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ntvenessa's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
A moving fictionalisation of Hamnet Shakespeare's life and death, and the grief that haunts his family, particularly, his mother. It is atmospheric and O'Farrell is incredibly skilled to breathe life into the scant historical details that survive today.
"I am dead:
Thou livest;
... draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story"
Hamlet, Act V, Scene II
Stunning.
"I am dead:
Thou livest;
... draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story"
Hamlet, Act V, Scene II
Stunning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Medical content, Miscarriage, Violence, Alcoholism, Blood, Infertility, Classism, and Infidelity
lena_and_her_books's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Pregnancy, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood
honeycrispp's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
A deeply emotional, enthralling and immersive work of historical fiction set during the Black Death.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Child death, Grief, Confinement, Death, Pregnancy, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Blood, and Xenophobia
Minor: Animal death and Gaslighting
terrik_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
5.0
How do I describe a book that left me so utterly breathless from both awe and because I was sobbing like a baby?
Hamnet is a story that gives you everything and then snatches it away. It gives you love, affection, sorrow, and takes it all away in turn. Full of morally grey characters, grief, and the intricate relationships between family, this book is everything I loved served on a silver platter.
Throughout the book, my impressions of all the characters kept changing. As time passed in the books, all the characters seemed to grow along with them. I loved the emphasis on sibling relationships in this book, and Bartholomew, Eliza, and Edmond can do no wrong in my eyes. The parallel between Shakespeare and his daughter Susanna’s life is also very striking.
This is the type of book that WILL be analysed for literature classes. It’s the type of book that you can scan the pages over and over again and still find more ways Maggie O’Farrell made this story so hard hitting. All the words that were used, all the sentences, the way paragraphs were structured… as someone who enjoy looking at the deeper meaning behind books, I couldn’t put it down.
Shakespeare in particular was a character I never really knew how I felt about. At the start I was rooting for him, in the second half I was cheering him on, in the third and fourth half I couldn’t believe him, and in the last few pages I wept for him.
And Hamnet. Oh, Hamnet. Sweet sweet boy.
Agnes is definitely a different character from all those that I’ve read before. I wasn’t expecting any form of mystical powers during the book (I went in only knowing ‘it’s about the women in Shakespeare’s life’) but Agnes was very compelling. Despite how long I spent reading about her, I I was always being surprised with each switch of POV to her. There’s just so many layers to her that you peel away as the book progresses. She loves Shakespeare, she loves Bartholomew, and above anything, she loves her children.
I got through this book slowly (a whole month gosh) because of other commitments, but the journey was worth it till the end.
If you are looking for a book that deals with grief, the intricacies of family, and that will make you cry, this is the book for you. The writing style at the start could take a bit of getting used to but just stick it through and I promise you won’t regret it.
(Oh but Shakespeare’s father, John… he can go AWAY. I wished he had gotten retribution for what he did. Can’t believe he got away scot-free)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, and Infidelity
Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty
balfies's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A beautifully wrought exploration of the lives of Shakespeare's family - his wise woman wife Agnes, his children, and especially the death of his son Hamnet. Really gorgeous and emotive exploration of what it means to love and grieve and communicate with the human experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Blood
writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-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? It's complicated
4.0
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell 🧤
🌟🌟🌟🌟
💀 The plot: Stratford, 1596. An 11-year-old boy is desperately trying to find help for his sister, who has fallen ill. His mother is out of reach on the edge of town, his father even further away in London. No one knows yet that this boy will not survive the week - or that three years later, his father will give his name to one of the most famous plays ever written.
Hamnet is a feat of imagination from start to finish. It's vivid, it's moving. It's wildly overwritten at times - a hand movement or journey from room to room might take a full page - but it does something I think is really hard to do: it brings a famous person from history fully to life. Shakespeare is a character we know little about while having a huge idea of him in our collective consciousness, and O'Farrell writes him as just a man. A son, a husband, a father. A Latin tutor. Someone real, who you can feel for.
The result is a book that feels like a look into history with a lower-case "h". O'Farrell's not so much interested in the origins of Hamlet the play or in Shakespeare's artistic genius, but in the profound grief its name suggests for Hamnet the boy, and in helping her reader live that loss alongside his family. It's a novel that is both much bigger and much smaller than the question of how or why Shakespeare wrote, and I think that's why I liked it.
🦉 Read it for a complex portrait of a Midlands hero (big up Billy Shakes), deeply-felt characterisation, and if you want a nice big cry.
🚫 Avoid it if you find excessive description or a slow pace exhausting (I love a nice slow novel, but this tested me at points!) - also if you're not in a place to read about child death or pregnancy at the moment.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
💀 The plot: Stratford, 1596. An 11-year-old boy is desperately trying to find help for his sister, who has fallen ill. His mother is out of reach on the edge of town, his father even further away in London. No one knows yet that this boy will not survive the week - or that three years later, his father will give his name to one of the most famous plays ever written.
Hamnet is a feat of imagination from start to finish. It's vivid, it's moving. It's wildly overwritten at times - a hand movement or journey from room to room might take a full page - but it does something I think is really hard to do: it brings a famous person from history fully to life. Shakespeare is a character we know little about while having a huge idea of him in our collective consciousness, and O'Farrell writes him as just a man. A son, a husband, a father. A Latin tutor. Someone real, who you can feel for.
The result is a book that feels like a look into history with a lower-case "h". O'Farrell's not so much interested in the origins of Hamlet the play or in Shakespeare's artistic genius, but in the profound grief its name suggests for Hamnet the boy, and in helping her reader live that loss alongside his family. It's a novel that is both much bigger and much smaller than the question of how or why Shakespeare wrote, and I think that's why I liked it.
🦉 Read it for a complex portrait of a Midlands hero (big up Billy Shakes), deeply-felt characterisation, and if you want a nice big cry.
🚫 Avoid it if you find excessive description or a slow pace exhausting (I love a nice slow novel, but this tested me at points!) - also if you're not in a place to read about child death or pregnancy at the moment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
mscalls's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Physical abuse
kizzy's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Blood and Suicidal thoughts
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