of flashbacks could have aided in developing the relationship further to show how they got to this point. Maybe some more exploration into Hayden’s queerness overall could also have helped.
Overall this is a truly creative Hamlet retelling that does an excellent job of honoring the source material while also creating something entire new and unique. I would recommend it to both Hamlet fans and those who aren’t alike if you are interested in a good sci-fi thriller.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes