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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 rounding up to 4,
Spoiler
is it really lgbtq if the robot is gendered? maybe so
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-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
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beginning was a little slow but the writing style and spins on a classic story kept me interested
While I like Shakespeare, I'll confess that Hamlet has never been my favorite tragedy. I don't hate it or anything, but it never appealed to me as viscerally as Macbeth.
...It turns out, what it needed was to take place thirty years in the future and have Horatio as an AI who is romantically interested in Hamlet. Maybe you should have considered that route, William!
In all seriousness, 'The Death I Gave Him' is a beautiful book, combining security footage, fictional interviews, and letters into a locked-lab tale of revenge. It isn't a light read, with some dizzyingly detailed passages and some cerebral, future body-horror, but it's one that I didn't want to put down.
...It turns out, what it needed was to take place thirty years in the future and have Horatio as an AI who is romantically interested in Hamlet. Maybe you should have considered that route, William!
In all seriousness, 'The Death I Gave Him' is a beautiful book, combining security footage, fictional interviews, and letters into a locked-lab tale of revenge. It isn't a light read, with some dizzyingly detailed passages and some cerebral, future body-horror, but it's one that I didn't want to put down.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
loved the form and how this was structured. cool multi-layered mixed media POV and such visceral writing. I feel like it lost that momentum and its decisiveness by the conclusion and I wish it had carried that through to the end.
just realized I was imagining charles as tywin lannister the whole time . . .
I am always eager for Shakespeare retellings. For me, the great thing about Shakespeare's tales is that they are so easy to adapt to other settings. That being said, I might have seen this book a little differently if I didn't come at it expecting a Hamlet retelling. I admit I'm very picky about Shakespeare retellings, so I might have looked at this more critically than more casual readers. But even if this wasn't a Hamlet retelling, I would probably give it the same rating due to its lack of details.
I can understand that when someone is doing an adaptation or retelling, that changes are inevitably going to be made. It's just a little perplexing the choices this author made in their changes to the story. What makes Hamlet so great and lasting (in my opinion) is the tragedy of it all. How Hamlet's revenge and madness keeps driving him to more and more extremes, how even the "good" people end up suffering due to other characters' choices, how all the plotting and scheming and trying to keep power ultimately ends with a pile of bodies. In this book, two people die (except for Hayden's father, who is dead in the beginning). TWO PEOPLE. The author has this fantastic set-up of having all these conflicting personalities in a lockdown, where suspicions can grow, where claustrophobia can set in, where even the most rational people might go a little mad from being stuck indoors, and only TWO PEOPLE die. I also found it odd the choice in having some of the important characters not even show up on page, or do so very briefly. While they all aren't strictly necessary for the story, it was still weird not having them around. Like, why even bother trying to keep the mystery of who "she" is when the reader is coming in knowing this is a Hamlet retelling? Just include the mother from the start rather than pretend it's some kind of shocking reveal.
A problem with the book in general is how it's written and how little is described. I never got a great mental image of what the lab looked like, or what any of the characters looked like. I think Hayden was described in his intro, but for the life of me I can't remember if any of the others get any sort of description. And that includes Horatio. I just could not picture him at all or how he was supposed to work in the context of this story. I think he was supposed to be like SAM from Mass Effect Andromeda, which was a part of the Pathfinder but also was stored on the Ark, but I'm not sure. But if the complete lack of description wasn't bad enough, the choice in storytelling was just as bad, if not worse. The narrative kept jumping around to different styles, some of which took place after the fact (which completely ruins any sort of mystery or tension), and some of which are nothing but text. Again, absolutely no descriptions of anything. It's nearly impossible to connect with any of the characters outside of Hayden and Horatio, and even then those two could've been given more depth.
On the positive end, I will say that Hayden (Hamlet) was written decently. I liked that the author examined his mental health struggles. I think Felicia (Ophelia) was okay, too. Horatio was just odd. I have nothing against the author interpreting Hamlet and Horatio's relationship as romantic. If you want to ship them, that's fine. But please do so while fleshing out their characters more. Also, while the sex scene was interesting, it also took up like three full pages that could have been spent on something else.
As I said, if this wasn't a retelling, I still would've found it lacking. But since it was, I judged it a lot harsher.
I can understand that when someone is doing an adaptation or retelling, that changes are inevitably going to be made. It's just a little perplexing the choices this author made in their changes to the story. What makes Hamlet so great and lasting (in my opinion) is the tragedy of it all. How Hamlet's revenge and madness keeps driving him to more and more extremes, how even the "good" people end up suffering due to other characters' choices, how all the plotting and scheming and trying to keep power ultimately ends with a pile of bodies. In this book, two people die (except for Hayden's father, who is dead in the beginning). TWO PEOPLE. The author has this fantastic set-up of having all these conflicting personalities in a lockdown, where suspicions can grow, where claustrophobia can set in, where even the most rational people might go a little mad from being stuck indoors, and only TWO PEOPLE die. I also found it odd the choice in having some of the important characters not even show up on page, or do so very briefly. While they all aren't strictly necessary for the story, it was still weird not having them around. Like, why even bother trying to keep the mystery of who "she" is when the reader is coming in knowing this is a Hamlet retelling? Just include the mother from the start rather than pretend it's some kind of shocking reveal.
A problem with the book in general is how it's written and how little is described. I never got a great mental image of what the lab looked like, or what any of the characters looked like. I think Hayden was described in his intro, but for the life of me I can't remember if any of the others get any sort of description. And that includes Horatio. I just could not picture him at all or how he was supposed to work in the context of this story. I think he was supposed to be like SAM from Mass Effect Andromeda, which was a part of the Pathfinder but also was stored on the Ark, but I'm not sure. But if the complete lack of description wasn't bad enough, the choice in storytelling was just as bad, if not worse. The narrative kept jumping around to different styles, some of which took place after the fact (which completely ruins any sort of mystery or tension), and some of which are nothing but text. Again, absolutely no descriptions of anything. It's nearly impossible to connect with any of the characters outside of Hayden and Horatio, and even then those two could've been given more depth.
On the positive end, I will say that Hayden (Hamlet) was written decently. I liked that the author examined his mental health struggles. I think Felicia (Ophelia) was okay, too. Horatio was just odd. I have nothing against the author interpreting Hamlet and Horatio's relationship as romantic. If you want to ship them, that's fine. But please do so while fleshing out their characters more. Also, while the sex scene was interesting, it also took up like three full pages that could have been spent on something else.
As I said, if this wasn't a retelling, I still would've found it lacking. But since it was, I judged it a lot harsher.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes