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A review by katykelly
The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig
4.0
Hamlet reimagined for young adults
Told in a very convincing child's voice, Philip Noble is caught up in a family drama when his father dies in a car accident and he begins to see the ghost, who tells him that it was no accident, that his uncle was responsible and that Philip must get his revenge...
The style of writing, lacking some punctuation (apostrophes, speech marks) was a little awkward at first, though it became much more natural, and kept reminding me all the way through of the age and naivety of the narrator. It did work, though I know for some it will be an off-putting style.
As a fan of Hamlet, a play I knew well when at school, I enjoyed the structural similarities, working out the character connections and seeing lines and scenes crop up edited for the modern world. It was very well planned-out and brought into its new context.
Without knowledge of the Shakespeare it still works very well indeed as a ghost/revenge/grief story. The themes of Hamlet are even more relevant to the story of a boy procrastinating over killing his uncle.
This would work well used alongside the original text for English students, but the themes of parental death, step-families, grief and adolescence will hit home with many readers aged 12-15.
Told in a very convincing child's voice, Philip Noble is caught up in a family drama when his father dies in a car accident and he begins to see the ghost, who tells him that it was no accident, that his uncle was responsible and that Philip must get his revenge...
The style of writing, lacking some punctuation (apostrophes, speech marks) was a little awkward at first, though it became much more natural, and kept reminding me all the way through of the age and naivety of the narrator. It did work, though I know for some it will be an off-putting style.
As a fan of Hamlet, a play I knew well when at school, I enjoyed the structural similarities, working out the character connections and seeing lines and scenes crop up edited for the modern world. It was very well planned-out and brought into its new context.
Without knowledge of the Shakespeare it still works very well indeed as a ghost/revenge/grief story. The themes of Hamlet are even more relevant to the story of a boy procrastinating over killing his uncle.
This would work well used alongside the original text for English students, but the themes of parental death, step-families, grief and adolescence will hit home with many readers aged 12-15.