Take a photo of a barcode or cover
I'm not sure why this book is talked about with such high esteem. There were quite a few positives, so I can see why someone would maybe give it five stars, but overwhelmingly, I felt bored while reading this. It is disappointing since earlier this year, I read Maggie O'Farrell's memoir- I Am, I Am I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death- which I gave a raving five star review.
Hamnet is a fictional work based off of the death of Shakespeare's son named- you guessed it- Hamnet. (Hamlet and Hamnet, as noted in the beginning of the book are considered interchangeable.) The main selling point of this book is that it is "a novel of the plague". Honestly, I think to call it that would be too nice. Hamnet barely touches on the plague. It is certainly not the main premise of the book. I would say the main plot point is death and loss, which of course, are caused by the plague, but that is not the sole focus of this.
I didn't feel any interest in this book really until the halfway point, for the plot started to pick up by then. The first half of this book, I have to say, was dreadfully boring. The plot builds very slowly, which I usually enjoy, but I did not connect to these characters enough to be able to justify sitting through the overly descriptive paragraphs of how someone sat down on a chair. (just an example.) The prose was way too wordy, even for my taste. It dragged so much because nothing was ever really happening. We jumped from past to present, and the writing had this almost airy quality to it that made feel out of sorts while reading it. (maybe I'm not used to reading in present tense.) I will say I did love the atmosphere to it, and it definitely placed me back in that time period pretty well.
By the end, I felt more invested, and even enjoyed the ending of the book, but I did not get enough out of this book for me to justify the extreme boredom I felt while reading it. If you're looking for a wordy, historical fiction slightly connected to Shakespeare (his name is never said in the book)- this is for you.
Hamnet is a fictional work based off of the death of Shakespeare's son named- you guessed it- Hamnet. (Hamlet and Hamnet, as noted in the beginning of the book are considered interchangeable.) The main selling point of this book is that it is "a novel of the plague". Honestly, I think to call it that would be too nice. Hamnet barely touches on the plague. It is certainly not the main premise of the book. I would say the main plot point is death and loss, which of course, are caused by the plague, but that is not the sole focus of this.
I didn't feel any interest in this book really until the halfway point, for the plot started to pick up by then. The first half of this book, I have to say, was dreadfully boring. The plot builds very slowly, which I usually enjoy, but I did not connect to these characters enough to be able to justify sitting through the overly descriptive paragraphs of how someone sat down on a chair. (just an example.) The prose was way too wordy, even for my taste. It dragged so much because nothing was ever really happening. We jumped from past to present, and the writing had this almost airy quality to it that made feel out of sorts while reading it. (maybe I'm not used to reading in present tense.) I will say I did love the atmosphere to it, and it definitely placed me back in that time period pretty well.
By the end, I felt more invested, and even enjoyed the ending of the book, but I did not get enough out of this book for me to justify the extreme boredom I felt while reading it. If you're looking for a wordy, historical fiction slightly connected to Shakespeare (his name is never said in the book)- this is for you.