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A review by arudolph
Ophelia by Lisa M. Klein
3.0
This book is Hamlet from Ophelia's prospective. I was super excited when I was roaming the library and stumbled across this book because Hamlet is one of my favorite plays by Shakespeare.
However, I was sort of disappointed in it for several reasons:
1) The author took a lot of liberty when constructing the plot. That's totally fine, but there came a point where I felt like she overstepped that liberty.
2) While it's expected that the author has her own opinions on questions that have been argued for ages (such as, "Is Hamlet actually crazy, or is he truly faking it?" "Do Hamlet and Ophelia actually love each other?" etc.), some of the details and plot twists hinge on those opinions on issues we don't know the answer to. Of course she's entitled to her own opinions; but I just worry a little bit for those readers who haven't read Hamlet that if they read this book first and then read the play, they'll have preconceived ideas about issues, or even about Ophelia's story instead of using their own judgment and deciding for themselves the truth is in the play.
3) I don't know if it's because it's based on Hamlet or what, but the plot just didn't work for me. It was well written and interesting, but it just didn't cut it. I feel that if all the characters had different names, the story would work better for me.
4) The book ended almost too neatly. In my opinion, the epilogue should have been left off and the book would've been just fine.
Overall, it was fairly good, I was just expecting more.
However, I was sort of disappointed in it for several reasons:
1) The author took a lot of liberty when constructing the plot. That's totally fine, but there came a point where I felt like she overstepped that liberty.
2) While it's expected that the author has her own opinions on questions that have been argued for ages (such as, "Is Hamlet actually crazy, or is he truly faking it?" "Do Hamlet and Ophelia actually love each other?" etc.), some of the details and plot twists hinge on those opinions on issues we don't know the answer to. Of course she's entitled to her own opinions; but I just worry a little bit for those readers who haven't read Hamlet that if they read this book first and then read the play, they'll have preconceived ideas about issues, or even about Ophelia's story instead of using their own judgment and deciding for themselves the truth is in the play.
3) I don't know if it's because it's based on Hamlet or what, but the plot just didn't work for me. It was well written and interesting, but it just didn't cut it. I feel that if all the characters had different names, the story would work better for me.
4) The book ended almost too neatly. In my opinion, the epilogue should have been left off and the book would've been just fine.
Overall, it was fairly good, I was just expecting more.