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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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
A sci-fi locked-room mystery set in an extensive laboratory full of secrets that completely absorbed me! The characters are messy and not always likeable, the pace is fast but with lots of focus on dialogue, and a storytelling style of multiple found documents pieced together. All this did in general work well for me, although it was perhaps a little drawn out, and the documents didn't necessarily make sense to exist in world (e.g. the memoir had too many 'in the moment' details). The series this reminded me most of is the Locked Tomb (Gideon the Ninth etc.) as this had a lot of the same gothic sci-fi vibes and a character obsessed with bodies (and a touch of body horror) - I'd say this is easier to follow and faster (or at least more consistently) paced, although for plot is much less complex. The writing is really beautiful and a little flowery (but where the flowers are mostly body parts) at times, but also matter of fact or conversational at times depending on what perspective each part is from, which worked well. This is high tension, high atmosphere, and felt incredibly clever. This isn't one of those murder mysteries where we are given the clues and as the reader we are trying to figure it out - the 'whodunit' was less interesting to me than the general mystery of the place and trying to understand all characters motivations as there are a lot of surprises! I note, there is probably some extra cleverness that I missed from never really been exposed to the story of Hamlet before. God I loved this - a breath of fresh air!
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm
Moderate: Death, Violence
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved this retelling of Hamlet so much. I appreciated Felicia as a character and how she handled things
I liked the writing on this but I am more excited about other things right now
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Just not my speed. I wanted more of an immediate parallel to the Hamlet story, but it wasn’t doing it for me with this adaptation.
dark
mysterious
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
I think the individual parts - the gorgeous writing, the characters, the individual scenes and ideas - are stronger than the whole here. it doesn't quite all come together in a cohesive way for me, but the creativity and spark gives it extra points. come into this with an open mind and I think you'll have a pretty good time.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
personally, i would've knocked hayden's glasses off if given the chance