A review by willjacks
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

2.0

The story is too simple for the book to be as long as it is. As interesting as the first third is, nothing particularly happens at all unfortunately. The book's melodrama was the most interesting part, so when it just ends abruptly it becomes boring. Even the crescendo of an ending was stone dead boring compared with the first third which is such a shame. Some of the descriptive language and writing style was incredible some areas and boring in others. Never had this issue before, but I read the first two thirds and skimmed the rest. Whether you could call the plot twist an actual plot twist is also up for debate, as you know the fate of a certain character as the foreword tells you at the start of the book. That narrative arc is visited and revisited on numerous occasions until you realise that you're 200 pages in, and literally all that's happened is a child starts to become ill as they wait for a parent or grandparent to come home. That's it. It deserves its awards for the prose, but in my opinion its all style over substance.