Hamlet, and Ophelia, with Magic (The Prequel)

Smile and Be a Villain by Yves Donlon

Pages: 481 Genre: fantasy retelling

Rating: 4.5 Star

After a scandalous incident, Crown Prince Hamlet is cast off to Wittenberg to study and not cause problems while Denmark is on the brink of war with Norway. He knows he's messed up, and he wants nothing more than to prove himself to his father. Meanwhile, Ophelia, also in disgrace, is left behind in Helsingør. She's not currently in the court's good graces, but she can tell that the castle is being consumed by a dark, dangerous magic. She is determined to do whatever she can to save her home and the people that she loves from the threat that only she can see. Hamlet doesn't know about the magical world that she does, but he will do anything for Denmark, even at a cost to himself.

I am a Hamlet fan first and a reader second, and on those grounds, I adored this book. It's not perfect, but I had a really great time reading it. I felt like the author truly understood all the characters — Hamlet and Ophelia, certainly, but also all the other characters — and the general mood of the play in a way that you don't see from ever reteller.

Hamlet retellings that focus on restitution for Ophelia make me nervous because authors often seem to struggle with uplifting Ophelia without completely disregarding Hamlet. Granted, this is a prequel, so he hasn't gone full "get thee to a nunnery" quite yet, but this author did a phenomenal job of supporting the arc of both characters. Both POVs felt full and well-rounded as both of their journeys helped bring us to the start of the play. If anything, Hamlet could've gotten involved in the plot a bit faster, but it worked out.

This setting also worked really well for me. I'm not a historian and I don't care that much about historical accuracy in fiction, but the author did a good job of building out the world to feel realistic to the time. And the magic system, while sometimes confusing and unclear, fit shockingly well into the plot. If you accept it being a plot device more than a flushed out magic system, it worked well (which, similar to historical accuracy, is not a thing I care too much about in this situation).

The writing was better than I expected it to be. No offense to the author, but I have read a disappointing amount of bad Hamlet retellings, so I was nervous going into this, but this author was clearly very competent. That being said, this is where the book suffered the most. Sometimes it felt like the author was trying too hard to make a quotable line, particularly-poetic paragraph, or a clever rewrite of a Shakespeare quote, and that always felt clunky (also, "hell is empty and all the devils are here" is from The Tempest, not Hamlet; it's fine to quote other works but it is funny that it was very intentionally quoted twice). Some sentences were also confusing or poorly constructed in such a way that it did take me out of the story. But overall, the writing was pretty good.

As a Hamlet fan, I appreciated what this author was doing, but when this is pitched as a queer retelling of Hamlet, they mean it. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. But there are couples coupling in this story who have never coupled before. I won't spoil it by saying who, although if you look at the author's social media, you'll find at least a few revealed. Overall this isn't a bad thing and can be an interesting way to explore dynamics between different characters (there's a reason most people write Horatio to be in love with Hamlet, after all). But it did a feel a bit much sometimes in this one. Hamlet in particular is in what can only be described as a love pentagon — almost entirely unrequited, too, poor guy — and that doesn't even count Ophelia (long story). It's just a lot, and I think the general effect could've been conveyed even if everyone wasn't in love with crazy Grey's Anatomy-style relationship ties.

Despite it's few faults, I really did love reading this book. You also don't get a lot of people exploring what life in Helsingør looked like before the events of the play, and I thought this author did a really great job building out the origins of the characters and their conflicts. It was a good balance of being true to Shakespeare's version of the characters while also feeling original to this author. Ultimately, this is a great example of how to make the story of Hamlet your own.