i find this type of trying-too-hard to be clever sci-fi to be irksome at the best of times, i just found the narration grating.

Full disclosure: I have never actually read nor know anything about Hamlet. The Death I Gave Him is a sci-fi re-imagining of Hamlet that begins with Hayden finding the dead body of his father in the lab they have been working in together. The entirety of the book takes place over one evening/night following the discovery of Hayden's father, with the cast of characters locked in the building. I don't mind this type of story but I do find it makes it harder to develop characters and the relationships between them. There were some flashbacks, which helped, but I felt like I needed more time with these characters to truly care enough about them. For me, that was one of the biggest issues I had with this book. Some of the dialogue also felt a little unrealistic rather than natural. On the positive side, the mystery was intriguing enough and the anticipation of how the evening would unfold kept me hooked. A promising book from a young author, I think their work will only get better from here.

Helped me to love/appreciate Hamlet! Loved the research facility setting. I do think at least some knowledge of hamlet is important going in.

As an obnoxious Hamlet stan, I have read a lot of bad retellings. Thankfully this is not one of them. The Death I Gave Him is very clearly written by someone who both understands what makes Hamlet a story worth coming back to for literally hundreds of years and has a clear sense of how they were going to iterate on that story in a new and exciting way.

This book was wacky. From the plot structure to the medical body horror elements to the AI who’s in love with the main character, it brings a lot of refreshing elements to a story that many of us know and love. The actual story takes place in a near-future world with near-future technological advancements, but it’s compiled through transcripts and court documents and shown to us through the lens of someone living far into the future, after the events of the story have taken place. I think this was a really effective way to introduce the uncertainty and unreliability of the narrator that Hamlet is known for—the “author” of the book states that they’ve taken creative liberties with the subject matter, so we can’t know for sure if their portrayals of any of the characters are accurate.

I also think The Death I Gave Him did a fantastic job of contending with something that many other Shakespeare retellings struggle with: giving agency back to the female main characters in a way that feels authentic. It’s one thing to say “Ophelia should be a more active character”; it’s another thing to write that into your novel without tipping it into cheesy Girl BossTM territory, and Em X. Liu successfully manages to give a significant amount of narrative power to the women of this story while still portraying them in ways that felt natural.

The pitch "inventive, queer sci-fi Hamlet retelling" was made for me, so I was excited to get into this, and it held up for the most part. Although the writing didn't fully capture my attention, I did highlight several gorgeously-written passages. The locked-room mystery wasn't so much about the murder (the killer is fairly obvious from the beginning) than about how devastating the aftermath would be, how far these characters were willing to go. I also found the immortality theme to be incredibly interesting, especially in the context of biotech and artificial intelligence versus the very human fear of dying. The characters are where this fell a bit flat for me. I wasn't as invested in Hayden as the narrative wanted me to be, and everyone else remained fairly static throughout - even during Felicia's supposed changes of loyalty, I never really doubted her character, which took away some of the strength of the ending. (Part of this is on me, because I was going through a huge reading slump and took a break for a couple months halfway through, which threw me off during the second half.)
Overall, The Death I Gave Him is still an original, dynamic book that I'd recommend to anyone interested in queer Hamlet, themes of artificial intelligence and immortality, and a fresh twist on a locked-room story,

I didn't like this book much but that's definitely a me problem. I'm not too big a fan of syfy and have been trying to find more stories in the genre that I'll love. When I saw the premise of this one, I was immediately intrigued by the queer Shakespearen plot. Sadly, I ended up DNFing the book about 50% in.

Really great book with amazing characters and a great plot. Was easy to get into and it was very engaging. This is a book that I can see a lot of people in YA enjoy.

DNF at 45%. The book blurb is misleading, i couldn't get into the story or connect with the characters. No sign of queer rep so far

This is an undeniably smart novel and a very clever retelling in more ways than one, However, it didn't capture my attention enough to really feel as though I was getting the best reading experience out of it.

You know those books that you read and love so much that it's hard to find the words to convey your emotions and just end up begging people to read it instead? The Death I Gave Him is one of those books for me. I love it so, so much that I'm not really sure where to start, or if I even should because I think the story is so much better going in and not knowing what would happen next, knowledge of Hamlet aside of course.

This book took my heart and built it anew just for the sake of crushing it to see what would happen. I imagine throwing myself into the sun would have had a similar affect, but less painful because at least I wouldn't be around to suffer the consequences. Instead, I sit here in emotional turmoil and wish I could crawl back through the crevices of the words until I was at the start of the novel, and read it again for the first time. Liu has mastered crafting characters and their motives and fears and facades, building them up until they destroy one another - or themselves - in a way that takes you apart with them.

Read this book. Cry over it and then buy it for your friends, your family and maybe even your enemies.

"The Death I Gave Him" fulfills its promise as a lyrical, queer sci-fi retelling of Hamlet set in a 2050s locked-room thriller. Em X. Liu's love for Shakespeare shines through, offering a fresh take on the classic play. The reimagining rather than a strict retelling adds depth, especially in the evolution of characters like Horatio and Felicia. The sci-fi elements align with Shakespearean themes, and the lyrical narration resonates strongly with classic plays. Overall, the book's creative and original approach is likely to find a devoted audience appreciating Liu's unique perspective on tragedy.

This book was so good! It was intriguing and really drawed me in. I'll be reading more of this authors work.

A fantastic, insightful (and slightly heartbreaking) reimagining of Hamlet in a sci-fi setting.

Liu’s lyrical, beautiful prose brings new emotional resonance to this well-trodden tragic tale. An insightful reimagining of a classic.

3.stars If you’re familiar with Hamlet then a lot of elements in this story won’t come as a surprise. There are a couple of deviations from the tragedy though, particularly with the ending. I found The Death I Gave Him to be a compelling locked-room mystery/revenge tale. I liked the added sci-fi elements, it made for a very unique re-telling. I also quite enjoyed the relationship between Hayden and the AI program Horatio. They were the heart of the book for me. Things did drag in the middle and the book lost a little suspense for me since I knew coming in who the murderer was since it’s following the story of Hamlet. Additionally, I was a bit ambivalent with the ending and I’m not sure if I’m satisfied with how it concluded. Overall, you’ll enjoy this if you’re a fan of science fiction, locked room mysteries, or Hamlet.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this advanced copy.

Sheakspeare retelling with scifi... Just perfect!

"What does revenge mean, to a body?"

Sharp as a scalpel, The Death I Gave Him plays exquisitely with the tension between the freedom of a retelling, and the fatalistic inevitability of a well-known story. It's Hamlet through a shattered mirror, distorted and refracted. The story is dissected and reassembled with such tenderness and brutality, you come out the other side gasping for breath. It's ambitious, and more than lives up to its own lofty aims, with a gorgeously crafted structure and deft, masterful prose. I truly cannot recommend this book highly enough; taut and visceral, haunting and achingly brilliant.

Thank you to Rebellion Publishing for the advance review copy!

Original and wholly entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where sci-fi and thrillers are popular.

The premise of this is “*Hamlet* re-imagined as a science-fiction locked-room thriller,” and I gotta say it really works.

Hayden Lichfield is a researcher working at Elsinore Labs, headed by his father. His uncle manages the business side of things, and his ex-girlfriend Felicia is an intern there (and the daughter of the head of security). The laboratory mainframe is a sentient AI, whom Hayden has named Horatio.

For spoiler purposes, I’m going to assume everyone is broadly familiar with the plot of the original *Hamlet*.

Unsurprisingly, the book opens with Hayden’s father being found dead. This triggers Horatio to show Hayden a video his father had made, warning him that people were after their research, he was probably killed over it, and asking Hayden to pay them back in kind. Their research is into revitalizing dead tissue and mapping brain patterns, with the goal of transcending death. Hayden tries to use this on his very dead father; it works enough for Hayden’s father to gasp out his brother’s name, and no more.

Complicating matters: on finding his brother’s body, Hayden’s uncle initiated a lockdown. No one is entering or leaving Elsinore Labs, and no contact with the outside can get through.

Because we know perfectly well who did it, this doesn’t have the same kind of locked-room thriller tension as something like Agatha Christie’s *And Then There Were None*. Nevertheless, this has its own kind of tension, that very definitely ratchets up as the events of the book (which take place over a single night) come to a head.

The book shifts between three POVs: Hayden and Horatio, contemporarily, and excerpts from Felicia’s memoirs of the night. Hayden’s and Felicia’s extremely complicated feelings towards each other are central, and get exponentially more complicated as the night goes on and expected events happen.

There are two areas where the science-fiction-ization of *Hamlet* really shines. One is Horatio. The character always served as a sort of narrator more than anything else; having him be an AI with cameras all over Elsinore Labs works wonderfully. The other is Hayden and his father’s research. The fascination with death is one of the central themes of Shakespeare’s play, and having Hamlet be in a position to maybe actually *overcome* death is a great spin on the theme.

It’s a very dense book. Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of existential angst, and a lot of messy romance drama between Hayden and Felicia. But as a retelling of *Hamlet*, it’s very solid. I don’t know how much appeal it would have if you’re not a fan of the original, but speaking as one, I thought it was quite well done.

While not knowing much about this book going into it, minus it being a sci-fi/thriller-esque book, I thought it was very well written and articulated.

Hayden’s dad is found murdered in their lab... with, of course, the video footage that could have caught it long erased.

Now with it being on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with 4 people and one of which of them is the killer.

This loosely follows Shakespeare’s Hamlet's main themes as well as other things in the book, that I won’t spoil. 😉

I also enjoyed the different aspects of every single one of the characters, but especially Hayden.

Wow, this is a debut? Em X. Liu is someone I will definitely look out for in the future!

After a quick catchup on Hamlet as I read it 15 years ago I started into this science-fiction adaptation and was gripped from the first sentences. As the story unfolds it was interesting how Liu uses the beats of the original to tell a unique and queer'd up story that is graphically gory and intense in its feelings of the characters.

What Liu makes out of the original is fascinating. It seems like they took everything, used it as clay and nourished it with water of 2023, intersectional feminism, mental health awareness, morally diverse figures, queerness and so much more to form a beautiful crafted book that hits you in the right spots.

I really loved how Liu made even the AI so tangible and advanced in every aspect. Playing with the concept of a not super AI (because Horatio hadn't had access to the whole floor plan) that is emotionally entangled with our main character is great and explores what is possible.

I also loved the mix of in-character and reporting style of the narrator that tries to explore an event that had a big impact on the world and still is so human in its single parts.

I can't wait for the next book Liu will be coming up with and until then I will buy myself a copy of this one and reread it!