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mallard_duck 's review for:
The Death I Gave Him
by Em X. Liu
The thing about retellings is that most people already know the story, and the constellations formed by the characters in it. The author’s ability to rely on plot twists and other unexpected events is, in this case, severely limited. In other words, it leads to a book that has to rely primarily on its execution, and it takes a skilled writer to pull that sort of thing off. I’m no literary critic, but if enjoyment alone can be a mark of success, then I can say with confidence that Liu succeeded.
Even the most superficial familiarity with Hamlet means that you’ll know instantly who the characters are; who killed Hayden’s father shouldn’t be a mystery at all (which might be why I couldn't really think of this book as a 'thriller'). They still feel fresh, though, put in the context of a sci-fi (yet not so distant) future. Add to that the fact that The Death I Gave Him is written like a fictionalized account of real events (with the occasional footnotes helping with the immersion), which made it feel more ‘real’, in a way, and it makes for quite an engaging story. There’s also an interesting consequence of that type of narrative: for a book centered around Hayden/Hamlet, we hear (almost) nothing from Hayden himself; with the exception of the last chapter, we only ever see him through the lens of others, be it Felicia or the fictional scientist who’d decided to write Hayden’s story down. Which, naturally, begs the question of how much of it was real? Was the author’s interpretation of Hayden accurate? Even the way he was described in Felicia’s chapters made sense – it irked me at first, the poetic, sometimes exaggerated language, until I realized that those are meant to be excerpts from her own published recounting of the story, so it was only natural that the narration was a bit embellished, more organized and clearer than a character’s thoughts would be.
It didn’t take much to guess who the romance would revolve around, but I still spent the first half of the book trying to figure out how it was going to be handled. And then the second half of the book I spent crying about a fictional AI program.
And also about Hayden, just a teensy bit – whose terror in the face of his physicality was way too relatable.
Which brings me to the most pleasant surprise I got from this book: it actually made me feel something for the characters; even Rasmussen, who appeared on the so pages briefly compared to the others. For Felicia, for Hayden, but most of all, for Horatio, with his hopeless devotion of someone forced into the role of an observer when all he wants is to be able to do so much more than just watch.
And yet, the ending was almost hopeful. That was a nice twist.
Even the most superficial familiarity with Hamlet means that you’ll know instantly who the characters are; who killed Hayden’s father shouldn’t be a mystery at all (which might be why I couldn't really think of this book as a 'thriller'). They still feel fresh, though, put in the context of a sci-fi (yet not so distant) future. Add to that the fact that The Death I Gave Him is written like a fictionalized account of real events (with the occasional footnotes helping with the immersion), which made it feel more ‘real’, in a way, and it makes for quite an engaging story. There’s also an interesting consequence of that type of narrative: for a book centered around Hayden/Hamlet, we hear (almost) nothing from Hayden himself; with the exception of the last chapter, we only ever see him through the lens of others, be it Felicia or the fictional scientist who’d decided to write Hayden’s story down. Which, naturally, begs the question of how much of it was real? Was the author’s interpretation of Hayden accurate? Even the way he was described in Felicia’s chapters made sense – it irked me at first, the poetic, sometimes exaggerated language, until I realized that those are meant to be excerpts from her own published recounting of the story, so it was only natural that the narration was a bit embellished, more organized and clearer than a character’s thoughts would be.
It didn’t take much to guess who the romance would revolve around, but I still spent the first half of the book trying to figure out how it was going to be handled. And then the second half of the book I spent crying about a fictional AI program.
And also about Hayden, just a teensy bit – whose terror in the face of his physicality was way too relatable.
(...) the horror of your body being only a body, a fleshy, visceral thing that you are made up of, this fatigued puppet, this breaking vessel.
Which brings me to the most pleasant surprise I got from this book: it actually made me feel something for the characters; even Rasmussen, who appeared on the so pages briefly compared to the others. For Felicia, for Hayden, but most of all, for Horatio, with his hopeless devotion of someone forced into the role of an observer when all he wants is to be able to do so much more than just watch.
And yet, the ending was almost hopeful. That was a nice twist.
You’ll have good days and shitty days and eventually there’ll just be days, you know?