Well paced and full of detail. Claustrophobic and thrilling I felt like I was right inside of the book.
Thank you Netgalley for an awesome arc in exchange for my honest opinion

<i>I would like to thank NetGalley and Rebellion, Solaris for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.</i>

The Death I Gave Him was a very entertaining, fast paced thriller, featuring an endearing AI, melodrama for days and vibrant characters you'll love to hate... well, at least for me. I'm looking at you, Felicia 😒 There's no actual mystery here, but it's bloody and interesting and I think fans of Hamlet (and Hamlet retellings lol) will find this book a diverting read✌🏼

Em X. Liu's other book, If Found, Return to Hell, sounds like massive fun, and I can't wait to read <i>it</i> as well as everything else this brilliant author has in store for future releases!

Thank you to Solaris Books for sending me an arc of this book!

I’m a Hamlet slut and I do not apologise for it, so this queer sci-fi locked room retelling is like gay Christmas for me.

Elsinore is Graham Lichfield’s secret, mysterious lab, but there’s something rotten at the core of it, hidden from prying eyes. After his violent, untimely death, his son Hayden suspects that only someone locked in the lab with him can be responsible: his ex-girlfriend, her father, the lab tech, or his uncle.

Told through audio transcripts, fictionalised accounts and camera footage, The Death I Gave Him is a tense, psychological thriller that focuses on the unravellings of its characters as they attempt to get into each other’s heads. Death, and the fear of death, underlie every interaction, the ever turning sands of time that terrify and fascinate Hayden so much.

Hayden is a complicated anti-hero, befitting of the source material. He makes questionable decisions, and has questionable morals, but ultimately he is motivated by fear and grief, meaning he is a sympathetic character even in his darkest moments. His depression and anxiety around death colour much of his story, and the people whose lives he touches. His romance is uniquely tender, exploring love through a complete intimacy with, and acceptance of, another’s mind.

The writing has an almost scientifically ethereal quality that I find hard to describe, but grew to love. The plot relies on psychological mind games between characters which makes it a bit slow burn and a little hard to understand at times, but this style feels quite befitting of a Shakespeare retelling.

As with all retellings, there’s plenty of fun moments where you realise the story’s direction and how it will incorporate the source material, as well as plenty of references. Admittedly, the locked room idea doesn’t quite work if you already know the plot, but that knowledge leant a unique kind of tension to the way the book played out.

CW: self-harm, injury detail, blood, anatomical gore, violence, death, anxiety, depression

Horatio finally understands the horror of your body being only a body, a fleshy, visceral thing that you are made up of, this fatigued puppet, this breaking vessel... Horatio wonders: what does revenge mean, to a body? [loc. 2900]

The tag for this novel is 'a lyrical, queer sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet as a locked-room thriller', which removes much of the suspense for anyone familiar with the original tragedy. Instead of wondering who the murderer is, we wonder how, and why.

The setting is Elsinore Labs, in August 2047, and the novel opens with Horatio (the AI controlling the labs) discovering broken glass, a pool of blood, a cooling corpse. Dr Graham Lichfield is dead, and his son Hayden is kneeling beside the body. Two hours of records -- cameras, audio, lab accesses -- are missing from Horatio's records, and Hayden fears that someone has killed his father to obtain the Sisyphus Formula. His uncle Charles orders a lockdown of the lab: Hayden is determined to discover the murder by fair means or foul, and he has a captive audience.

The plot beats of Hamlet are all here, ingeniously reimagined for the science-fictional setting (the ghost is a wholly scientific phenomenon, a human trial of the Sisyphus Formula) and often transformed. Felicia Xia, Hayden's ex, has considerably more agency than Ophelia, and survives to give her perspective on the events; the relationship between Horatio and Hayden -- which is at the heart of this novel, and more truly tragic than the murder of Hayden's father -- is unique, surprising and beautifully written. And Liu's background in biochemistry is evident in their prose, with some of the most lyrical passages describing the gross physicality of bodies.

I didn't really engage with The Death I Gave Him, though I admire the style and the innovation. I didn't feel that the framing narrative (a history student's retelling of 'that fateful night', collating official sources and neuromapper logs, and imploring us to 'read between the lines') was foregrounded enough. The world outside the lab, both at the time of the murder and at the (considerably later) time of that framing narrative, is very thinly sketched: catastrophic storms, pandemics... And I didn't especially like, or relate to, any of the characters, except perhaps Horatio -- the inhuman AI with more humanity than most of the other protagonists. Hayden's depression and anxiety is just as annoying as the original Hamlet's!

An ingenious transformative work, beautifully written, with a poignant romance at heart: my lukewarm reaction is likely to be another case of 'right book, wrong time'.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this honest review. UK publication date is 12th September 2023.

A retelling of Hamlet, queer with science fiction that resulted in a strangely interesting novel that didn't manage to catch me as much as expected but that will undoubtedly remain a very good reading memory.

In The Death I Gave Him we find (as I said before) a retelling of Hamlet. I read this play not long ago (two years?) and the truth is that I found it slow and at the same time fascinating because it was like... what else can happen? and it passed.

It seemed like that to me here. I couldn't quite connect but I feel that the originality of the story, the way he tells it, what he added gives a special touch to this classic that clearly makes it one of the books that has been talked about the most in recent years. last months and that it is one of the most anticipated.

The fact that one does not connect with the story does not make it a bad read, simply maybe it was not my time to read it or I managed to fully understand what was being sought, or maybe it is not for me.
But I want to highlight the great job that Liu did because I have never read a retelling like this and I think it gives a new meaning to retellings.
I read a lot of retellings and I think this is one of the ones that stands out the most because of the way it respects the story and not, to change it and make a different story but at the same time it is there: the essence is there.

Thanks Rebellion for the ARC I read on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Song of the book: Plug In… - Bastille

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair review!

This is a very clever novel, in multiple ways. This book transports Hamlet to a lab in 2047, compresses it into a day (give or take), and cuts the cast down to bare essentials. If you’re wondering, that’s just Hamlet, Claudius, Ophelia, Horatio, Polonius, and Rosencrantz/Guildenstern (the two are combined into one character). You’re probably saying “What about Gertrude?” to which I say, don’t worry! She’s there, just not physically present. She still plays an important part in the story. Laertes also exists, but Ophelia (known as Felicia) takes on much of his role.

One of the really clever things about this book is how certain events get translated to fit the new setting and the expanded roles of certain characters. I can’t give spoilers because this is an ARC, but this take on Polonius’s (Paul) death and its aftermath for his daughter Ophelia/Felicia is probably the best part of the new interpretation. It was just really smart of the author to figure out exactly how to do it in these circumstances! I was so satisfied. I also really liked that Ophelia/Felicia did so much more in this version because she was also playing the Laertes part. I thought it was really well-suited to her character and added a lot to her relationship with Hamlet/Hayden. I would have liked to explore her grief some more (and her guilt is really under explored), but I still loved how much time we got to spend with her and in her mind. I think I liked her the best.

I also thought the formatting of this book was very smart. It’s written like it’s a project compiled by a student decades (maybe over a century? I’m not entirely sure) after the book’s events. The compiler uses neuromapper logs (the book explains the tech), transcripts, descriptions of security footage, and an article Felicia wrote to put together the events of that night at Elsinore Labs. I liked the variety a lot! I also thought it was very reminiscent of the Hamlet with David Tennant, where there’s an element of paranoia and the constant awareness of being watched.

There are couple aspects of the book I didn’t love. This one is more of a personal preference, but I’m very much not into human/technology relationships. Because of this, the romance subplot wasn’t appealing to me. A lot of other reviewers seemed to like it, so to each their own. I also felt like there were a couple loose ends that I would have liked to see more tied up, but I understand that the author probably wanted to leave the audience wondering just a bit.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who read and enjoyed Hamlet (definitely read or at least watch the play first). It was very well-written!

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley**

DNF @35%

Em X Liu releases The Death I Gave Him, a queer scifi Hamlet retelling. While following the story beats of Shakespeare's Hamlet, The Death I Gave Him is a locked-room thriller where Hayden Lichfield (Hamlet) must investigate the murder of his father in their lab, Elsinore. Written partially in interviews, autobiographical sections, and transcripts of surveillance from Elsinore's AI, Horatio, this scifi retelling is an entirely clever new look at Hamlet.

Liu is so, so clever in the framing of this story. The placement of the original plot beats and the reframing of the narrative with renamed characters playing the roles of the original Shakespeare cast is just so precise and well written. If you would like to see an actual intelligent review for this book that goes into more depth, I refer you whole-heartedly to Alexis Hall's review.

So why did I DNF? The writing is undeniably lyrical. Beautiful writing. But I absolutely did not get on with it in the slightest. I could recognize how wonderful everything Liu did was, but I found wading through the writing style to be a complete chore and decided not to do it any longer. I'm actually pretty upset with myself because I can see this book could be great, but just not for me personally. Even if I had completed the book, I could not have rated over 3 stars because of how strongly I felt about the writing.

I wish Liu the utmost success with this release and really hope this book finds its readers.

This is a queer, sci-fi retelling of shakespeare's hamlet, told as a locked room thriller. Need i say more?

Hayden Lichfield finds his father, Graham Lichfield, murdered in his own lab. Elsinore labs subsequently go into lockdown, locking in Hayden and four other suspects: his uncle Charles, lab technician Rasmussen, head of security Paul Xia and his daughter Felicia - Hayden's ex-girlfriend. All is overseen by AI security system Horatio.

The story obviously largely follows the thread of the original Hamlet, so this isn't a thriller in the sense of unexpected twists and turns in the plot. The writing style however drew me in and had me on the edge of my seat. Above all, the relationship between Hayden and Horatio really made this book for me. Making Horatio an AI system was a brilliant move, especially given the book's - and the original's - emphasis on questions of life, death and immortality.

Thanks to Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for the eArc in exchange for an honest review! The death i give him is out on 12 september 2023.

I am a huge, huge sucker for when an author decides to tackle a complex story via what I call the Rashomon effect (multiple POVs, unsure of which is the "true" one), and even more of a sucker when an author decides to fuck around stylistically. Throw in the spine of a Shakespeare story (Hamlet, turned into a locked room mystery with Horatio as an AI, Elsinore as their remote lab, and our Hamlet main, Hayden (and yes I absolutely pictured Hayden Christensen, unsure if that was intentional on Mx. Liu's part) chasing after immortality), and you have what is perfect catnip for me. Mx. Liu's prose is amazing, and darts around from style to POV as we try to find out what happened. They also have some things to say about Ophelia, to say the least. Add in some A++ queer, fucked up human/AI sex as the cherry on top. I have a feeling this is going to pop up in the 2023 awards cycle, so preorder this now and enjoy the ride. Gonna have to see if I can find more of Mx. Liu's writing!

I loved this to bits! Smart, queer, tongue-in-cheek about how smart and queer it is, this book reimagines Hamlet like a locked room mystery designed to please my millenial soul. I will be buying ten copies of this to gift my friends.

~Thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of *The Death I Gave Him* in exchange for an honest review. ~

This cover is eye-catching, but selling the story of Hamlet as a locked-door queer, sci-fi, murder mystery was what made me request it and damn, was I right that I’d enjoy it. Nearly immediately I was sucked into the story with an interesting setup of an outside narrator recounting the events that occurred the night of King— I mean, the night of Doctor Lichfield’s death. The footnotes and introductions show where each chapter’s information comes from and all add to the puzzle being put together in such a clever way.

Liu’s writing style for each character is incredibly well done, as they each feel different and somehow so true to the voice I’d imagine from the characters. Such as Horatio, who is an AI, and his thoughts lean almost clinical, but there’s more there, or Hayden, our Hamlet, who certainly reads like a tortured, emo genius, and Ophelia’s counterpart, Felecia, a smart, but unsure woman trying to find a place for herself, but ends up trapped here. These alone had me impressed.

There’s a fantastic tension between Felecia and Hayden, as they’re exes, but also they each feel that they know the other and can trust them. Yet, with all the secrets they keep, it’s not surprising they both begin to doubt that feeling. Charles, our Claudius, becomes a far more intriguing character as the story goes on. Though we don’t see from his perspective, we start to see more of the dastardly charming man, and every new scene peels back another layer. I initially thought Horatio would be my favorite, as for an AI, he’s certainly empathetic and cares a great deal for Hayden, but without a body, he’s limited in how he can assist. However, though I felt the longing from Horatio for Hayden, I was not convinced by the queer romance that popped up between these two. I thought the entwined thoughts were super interesting and I was intrigued by their relationship, but had felt nothing from Hayden to suggest a feeling beyond platonic. This made any romance scene between the two a little awkward. And that’s surprising because I tend to enjoy A.I./human romances.

A (not super, if you know Hamlet) surprising twist takes place near the halfway point, but what had me most engaged was watching the characters’ reactions and reading their thoughts as they experience another shock.
The same happened with a reveal that took place right before the climax. And both bring up something I loved in this book— the writing. Liu’s writing is so phenomenally matched with the story. It rides the line between scientific and sterile to hauntingly emotional. They continuously make callbacks to the original story but also weave in the many themes perfectly. Hayden is verging on madness, he’s stuck in this awful in-between of life and death due to his depression, his family is influential and wealthy, but that does little to protect them now.

A locked room mystery version of Hamlet is brilliant, but adding the sci-fi elements gives everything an additional twist. Hamlet is actually my favorite Shakespeare piece I’ve seen performed, so of course, I had an idea as to what would play out. Yet, the introduction of sensitive data to the plot will surely change things.
However, I actually was surprised! It didn’t go where I anticipated and the emotional internal war we watch Hayden struggle with was incredibly well done

I’m definitely going to watch out for more from Liu, this was a fantastic debut novel.

whilst I did enjoy this, i felt like I wasn’t quite the right audience for it. I think this is probably a good read for anyone who is particularly drawn to sci-fi mystery.

3.5 stars!

A quick thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

“𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔, 𝑰 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅, 𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏, 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒅, 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒎𝒂𝒅. 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒇 𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍.”

The Death I Gave Him is a (dare I say?) fun, queer, sci-fi spin on Hamlet told in a semi-epistolary fashion. If you’ve read Hamlet, you’ll recognize the angst, betrayal, and heartbreak. If you haven’t read Hamlet you’re in for a wild ride!

This is a fast-paced, almost Agatha Christie-like murder mystery party with everyone locked down in the Elsinore labs after the death of Dr. Lichfield. Liu captures the “to be or not to be” atmosphere very well and it’s easy to get lost in the revenge fantasy of Hayden Lichfield. I did find myself liking the characters of Hayden and Horatio a lot! Everyone else was a little less exciting, but were also more peripheral to the story so that may be a feature, not a bug.

I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed though, that if you’re familiar with Hamlet, you basically are spoiled for this book. With the exception of a couple of events that occur slightly after the halfway mark (truly was not expecting THAT), the rest of the story is easy to guess so it’s best to go along for the ride rather than try to make this book something it’s not.

The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5

When the pitch is “Queer sci-fi Hamlet locked room murder mystery”, I’ll hop on that shit like nothing you’ve ever seen. Needless to say, my expectations were high. For the most part, Liu met them!

My biggest gripe I think was in the pitch itself. How “mystery” can the murder mystery be when it’s a retelling? We know it’s Claudius. But when we know that, and the author knows we know that, there’s a chance to do more. Subvert and build beyond expectations. Get to the same point but with a new clever scenic route in the plot that adds a new layer of depth. Etc. Liu did none of that. I’m not necessarily complaining - obviously if I want a mystery where I don’t already know the ending there’s so much to choose from. I just feel like it was a bit of a missed opportunity.

To pitch this as a murder mystery does Liu’s work a disservice. I think it much more effectively could be angled as a lyrical queer retelling of Hamlet that pulls at the same questions posed by the seminal work from a sci-fi angle. What does it mean to be human, to feel, in an age where tech and AI is co-opting the idea of humanity itself?

While being set in the near future, Liu relies too much on a slim (by sci fi standards) time jump to do the work of world building for her. While the differences in this world are minimal enough that I can, broadly speaking, fill the gaps myself and see how we get from point A to B the differences that do exist are so key to the plot that a more in depth exploration would be warranted.

I did very much enjoy the form of this book - it’s told as if it’s a bit of an anthology, pulling from different texts and primary sources about the time in question. The footnotes in particular were a joy and provided some excellent commentary. And as I mentioned, the prose was stunning. Gorgeous, tense, and everything it needed to be to push the plot.

The Death I Gave Him follows Hamlet’s main themes, like mortality and immortality, revenge, and doubt. There’s science to find solutions to reverse death, there’s ambition and madness to prove it’s possible to relive, there’s revenge for Hayden’s father’s death, and there’s doubt because the question is: who did it and who stole the Sisyphus Formula? But also Hayden’s fears and doubts are central in this magnificent story!

Everyone who knows Shakespeare’s Hamlet also knows Horatio and the deep friendship the two of them had. In this retelling Em X. Liu constructs a relationship full of affection and love that I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t read it myself. Hayden who never felt he was enough and Horatio so caring for the human he loved. So much that tears clouded my eyes in the last part of the story. I almost don’t dare to admit that I fell in love with an AI voice.

4.5 stars. As someone who deeply loves Shakespeare and Hamlet, I had very high expectations for The Death I Gave Him and it met and exceeded all expectations! This book is clever, intriguing, and completely captivating. Liu's writing is lush and vivid and they brought new life into this well known and often retold story. I highly recommend picking this one up!

Thank you to the publisher for an advance NetGalley copy of this book.

This book was an absolute dream. A refreshing, haunting, almost horrific retelling of (in my opinion) Shakespeare's greatest tragedy told through a modern lens. Meet Hamlet, or Hayden, son of Dr Lichfield a renowned scientist researching how to conquer death and, end it. Meet Horatio, an AI inter frame a la JARVIS in Iron Man who has a neuropathic link to Hayden which also involves simulated touch and linking memories. Together the two of them work together to discover--much like in true Hamlet--who killed Dr Lichfield. Even knowing the play as well as I do, I was not at all bored of this book. It is so refreshing, so melancholic and so devourable that you just have to keep reading to see if it all plays out like it does on stage. I won't spoil what happens and how it ends, but fans of the play will not be disappointed.

Liu's storytelling voice is commanding yet casual, like you are leaning in to catch every word. The science is (from what I can tell) based in fact, the atmosphere everything any Hamlet retelling should be: sad, suffused with grandeur, artful and maddened. I found myself noticing moments from the play written almost as afterthoughts into prose: Hamlet's monologue about his mother, To Be or Not To Be, mad Ophelia singing her truth, you don't go looking for these moments because you are so caught up in the plot, but they are most certainly there.

One of my favourite reads of the year, an absolute must for any Shakespeare fan or any fan of good literature.

Astounding riveting devastating heartbreaking.

Stayed up half the night and sobbed at 3am over an AI Horatio.

This was such a fun read and was a very interesting take on Hamlet told via a locked room thriller. The writing style was very intriguing as well; it's told from multiple POV’s, excerpts from books written by one of the characters, and even delves into the technical aspects of the AI operating system. I think this book was an excellent blend of Sci-fi, family drama, and the intricacies of the many different types of relationships we can have.

I loved all of the characters and especially loved Horatio. I was pleasantly surprised by how unique each character was and how fleshed out Horatio’s personality and demeanor were. The overall story was a little bit slow progressing and it felt like a lot of running around, but with the POV changes, interview excerpts and Horatio’s technical POV, it made the story feel like a puzzle that needed to be pieced together.

I really enjoyed this book and found that even though I’ve never read Hamlet, this was very enjoyable.

A queer sci-fi locked-room thriller retelling of Hamlet? Yes, please! I was so excited to read this book! Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat in execution...

The tension created by the situation was impeccable! I loved the setting, the bioscience references! It made me feel so clever while reading it!

The romance between an AI and a human, while feeling a little weird to begin with, was woven in so naturally that by the time it spikes, you're on board. And it's written so gracefully!

The little twists on the classic Hamlet tale were perfection! Plus, the pacing was fast, which I loved!

However, my complaints are thus; The mystery was not really a mystery. The "whodunit" was obvious, and even with the added mystery of the mastermind behind it all, it was guessable and obvious.

The characters were all neurotic and I just had no sympathy for any of them.

To the right person, this book will be a masterpiece. Unfortunately, I was not that person.