Reviews - The Death I Gave Him

664 reviews for:

The Death I Gave Him

Em X. Liu

3.54 AVERAGE

dare_bear42's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional medium-paced

Brilliant, amazing, spectacular, never been done before

lavenderscribes's review against another edition

2.0

dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

Not a retelling for me. The changes to the plot make the entire thematic point of Hamlet void and in vain and although the creative exploration of queerness and mental health is much appreciated it did not make up for making the tragedy essentially null and void.

avalith's review

5.0

I really didn't know what I was getting myself into with this one. A queer sci-fi locked room murder mystery retelling of Hamlet where Horatio is an AI? Sure, let's do it!

I found this to be tense, and fraught and emotionally sticky-- just like the play. There were lots of fun nods to the original work by ol' Willy S and I felt myself perk up with recognition anytime I realized how Liu was tying something into Hamlet.

I really loved Hayden, Felicia and Horatio as characters and I have to say I have never in my life experienced a 'love triangle' quite like this and there is a spicy scene that really took me by surprise.

I've never read anything quite like this, which doesn't happen too often these days, and I'm very excited to see what Em. X Liu writes next.

kaschaller's review against another edition

3.5

dark sad tense

corimari's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Great book. I'm a sucker for Shakespearian adaptations and this one was sooooo good. And Hamlet! Such cutting writing, it's all very visceral and emotive. Excellent mix of the philosophy and plot, the characters are a good mix of introspective and honest, and the tension is sky high, the entire time. Only points off were some of the emotion felt unearned, but that may be because the entire thing is on such a tight high wire constantly. A great read.