carolyn0613 's review for:

The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig

4.0

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Philip Noble is eleven and his father has just died in a car crash. He is grieving deeply when his dead dad appears as a ghost and tells him that Philip's uncle killed him and is after Philip's mum and the pub she now owns and runs. Dad tells Philip that he must get revenge on his uncle by killing him, otherwise Dad is doomed to be a ghost forever. The story sounds horrific when describing it, but there is quite a lot of black humour in there and some amusing side characters. The story is written in the first person from Philip's point of view and in a child-like style, which I'm not sure worked that well. It was a little too overdone. Aside from that, the book is easy to read and very intriguing. Funny and sad.
I read afterwards that it is a rewrite of Hamlet, but I'm not very familiar with the play and didn't pick up on that.