Hamlet, The Child

The Dead Father's Club by Matt Haig

Pages: 336 Genre: literary fiction, retelling

Rating: 4 Star

Kindle Notes and Highlights

Philip Noble is eleven years old when his father dies in a car accident. And then his father's ghost appears at his own funeral to tell him about the Dead Fathers Club: a group of ghosts who were all murdered. Philip's father explains that his brother, Philip's Uncle Alan, killed him, and that Philip needs to get revenge on Uncle Alan in order to free his ghost. But for eleven-year-old Philip, this is a difficult and daunting task, especially as he is faced with distractions like his new girlfriend, school bullies, and his own self doubt.

Every Hamlet retelling will have a special place in my heart because of how much I love the original. This one is no different, except that instead of the usual adult version of Hamlet that we get, this time he's sad, anxious, 11-year-old Philip.

The writing style was odd, and it took me some time to really buy into it. But it did grow on me eventually. The idea of it being a young boy's journal where he's just dumping all of his complicated feelings and messy circumstances down to try to make sense of it comes across very clearly. It's a very bold choice, but I thought it paid off overall. Though I also understand why it might not work for some people.

And while I liked the writing style after a while, I also though Philip seemed a lot younger than eleven. I would've been more convinced if he was instead stated to be nine or ten. But I think an 11-year-old would have a little better of an understanding on certain things, and they would definitely be better at writing. Emotionally, it really worked, because imagining an 11-year-old go through all this nonsense was painful, but every now and then I would get distracted by the disconnect between his age and how he behaves.

I enjoyed the ways this book played on the original story of Hamlet. It starts similar, but it changes a lot towards the end, so I won't spoil it. But I liked that this book explored questions brought up in the play that most retellings don't. That being said, I did miss Horatio. I understand the narrative choice to write him out, because a big part of this book was how lonely and isolated Philip was, and you can't have a lonely Hamlet and a present Horatio, but I missed him.

Overall, this was a sweet and engaging retelling of Hamlet. Philip was a really strong main character who brought a refreshing perspective to the character, and I really enjoyed the modernized setting.