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slow-paced
I am over this author, this is the second book of hers I have read and there won't be a third. I thought this book was better than The Marriage Portrait but it had major issues that I couldn't get past.
First, the prose is so over the top and descriptive that it takes you out of the story to the point where I could not care what the characters were doing or feeling. There were so many things that I would have liked to know more about but the pages were just wasted on the same things being described three different ways in succession as if the reader cannot grasp
Second, the book is poorly titled (which is one of my pet peeves). It is not really about Hamnet- I felt like he was actually a very small part, which was annoying since he is the titular character. The story is about Agnes (Anne Hathaway) and her life and children and husband (William Shakespeare, who is never called by name (see more below)). Additionally it is not a plague novel- the plague is mentioned and causes the death of Hamnet, and there is a weird, brief history of a flea in the middle of the book from nowhere, but that is pretty much it. Hamnet dies 70% of the way through the book but then only the last like 20 pages talk about the play Hamlet. It was weird pacing.
Third, this book attempts to erase William Shakespeare from the story by not naming him to elevate the rest of the characters, but it is really distracting. I get wanting to hide it at the beginning but by then end it made me roll my eyes. Also, we NEVER hear from Shakespeare why he named the play Hamnet. We hear Agnes' inference and her acceptance of it and then the book ends. I was shocked at how abrupt it was.
Fourth, I HATE the multiple POVs. It's fine when it's well done but this jumps around like crazy and bounces from present to past. It's maddening. This author's style is not my cup of tea and I will avoid her like the plague (pun intended).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death