A review by hailstorm3812
The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

This is an interesting concept that wanted to tackle a lot, which made for some very interesting highs and lows. Clearly they love Shakespeare in a way that I really enjoyed.  I'm a sucker for a framing mechanism and footnotes, but I couldn't figure out the point of doing this.  It was fun but didn't actually add a lot to the story.  I loved Felicia and Horatio, who were the highlights for me.  Both take the original characters and interpret them to meet the setting in a way that brings more depth and intrigue.  I liked Felicia getting Laeretes' arc, I think that's an interesting way to bring her into the full narrative and avoid fridging.  I like the idea of looking at Hamlet's madness with a mad scientist arc, but trying to combine it with real life mental illness never quite worked for me.  The names also drove me nuts, we're far enough away from the original plot that the names could be less fanfictiony.  I have mixed feelings about the Hamlet/Horatio plot because on one hand it was cool and hot and aligned with my view of them but it was so distracting for the plot and felt like stopping every time we got there.  I liked this book, I just think it tried to cram in every thought and could have used some editing.
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