A review by deirdreen
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

A cool concept and beautiful writing. Like O’Farrell’s other book, The Marriage Portrait, the chapters in Hamnet jump around from different points in the timeline, which I’m still not sure how I feel about. It was very slow in the middle but picked up towards the end. I think reading the author’s note at the end gave me a greater appreciation for the choices she made. So little is known and recorded about Shakespeare himself and his family, but she did her best to stick with what is known while also filling in the gaps with her own imaginings. I’m glad I stuck with it when I was getting bogged down in the middle.
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