I love a good Shakespeare retelling, and I was immediately hooked when I heard this was also a sci-fi, locked-room, Horror/thriller.

I loved the way the book jumped between characters and writing styles. You’re getting camera footage, text messages, excerpts from a memoir. It kept the book moving at a fast pace while staying different and refreshing every chapter.

I highly recommend and look forward to checking out more of this author’s work!

This took me a little longer to read than I hoped. I was so enthralled with the concept and premise, but something was missing. I’m not sure exactly what though.

Do not get it twisted. I enjoyed this very much, but like I said something was missing and it felt wrong for it to be missing.

Overall, solid read and I think people are really going to enjoy this!

Thank you NetGalley, Em X Liu, and Rebellion Publishing for sending me an eARC for my honest review!

The Death I Gave Him by Em X Liu releases September 12, 2023!

Okay, confession time: Hamlet is my favorite of Shakespeare's works. So to see this promising a "queer retelling of Hamlet?" As a sci-fi thriller? I was all over it. This is such a unique interpretation of what could have been a tired story, and I am absolutely delighted and more than a little horrified by it.

Hayden Lichfield (Hamlet) discovers the body of his father murdered in his laboratory, with the hours around his death wiped from the camera logs. The lab immediately goes into lockdown, trapping him inside with four other people: his uncle Charles, intern Felicia Xia (Ophelia), her father and the head of security Paul (Polonius), and lab tech Gabriel Rasmussen. The only one he knows is on his side is the lab's AI, Horatio, who he has known since its creation, and they have to work together as Hayden tries to avenge his father and figure out who is after the Sisyphus Formula that they have been developing, which might be capable of reversing death.

The Death I Gave Him has the same strength as it does weakness: it is a Hamlet retelling. If you have any familiarity with Hamlet, you know going into this story how the entire thing is going to go. There isn't much of a mystery of who is going to survive the book, or who the murderer is, or what the reason could be for their actions. On the other hand, Liu has done something amazing by choosing to make this a locked room sci-fi thriller - the scenario surrounding the well-worn story is completely unique. You might know the ending, but how we get there is the fun part. A murder for a formula that might one day help humans evade death itself? Horatio as an all-knowing AI in the lab who also has access to Hayden/Hamlet's innermost mind? AMAZING.

- The storytelling style is so much fun. A combination of retelling, research paper, found footage, and interview, it's like you're reading someone's thesis paper about what happened that night at the lab.

- The agency that Liu manages to give to Felicia/Ophelia by making her a morally grey secondary lead! Is she a hero? A villain? Just trying to survive? Just getting to ask those questions about a character like Ophelia is great.

- The relationship between Hayden/Hamlet and Horatio. I never thought I'd describe the relationship between a young man and an AI as tender and touching, but here we are. In a story that is relatively gruesome, Horatio is a spot of kindness for Hayden.

Overall, this was such a pleasant surprise and I cannot wait to see what Liu comes up with next!

Wow. Sometimes you read something that resonates with you in ways that are SO hard to put into words, and The Death I Gave Him is like that for me.

For context, Hamlet has always been my favorite Shakespeare tragedy (bit cliche, I know). I read it on my own at 15, then revisited it in different forms throughout high school: auditioning for plays with the classic monologue and Ophelia's flower monologue, watching David Tennant's Hamlet for BBC and obsessing over their interpretation of surveillance and paranoia, reading it for AP Lit and digging into it more academically, reading reinterpretations of it like Ophelia by Lisa Klein, rereading it just for fun so I could be sucked back into the world of Elsinore.

I can confidently say that I'll be adding this book to my list of favorite Hamlet interpretations. I'll be revisiting this one for sure, because I think I'll get even more out of it on rereads - although this first read was like an emotional sucker punch, a fresh and sharp reimagining of characters and plot that have long since become familiar to me. The locked-room thriller themes pair perfectly with the themes of paranoia, surveillance, and mistrust in the classic play, allowing Liu to take the tension and turn it up to 10. Liu artfully takes Shakespeare's original explorations of humanity and mortality and translates them to a 21st century lens through the concepts of AI and technology, reframing them for a modern reader without diluting their original power. Reinterpretations can so often feel derivative but Liu does a masterful job both creating something fully new and unique while also paying homage to the classic tragedy we know and love.

Finally, the queerness - oh, the queerness. For every reader who's ever felt like Hamlet and Horatio were just a little closer than normal friends, this book amplifies that in more ways than one. Queerness is the right word here, too - it's not "gay" or "homosexual", it is specifically a queering of their relationship on multiple levels - both romantic but also functional, through Horatio's reimagining as the AI system of Elsinore, taken into Hayden's brain and housed inside of him. It complicates and troubles their relationship for Horatio to be a learning system instead of a human, and makes it's viewpoint a fascinating counterpoint to the hyper-emotional state of Felicia and Hayden. Horatio and Hayden's connection challenges the idea of a human v technology binary, blurring the lines between the two of them as the book goes on.

If this book sounds even slightly intriguing to you, I highly recommend giving it a shot - it's beautifully impactful and will definitely be sticking with me for a long time.

Thank you so much to Rebellion Solaris via NetGalley for this ARC.

I'm neither a huge fan of thrillers nor a Hamlet lover, but this book completely blew me away in every possible way.

Until now, I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of reading a book that made me feel as tense as this one did. That's saying something because, for me, when a book evokes such deep emotions, it's a true mark of how good it is.

To be fair and honest, I went into this book blindly. However, both the cover and the fact that it was marketed as a "locked room thriller" caught my interest, and I couldn't resist the temptation of requesting it when it showed up on NetGalley.

"The Death I Gave Him" does indeed have echoes of Hamlet, but it takes those elements and transforms them into a more captivating and absorbing story. The prose was exquisite, and I found myself constantly on the edge, anticipating my imminent descent into an abyss of pain and utter despair. Additionally, Horatio, the sentient AI, quickly became a favorite character.

Overall, if you're searching for a read that draws from the classics but offers a fresh, innovative twist with some tech touches, high levels of tension, elements of body horror, and enchanting prose, then look no further.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I shall admit early into this review: I was not sure what to expect in a locked-room thriller. I don't read many thrillers, but I think this sci-fi thriller worked well for me. It has been years since I read Hamlet (back in high school, due for a reread), but I did try to find any Hamlet references that I generally remembered. Liu did a good job in making each pivotal character important and gave sufficient character development, especially Felicia (Ophelia counterpart). Hayden and Horatio's relationship was interesting but could not quite feel invested in their love. I understood that they cared for each other, but I just could not quite connect to their love personally.

The narrative structure was quite creative, so gotta give points to that. Providing transcripts and written accounts, and even including "fictional" accounts to add better flow to a story was interesting and unique to me. This book has similar themes to the original play: death, mortality, and family. For some weird reason, I like the exploration of death in books, especially speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, etc.). Seeing these characters grapple with their own mortality and how to go on with life when you cannot master death was interesting to read.

Despite my enjoyment, I was not quite satisfied with the ending. I understand why it took that turn, but I was hoping for a different turn than what the book gave. Nonetheless, I would recommend to anyone who likes science fiction exploring death, locked-room thrillers, and Shakespeare retellings.

Content Warnings: self harm (on page and descriptive), death of parent, suicidal thoughts, confinement, gore, abandonment (minor), suicide (minor), sexual content?? (minor and unsure)

I’m gonna preface by saying this is a Hamlet retelling, and that I had a huge edgy phase where I loved anything Hamlet - it’s still one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, if I'm honest.

So. Do I think this did my edgy boy Hamlet justice? YES! Very much so!

I could’ve written a normal review, but I just know it would’ve turned into an essay and noone has the time for that, so unhinged bullet points it is.

- The author really nailed the characterization of each character, and even though the setting is very different from the original play I think they fit very well into these new roles.

- The author really looked at Hamlet and went “hm, how can I make this even more messed up and tragic?” and wrote this. Somehow the character dynamics are even more messed up here.

- Horatio being the AI helplessly watching the tragedy unfold, just as he did in the play? OW, my heart. The fact that he is the only one that also kept his original name... just always stuck playing the same role, watching the man he loves destroy himself and those around him.

- Ophelia has much more agency here, and was often the main drive of the story - I'd argue she's more of a protagonist than even Hayden/Hamlet is.

- Really loved how the author gave more room (and kindness) to characters that didn’t get as much of it in the original. Yes, its a tragedy, but it has a kind-ish end.

- Even if I know how the story goes, I was still at the edge of my seat, and frankly, very stressed while reading this.

If you don’t know anything about Hamlet, I still highly recommend checking this out. It’s a great thriller, there’s a really cool AI, and the characters are fascinating. Check content warnings though, as one of the characters has
pretty severe untreated depression.

Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

I don't even know how to review this book... It was excellent, I really, really enjoyed it, but I also feel like maybe I can't give a very, idk, nuanced review, because I haven't read Hamlet, and this is a retelling of Hamlet. So, I guess I will just review it as is, with no other context, because I simply don't have it.

As I already said, I really loved this book. It was a really unique story, being a locked room mystery set in a rather mysterious lab building, for a company that does work on biological stuff, but is actually working on a way to cheat death.

I really liked that you had zero idea of whodunnit for the first bit (I imagine this would not be the case if you were familiar with Hamlet), and that even once you did know whodunnit, there was still a lot of mystery in the story, with how the characters were going to deal with things, how they would deal with the decisions they'd made up to that point, etc.

I thought that the way the book was structured was really unique, in that it was written as though someone from the future was writing about the incident. So, it had different sources, it was told from a variety of points of view, and it just worked so well. I didn't know much about it or the exact premise, but it had me hooked right from the start.

Also, I love how Horatio's character was written. His relationship with Hayden is so different, because Horatio is an AI, but it was still so beautiful and intimate and GAH! I loved it.

Now that I've read this book, I will definitely be seeking out more books by Em X. Liu. Plus, supporting Canadian authors is cool! *thumbs up*

A modern retelling of Hamlet set in a scientific research and tech filled world. I really liked the premise here. I’m all about modern retellings especially with interesting spins. I think though that the writing was trying too hard here to emulate Shakespeare’s style. I wish the author had taken the story and applied it more in their own voice.

Thank you netgalley for providing an arc in exchange of an honest review.

First of all, I'm truly shocked this book is a debut. The confidence in the plot and the complexity of the narration style, as well as the maturity of the prose all feel like the writer is several novels deep. This book was so gripping from the first page to the last, and I really loved the ambiguous ending Liu chose. I would be so excited to read more from these characters and this universe. It was near-futuristic and more thriller/mystery than sci-fi which I much prefer.
I loved the main character Hayden and his tendency to the dramatics. He certainly was a complex character and the part I really loved was reading other character's pov's and getting to see their perception of him. The use of an AI system being a point of view, and their own character was a really unique take on artificial intelligence that I hadn't read before.
Overall this book delivered everything I was hoping for and more. Couldn't recommend it to others more.

I never read Hamlet but I had to study it intensively in uni. Yeah, not reading it. That was the intended way to study it. Don't think about the quality of my education too much. So I was familiar with the story, but in a weird over-analyzing way, and I started this book with very low expectations because I thought the Hamlet themes were too many, too deep and too broad to tackle them all in a retelling. But somehow I liked them best how they were presented here!

I'm not a very big mystery/thriller/suspense/etc reader, and I admit the ones I read were for a target audience way younger than me or straight up bad. So I don't really have anything to compare this book to in terms of genre, but either way it felt extremely well-executed. The tension was built up not only from not knowing what would happen next (even if it's a retelling, because it pulled me in so hard that sometimes I forgot I already knew the basic plot outline lol), but also from being inside the character's heads and following their erratic thoughts and their mad plans, without knowing if they were going to execute them or not. Will this relationship change anything? Will this event change everything? And so on.

From the first time I didn't read Hamlet, the character that interested me the most was Ophelia, and I was really excited to see what the author did with her character. And I absolutely loved Felicia, and loved that she got many POV chapters. Being inside her head was really interesting, specially towards the end where she could've gone a totally different route based on everything that had happened to her. Hayden I liked the least, but I think he carried the story well. It's one of those examples for characters that are perfect for the story they're in, even if they're not the most compelling. Horatio was absolutely fantastic, hats off. I think he embodies the best out of everything else in the story what changes were made to make it an amazing retelling.

The queer aspect I loved. Hayden and Felicia's relationship was heart wrenching in a whole different way than Hayden and Horatio's was. They both added depth to the story and the characters' motivation. I loved reading them both immensely, and couldn't choose one over the other. With Felicia, even if we don't get any flashbacks to their previous relationship or anything, you are made to feel the nostalgia of once-lovers being reunited in very weird circumstances and against their wish, but knowing how important they are to each other, both in the emotional and the survival aspect. And with Horatio it was the complete opposite, testing the limits of a new relationship while also wanting to go super fast because there's no telling how much it will last. The contrast and the overlap between the two is what made them both the queerest, in my opinion. Small tangent but with these kinds of stories there's usually the vision that there's the queer relationship (Hayden and Horatio) and the straight relationship (Hayden and Felicia), so they end up being treated like the good one vs the bad one, sometimes by the author and mostly by the readers. I'm glad they were both given the time and depth they deserved.

A really excellent, fresh take on a classic Shakespeare story. Despite knowing the play so well, the twists and turns still managed to shock and surprise me. And there’s always space for more queer sci-fi!

I should preface this review by saying that I'm not that familiar with Hamlet. I only know its very high-level plot, but I don't even know what role Ophelia plays or what the uncle's name is unless you pose it to me as me a multiple-choice question. So, I approached this book as its own thing, except for just one little caveat that I knew who killed the dad from the beginning.

This is a difficult book for me to review. Throughout the whole book, many characters would respond to questions with "that's a complicated question" or "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know." And that kind of sums up how I feel about this book. I can see where the tension is intended to come from, but I didn't really feel it. I can see that a character has everything I usually love in a character, but I didn't love them. I can see that the prose is lyrical and sophisticated, but I didn't enjoy it.

So, I'm going to talk about how this book is objectively amazing, and then subjectively not really my thing.

Objectively, I'm amazed by how the book is crafted. Its narration is constructed from book excerpts, chat logs, descriptions of video footage, letters, diaries, a lot of footnotes and fictional chapters that admit itself to being fictional. We get the story from multiple POVs, each with their own voices, their own secrets. You get to dive very deep inside many character's minds, too deep for comforts in many occasions. The prose, as I mentioned before, is absolutely exquisite. Em X. Liu has a way of using words that you don't expect to see in that context and completely flipping the way you look at a scene or a character 180 degrees. It feels simultaneously intimate and detached. On one hand, I felt like I shouldn't be seeing all these vulnerabilities inside the characters. But on the other hand, I felt like a doctor looking at a technical problem of a patient. This contrast renders the character and the plot in a totally unique light that I've never seen before in thriller books.

Subjectively, this book left me feeling hungry, like the main course of a fancy meal that is one exquisite piece of meat on a huge, round plate, with the little vegetables and sauces in intricate swirls and drops. It's a piece of arts that doesn't fill my stomach. The rational part of my brain appreciated the beautiful prose, but the other part of my brains kept wishing we would just stop being poetic for a moment so that we can get the plot moving. So that we can get some real answers. The first time a character says "it's complicated" or "I don't know the answers", I thought, yes, this is so complex and intriguing, show me more! But the fifth time they say the same thing (I didn't actually count - I just felt like it kept happening again and again), it felt a bit like a cop-out, and I was just tired, like the characters themselves. That being said, I guess this aspect of the story is fitting for the claustrophobic atmosphere of a locked room mystery. And the ending did provide a little bit of substance. But by that time, I was already emotionally disengaged.

Overall, I think this book would be perfect for those who are looking a sci-fi psychological thriller with lyrical prose. It truly delivers on all those three fronts. It may not be that enjoyable if you're looking a fast-paced, action-packed mystery, although I believe you'd still find it it to be something utterly special and unforgettable.

Thank you to Solaris and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel, Everyone is discussing this as the locked door thriller of Hamlet and I have to admit they are correct. The framing device of the story along with the end-notes made this a different experience than you usually get in a novel. You do not need to know Hamlet super well to understand the plot but it does help. I could not remember the importance of some characters, like Horatio, so you can look them up as needed. It was fascinating with so many points of view to tell the story so you are never sure who you should sympathize with or who is considered a hero or a villain. No one fits a particular archetype which makes it more fun to read. I would classify it as extremely cerebral so be ready that this is not a binge easy ready, If you are willing to go with it, I think you will enjoy it. 3.5 stars.

The play-within-a-play is the trap Hamlet devised to catch the conscience of the king. Em X. Liu (they/them) uses this device to great effect in their novel The Death I Gave Him, a futuristic reimagining of Shakespeare’s tale of murder, betrayal, and madness.

Being familiar with Hamlet, let alone an expert on Shakespeare, isn’t a prerequisite to becoming absorbed in the events that transpire after Dr. Graham Lichfield is found dead in his laboratory. This story isn’t as much a whodunnit as it is a story of proving whodunnit and then exacting revenge. Graham Lichfield’s son, Hayden, has vowed to make his father’s killer pay and to protect the Sisyphus Formula, a project that has the potential to change the world. Whether it’s for the better or for the worse isn’t the subject of debate. What is debatable is if Hayden Lichfield is entirely lucid while he uncovers secrets and plots to commit crimes of his own. The question of whether Hayden is afraid of dying or afraid of living remains at the fore as the story progresses.

Felicia Xia is the ersatz Ophelia of the story. She is Hayden’s ex-girlfriend and is employed at Elsinore Labs. She is at times Hayden’s adversary and at times his ally. She is capable and resilient and angry and conflicted, which makes her an interesting point-of-view character. Felicia’s circumstances are as tied up in Hayden’s obsessions as her motivations are compelled by the memories of what Hayden once was to her. The author gives Felicia agency in their rendering of the drama, and Felicia in fact directs the progression of the events in which Hayden has little to no control. Felicia, however, is not the sole storyteller, which gives The Death I Gave Him complexity and dimension.

The most sympathetic character in this novel is Horatio, which says something about the ways of humans. Horatio is the entity, the working organ that keeps Elsinore functioning, and he is, inarguably, Hayden’s closest companion. It’s too restrictive to call Horatio artificial intelligence, even though he is indeed a computer, simply because it limits his role and implies his purpose in the story is passive, which is not the case. Horatio may very well be the most civilized character in the cast, he’s certainly the least duplicitous, and he feels things for Hayden that a machine hadn’t ought to be able to feel. That’s what makes him wholly intriguing.

The Death I Gave Him is a sci-fi locked-room drama. Em X. Liu’s storytelling is utterly lush, and their world-building portrays the claustrophobia of the setting and duplicity of the characters while pushing the plot forward.

An interesting take on Hamlet. However, knowing that spoiled it a little bit. I felt like I was comparing and contrasting the whole time. Even though it was well written, I could not immerse myself in the book.

3.5 stars.
Hamlet was never one of my favourite of Shakespeare's plays. It was assigned reading in school, and I found it tedious and thoroughly irritating: by early into the play I was yelling at Hamlet for harming Ophelia and though I don't condone murder, I wanted Hamlet to just get on and kill his uncle.

But, much as I disliked Hammy, I was intrigued by Em X. Liu's take on this play. And it's good. Moving the setting into the future and creating a locked room mystery within a bio-engineering company doing some pretty esoteric work, Liu has Hayden/Hammy find his father's brutally murdered corpse. Hayden immediately secures their highly specialized research and a formula for a serum he and his father were developing to bring people back from the dead, before notifying others in the company about his father's murder.

Hayden's uncle orders the building's AI Horatio to lock down the facility, trapping everyone within and cutting off their access to the outside world while he attempts to determine who stole his brother's research after killing him. A highly placed official in the company and his daughter Felicia are also locked in, accidentally. Hayden's uncle, suspecting Hayden of something, has Felicia work with Hayden to find some answers. (Felicia and Hayden has a short relationship in the past, and Felicia left him when she realized that Hayden would always put his work at the company before anything else.)

Through a series of violent incidents and exposure of several lies, Felicia discovers what Hayden is protecting (the serum), as well as possible evidence of corporate espionage. Things don't end well for several characters.

Liu's change of setting to a research facility cut off from the outside world creates a nice sense of claustrophobia and tension, and it's pretty obvious that someone within murdered Hayden's father. (It's not a surprise if you've read the play, of course, as well as a secret motive that emerges as the story progresses.)

The author's Horatio is a wonderful character, utterly devoted to Hayden, even while Horatio questions Hayden's actions and motives. Artificial intelligence (AI) Horatio is a wonderful version of the character, having the personal strength and compassion that Hayden lacks, and serves as both lover and conscience to the scientist. Horatio is probably the one truly sympathetic character in the whole book.

Liu's Ophelia as Felicia is what I wanted from the original: a ferocious, smart woman, who even with the terrible shocks she experiences over the course of her investigation, doesn't crumple and give up. In fact, she takes no crap from anyone, most especially from Hayden. She figures out what is really happening at the company amongst its Executive, and isn't impressed. She also has a pretty clear idea of what she'll tolerate and what she won't, and makes sure she's dealt with fairly by everyone else. I loved her.

The prose dragged a little in parts, but this wasn't a big concern. Overall, I liked this, and look forward to what Liu does next.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Rebellion for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu

I’ve been hearing about this book everywhere, it seems like. It was on Tor.com’s and several other websites’ lists of books to watch out for in 2023 so I kept my eyes peeled and requested it when I saw it on NetGalley. The back cover blurb made it seem like a science fictional retelling of Hamlet, which sounded fascinating. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

Man, this book was weird! In a good way! The style was as interesting as it was unexpected. Chapters would shift - some were close in from the Hamlet- analog’s perspective, some were “excerpts” from books or articles from the Ophelia-analog’s perspective, some were text messages, it was a wild structural ride! The setting - a locked down scientific research facility with an AI that was the Horatio-analog added a weird creepiness to the story that fit right in. This was a very interesting, enjoyable book. I recommend you check it out!

First of all, I would like to say thank you for the review copy, which was provided to me by the publisher. This fact does not in any way affect my personal opinion of this book. This post contains advertising and the rights for the book belong to the publisher.

Of course, is this only my personal opinion of the book and just because I give this rating to the book doesn’t mean, that everyone will have that opinion.

This was a very interesting book for me. I am normally a Fantasy and Romance girlie, but last year I discovered some YA Thrillers and Sci-Fiction books for me. I was curious to see what I would think about this mix, which was a bit out of my comfort zone.
First up: I haven’t read Hamlet. I am not a huge Shakespeare fan (please don’t be mean), so I haven’t picked it up yet. This review is based on the context of the book and not the play, which it was inspired by. I can’t talk about parallels etc., so if that is an important point for me, please consider reading a review that’s more educated on that field.

This book was entertaining. I read it in one day, and I don’t say it often, but I think this would be an interesting movie even though, it might be hard to adapt it for the screen. I had some problems with the writing style. I’m not a native speaker, and sometimes the sentence structure was a bit hard to grasp for me, but I still understood everything and could follow the story.

The overall plot idea was interesting. I liked it and was curious to see how things would progress. There were some plot twists I didn’t see coming, and others were rather obvious, but in my opinion, guessing is the most fun when reading thrillers.
I liked that the story is not told as a story but rather in different materials (interviews, logs etc.).

The characters were also nice. We have a fixed set of characters from the beginning, so we can easily follow how they develop throughout the story. Sadly, I wasn’t feeling the love/sexy story, but it was something new and unique to me.

Conclusion
Overall, I think this was an enjoyable Sci-Fi Thriller and would recommend it.

I tried something a little out of my comfort zone with this locked-door-hamlet-retelling-queer-sci-fi-thriller and… it sort of paid off?🤔 I have no doubt this book will find its audience and folks will fall head over heels, but it left me feeling a bit ambivalent. Probably those folks will have a working knowledge of Shakespeare - I requested it because I wanted to explore more queer lit in other genres, and I did love that aspect of it! (It involves an AI so if you were a fan of Lovey and Jenks in The Wayfarers, you’ll love this 👀)
.
I like it when thrillers make use of mixed formats, which Em X. Liu offers here! They give us a mix of book excerpts, articles, pager conversations, security camera logs, and then POVs from our main character Hayden and Horatio, the AI who is the only one Hayden can trust. I always think it helps build a more robust picture of the mystery!
.
In terms of side characters, Felicia was awesome, loved her. Hayden’s uncle felt a bit underdeveloped - somewhere between a mustachio-twirling villain and puppy-eyed lover who’d do *anything* for his person. I think Horatio steals the show though, and I loved his scenes with Hayden.
.
However, for the first 100 pages or so I didn’t feel particularly motivated to pick it up. I also would find myself a few steps behind at some parts. For example, someone would be betrayed or double crossed but I wouldn’t realise it when it was happening - only a few pages later when alliances were no longer adding up 😂 But that’s more likely on me!
.
If you’re into Shakespeare retellings and sci fi thrillers then definitely look out for this one out on 12th September!