<i>Thank you NetGalley and Solaris for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.</i>

This captivated me from the first paragraph in the foreword-- and I don't even like Shakespeare! But damn if this wasn't one of the best scifi I've read in a long while.

<b>Hamlet Retelling:</b>
I am a notorious Shakespeare-hater and am only familiar with the half dozen+ of his plays that I was forced to read in compulsory education. So when I started this I thought "I should have a quick skim of a Hamlet wiki summary" first, and that was a good shout, actually! Cause I immediately came back and went "ohhhh. Horatio! I get it," and then spent a lot of the read time theorizing about different subversions and tropes. I'm sure you could get a lot more out of this if you're familiar with/like Hamlet, but I think the brief primer heightened my enjoyment.

And sure, if you're familiar with Hamlet then you may know the general things that happen, but I think it's still going to have some subversions here and there that keep things fresh.

<b>Vibes:</b>
This is a locked room murder mystery told in a mixed media format that's been compiled by a narrator living 100+ years after the events in the novel take place. But all of the characters are so very human and <i>desperate.</i>

<b>The Writing:</b>
This is gonna be, I think, the biggest selling point or the biggest turn-off for people getting into the book. There are text messages and phone recordings and computer processes and file excerpts and letters and a retelling that's been pieced together from multiple sources and composed into a narrative. It's experimental and interesting. The main POVs are a first person memoir from one of the survivors + a mostly third person from the POV of the main character and/or the computer system. I happen to be a hoe for any type of sentient architecture, but getting the POV of the labs themselves might be tricky for others.

<b>The End:</b>
I did find that the ending lost a lot of steam, and there were ~2 pages in particular that were a little too preachy for me. And while I think the rest of the book wasn't overly explicit or difficult to deal with, those pages could definitely be triggering for someone. TW: <spoiler>suicidal ideation.</spoiler> But also check all the TWs the author lists at the beginning.

<b>Overall:</b>
<i>The Death I Gave Him</i> was a refreshing sci-fi. There was a lot of humanity and heart and angst, but also a playfulness with how they approached the writing and a new way to tell the story. Please pick this up.

Before anything else, I would like to give my heartfelt gratitude to the publisher for giving me access to this e-ARC.

Due to life's circumstances, I am, unfortunately, unable to read this ARC before it is archived here on Netgalley.

Again, thank you so much for this opportunity that you have given me.

This was a retelling of the best kind. In the vein of Hadestown the story wouldn't work nearly as well if it wasn't moving in the groves of an old, well-known story.

And just like Hadestown, it's a tragedy, you know it's a tragedy from the first page, and yet you spend the whole time in the desperate (?) hope that maybe it will turn out this time.

This is a brilliant book, and Em X. Liu is a brilliant writer. It seems incredible that this is a debut - the writing, the characters, the way this old story felt tense and new, everything was flawless. Between this and "I Found Return to Hell" (my review here), Liu has, for me, firmly been established as one of the most interesting and talented new authors of the last few years.

Picking up the arc of The Death I Gave Him was one of the best decisions I made in August because IT WAS SO GOOD. I've never read anything like it, and yes I was confused when I started but the more I continued on the more I was intrigued and captivated by everything inside this book - the plot, the characters, the WRITING, the unique writing format. I loved how the story is compiled - through the perspective of the AI (which is soo clever and interesting???), through various interview clips and book excerpts and through the characters themselves. I love the thrilling aspect and the suspense through out this book and I also loved how even though the main focus of this story is the mystery around the "Death", the way this book portrays the obsessiveness of being in academia was just really well done! Also the writing was just wonderful, I couldn't get enough of it.

Thank you to Em X. Liu, Rebellion Publishing, and NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review-- all opinions are my own.

The Death I Gave Him is a vivid retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet that pulls the reader into the dizzying madness of catching a killer in a locked facility. This book's storytelling style is so good and switches up how the reader perceives the story and characters. It's also a really creative and interesting way to add to the suspense of the story. Throughout the book, I felt myself being drawn more and more into the illusion of the building complex itself. Many times I felt like I was also in the building trying to figure out who the killer was. I also really enjoyed the notes given at the bottom of each chapter from the author. I would absolutely love to have a small short novel or novella that tells more about what happens in the future. I really enjoyed reading Hamlet, so I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book. I highly recommend this to readers who are looking for a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat and if you're interested in retellings. I will definitely be thinking about this book for a while.

The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu weaves a gripping near-future, sci-fi retelling of Hamlet that I didn’t know I needed, until now.

The story is set up as a frame narrative with a grad student trying to reconstruct the events of the infamous Elsinore Incident, and we begin with the murder of Dr. Graham Litchfield, a prestigious biochemist, who was researching immortality. However, when he’s found mysterious dead in his lab, the whole building goes in lockdown and his son sets out to find his murderer with the help of the lab’s Operating System, Horatio.

I’ve got to say, this book is devilishly clever and inventive in so many ways. First, it takes the classic locked-room murder mystery trope and sets it in a high tech, booby-trapped lab that's filled with toxic nerve gas. It also features some fantastic spicy scenes with an AI connected to a human's neuromap, so if you’re looking for an unconventional romance, you’re in for a treat.

All in all, this book presents a brilliantly fresh spin on Shakespeare alongside a dose of Frankensteinian mad science, making for one of my favorite thrillers of the year.

I was intrigued at the idea of a sci-fi retelling of Hamlet and I could hardly resist the delightfully bright cover design and the catchy title. The Death I Gave Him was undoubtedly one of the strangest books I’ve read or will read in 2023.
It begins with Hayden Lichfield walking in to find his father, Dr. Graham Lichfield brutally murdered in his laboratory. It’s late at night and the only other people on premise are his uncle Charles, head of security Paul Xia, his daughter and intern Felicia Xia, and lab tech Gabriel Rasmussen. It quickly becomes clear it wasn’t an intruder and the facility is placed on lockdown while Hayden tries to figure out who murdered his father for the Sisyphus formula - a revolutionary experimental drug that could herald an age of immortality for humankind.
The story is actually the “true story” compiled after the fact, with data from security cam footage, Hayden’s neurolink device which records thoughts, and interviews with Felicia Xia. This surprisingly doesn’t affect story structure overmuch, aside from leading quotes from Felicia’s interviews and some author footnotes. That being said, this was a terribly confusing story that I found nonetheless intriguing enough to zip right through it.
In all honesty, I didn’t love this. It was definitely not the right book for me, despite loving a good locked room mystery, because no matter how much I wanted to,I couldn’t get invested in the characters. Hayden and Felicia are the two characters we spend the most time with, along with Horatio, who’s basically an AI with a degree of sentience. All three of the characters just felt a bit flat and lacked the depth of personality this story needed. Hayden’s entire personality could be described as “troubled” and Felicia’s reactions to even the most horrifying events were just mildly violent.
My verdict on this is this - lackluster and unengaging for me, personally. This actually has over 100 ratings on Goodreads and is sitting at 4.05 stars, so I do think this is a case of the book just not working for me. If you think it sounds cool, I’d encourage you to give it a try! This author has a novella or short story coming out later this year that I’m interested in, so I do plan to give their work another shot because I think the idea behind The Death I Gave Him was a cool one.

This is the third queer modern Hamlet retelling I've read in the last year or so, and I can safely say I'm obsessed.

I don't even know how to review this book. From the start, I was fascinated by the narrative device, the different perspectives, the way I felt on the edge of my seat even though I know how Hamlet goes. Things do go differently, though, and I was pleasantly surprised by the changes.

The writing fits the story so well and adapts to the different points of view we follow. My favourite was Horatio's, I can't get over how the descriptions of his interactions with Hayden (Hamlet) were factual, clinical even, but also lyrical at the same time. As we know Hayden's motivations, Felicia (Ophelia) quickly becomes the most interesting character because she's new and as Horatio describes her, unknown. I greatly enjoyed seeing how much her actions affect the story. Also, the reduced cast of characters helps make Elsinore feel even more claustrophobic.

I am going to be thinking about the end of this book for a while, as I do about Hamlet. 4.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to Rebellion Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Death I Gave Him is a pretty solid sci-fi mystery/thriller, and I was quite intrigued. First things first, I am going to keep this short because well, mystery. I don't want to tell you too much. The book opens with Hayden realizing his dad has been murdered in their lab. And someone has messed with the security, making it much harder to figure out who did the killing. And oh by the by, these guys were working on basically making folks immortal. Obviously, Hayden has a bit of work to do: find the killer, stop them, figure out how to bring dear ol' dad back from the dead, the usual.

Of course, you can imagine that nothing and no one can be taken at face value. The story is being told after the fact, in a series of mixed media which I really enjoyed. There are bits from a book written about the events, some footage from interviews, some from the AI logs. It made the story all the more interesting, since we were getting bits of information from various angles and sources. As you can imagine, there are some pretty messed up bits since we're talking about trying to cheat death, and I think we all know by now that it rarely seems to end well.

There were some points that the story felt a little long, especially in the middle, but for the most part I was definitely invested in what was happening, who was responsible for what, and you know, if the whole "immortality" thing was going to pan out. Definitely a solid book, I will be eager to read more from the author!

Bottom Line: A solid sci-fi based mystery told in a very readable and entertaining format.

when I first started reading this, I told people: I'm currently reading an unhinged sci-fi locked room murder mystery Hamlet retelling in which Horatio is an AI and he and Hamlet have a weird co-dependent bordering on sexual relationship. Hamlet is also deeply unwell. it's a Hamlet retelling so SURELY the uncle is the one who Did It, but the mystery is real - I hate that I can't (at this stage) tell if he did it or if it was somebody else. I'm a third of a way in so I'm sure it'll get worse <3

and now that I've finished it: well that sure WAS unhinged and Horatio and Hayden sure DID have a co-dependent and sexual relationship. (a sidenote to this, if they weren't having sex the first time I thought they were having sex, WHAT were they doing? just making out????) Yes Horatio is an AI don't think too hard about it, it makes sense when you read the book.

Okay so, we all know Hamlet is deeply depressed and suicidal, right? we have all read Hamlet in high school, right? We KNOT that the tragedy is that everyone dies at the end, Hamlet in Horatio's arms, and Horatio the only one left to mourn him? WELL this book takes Hamlet's depression and suicidal ideation and goes, what if a person who was Like That, also wants to Live Forever, and they become obsessed with creating a Formula through Science that can make that happen? and what if THAT formula then becomes the lynchpin in the entire murder tragedy that kicks off with Hayden's father's murder (by the uncle, yes this is a Hamlet retelling, the uncle did do it)? and what then if at the end of it <s>HAMLET</s> HAYDEN is the one left alive while Horatio is not, and Hayden then gets obsessed with piecing Horatio back together (bringing him back to life, like he tried to bring his father back to life), and he STILL says "I'm going to live forever"? Hayden you are deeply unwell and I respect that so much about you

listen, I love me an unhinged book and this <i>hit every single one</i> of my buttons. delicious. coincidentally I read this Hamlet fanfic a few days before I picked this up, Hemlock & Wine (https://archiveofourown.org/works/1225369 ), in which Hamlet and Horatio are away at University in Germany befor the events of the play, Hamlet getting unhingedly obsessed with necromancy and Horatio despairingly trying to save him, and well. that's the mood thoroughly set before reading The Death I Gave Him, amiright?

This one did not flow so well in my opinion. There were too many aspects trying to fit into & carry the plot and it just didn’t work for me: the characters, ideas, and writing style….
Don’t get me wrong, when I saw “Queer, Locked room, Scifi, and Hamlet retelling” I didn’t know what to expect, but I was interested to see what would happen.

Give this one a try if any of the above aspects appeal to you as a reader!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Rebellion for a copy!

Initially this story and the closed room mystery of the plot had me going, the weight of the research and what it means for the lab if successful, the dysfunction of the father-son relationship, the broken relationship and the stark distrust amongst the employees heightened the tension. But midway through when we think we have the answer, the tension snaps and this became sort of a slog to get through.

I still finished the read, but was really no longer invested in the repercussions of the outcome.

This book is a retelling of Hamlet but in a sci-fi dystopian way. We follow Hayden as he tries to find his fathers killer in the lab that they worked in. It’s supposed to be a locked room sci-fi mystery.

Unfortunately, I am DNFing this book. I have to say that I don’t read a lot of sci-fi and I’m not a huge fan of retellings. I think this may have been a me problem instead of the actual book.

This book was so boring and lyrical. I had such a hard time getting into it. After forcing myself to read 30% over a week, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I know many others have liked this one so it’s probably a me problem.

Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest opinion!

Thank you to Rebellion for the ARC.

I loved the concept of this book: a locked room mystery echoing Hamlet in plot as well as theme. It promised to explore mortality and scientific ethics in an entertaining way. Hayden Lichfield discovers his father's murdered body and is determined to first discover who the killer is (although it's obvious, given the Hamlet references) and then to take revenge on him on his father's behalf.

Unfortunately, the writing style made it impossible for me to enjoy the book. The prose reads like it's trying very, very hard to be literary. The trying is too obvious, though, and the prose doesn't have the tone of experience or skill of someone who's spent a lot of time studying craft and getting feedback from veteran writers. It distracted me the whole way through.

It's a book in which the setting—a mysterious scientific facility cut off from the general public—should have been as vibrant a character as any of the speaking characters. In a way it is, personified by Horatio, the AI who runs the facility and has a deeply intimate relationship with the protagonist in more ways than one. It's not enough to make up for the lack of vividly described visuals, though. I had a lot of trouble picturing the rooms, the corridors, the building. It was all too vaguely touched on and given I was trapped inside as a reader, it felt claustrophobic, not not in a way that added to narrative tension.

There's very little tension in the storytelling. We know who the killer is. We know Hayden will accidentally kill Felicia's father, we know that his uncle Charles will be involved with Hayden's mother, because we've read or at least seen a production of Hamlet. So the plot holds very few surprises. There isn't enough to draw one through the story, to make one need to keep reading.

The book is very, very overwritten. There were paragraphs and paragraphs of surplus description to wade through. "He crosses his hands in front of him as he walks, pressing fingers deep to his wrist and counting in his head. That stubborn radial pulse, high and frantic, surges against his fingertips." Some of this would add colour, but it never stops. The book is twice as long as it needs to be due to unnecessary descriptions of characters body movements and facial expressions and drawn out explanation of their every thought and emotion. I found the character's thoughts and emotions a bit overdone and melodramatic, so the overabundance of them didn't help me immerse. No one's motives felt real. Character's goals and states of mind flipped from one scene to the next without believable explanation. At one point, Hayden brutally murders someone for no logical reason, hardly blinks over it, then goes into a tailspin about murdering someone else. It just doesn't make sense.

Things I enjoyed: I liked the epistolary structure of the novel. I enjoyed the different narrators and narration styles. That was fun. I also enjoyed Hayden's relationship with Horatio; Horatio's ultimate choice did move me emotionally. The sex scenes between them felt forced and unnecessary, but they were fun to read.

Ultimately, this could be an interesting book, but it needs a lot more editing. I wouldn't have read beyond the first chapter if I hadn't been reading to review.

Wow, just wow!

This book was everything you would expect from queer SF retelling of Hamlet and then so much more.
Reading it is a truly haunting experience. The very structure of the narrative made it feel both distanced from the events (thus, attempting impartiality and objectivity) and at the same time as a reader I was aware what I was reading was fiction.
It's a locked room thriller but the reader is also very much locked inside Hayden's mind for most of the story. And it is a dark place - painfully lonely, full of need to belong, to be loved, cared for. And then we have Horatio and he is everything.

This is not a very coherent review, I am afraid but in my defense, it's a difficult book to review.
It's masterfully executed, brilliant and haunting!

CW: It's a close retelling, so all CW for Hamlet apply here. What stood out in particular to me was how the suicide ideation was presented - it felt excruciatingly real to me.

3/5

I'm asking whoever is reading this not to take this review too seriously because the bottom line is: this was not my cup of tea.
my cup
it may be your cup so please try it out

the death I gave him follows Hayden and four other people in a lab on lockdown. Hayden's father has recently been murdered in said lab and then Hayden steals all his fathers research to lure the killer.
The storyline was interesting but it wasn't holding my attention. I feel a lot of the information passed between the pages was unnecessary? And it could've been a much shorter book and had a better effect on the reader.

The writing though. Carried. This book is what it is because of Em X. Liu's immaculate writing. It was lyrical and beautiful prose. I hope to read more of their work.

I recommend you try this if it sounds up your alley because this has the potential to be the book of autumn 2023 :)

I really hate elevator pitches. Blurbs, whatever you want to call them. Books condensed into a sentence or two. This meets That. Always bypassing mood in favour of a hook to grab as many potential readers as possible.

This book is described as ‘Hamlet as a locked-room mystery.’ Which it is - but also SO much more.

The time? The not too-distant future. The place? A scientific research facility called Elsinore, whose goals are generally unclear. A body is found, with vital information hidden and a murderer amongst those who are quarantined within.

Some marks are hit; others are not. Horatio is the charming laboratory AI, connected with protagonist Hayden in very interesting ways. His ex-partner Felicia’s relationship with the men she’s trapped with is particularly fierce, combining her old love, anger and wish for revenge.

There are easter eggs, of course - famous lines reworked for those in the know. The killer ceases to become the point.

I have an English degree and still manage to love the Bard, so I thought I was prepared; yet still found myself responding with ‘Oh no - don’t!’ at a certain (off-screen and so far worse) moment. The varying perspectives somehow give events more power and realism, drawing me in until I couldn’t physically put the book down.

The deepest change for me is the ‘kingdom’ - the goal of the murderer. It’s a healing concoction called Sisyphus, which may or may not confer immortality. This gives whole new meaning to Hayden’s considerations of life and death, while at the same time implying the hell of a man cursed to perpetually roll his punishment up a hill.

This book is phenomenal, not just in the style of writing, but also in working a miracle of originality. I found myself as trapped as those inside the facility, truly wondering what might happen next and where familiar paths diverge. I felt the pain, the dilemmas and the inevitably as they increase, faster and faster until it’s suddenly revealed how short a time has passed - it felt like an eternity.

Ultimately, it’s the story that persists. The characters have their immortality, their struggles told again and again, be it as a poor play or an intense novel. No matter the inspiration, this book deserves to endure, and I wanted to applaud (or cry) when it was done.

A high recommend.

The death I Gave Him is a futuristic queer reimagining of Hamlet told as a locked room mystery, and we are here for it. There is a murder at Elsinore Labs and we look at the events of that night told through a narrator who is putting together the story through mixed media including audio recordings, court records, memoirs, interviews, and chat logs. The setting and futuristic elements and exploration of the themes of life, death, grief, and obsession being expressed through that lens were super interesting and compelling.

This is a Hamlet retelling that will keep both those familiar and unfamiliar with the story guessing. The atmosphere is tense and claustrophobic and the reimagining of the characters in this setting was kind of brilliant and felt fresh. The connection between Hayden and the AI companion Horatio was really intriguing and a the reinvention of Ophelia through the character of Felicia was something I really enjoyed. This was definitely one of my favorite reads this year.

If you are looking for an interesting and unique take on Hamlet or just love a good locked room mystery this will hold you in it’s grip until the end.

A unique novel reminiscent of "found footage" films in a near-future setting. Strongly written prose builds on a genuinely surprising take on the oft-retold Hamlet, though it sometimes suffers for the complexity of the style and themes in terms of readability– a story that demands you slow down, chew on it, pay attention, which isn't necessarily a downside. A sure reread for me and I couldn't be more excited for what's next from Liu.

Honestly: I was sold this book as a queer retelling of Hamlet as a locked-room mystery in the future, and it more than delivered.

Told through a series of audio recordings and memoirs written after the events of one fateful day in the Elsinore Lab, The Death I Gave Him never lets up in its tension. Although I know Hamlet fairly well - well enough certainly to match the characters to their counterparts - it did an excellent job of making me wonder whether this was a true retelling, or whether the ending would play out differently. Charles, the Claudius character, is very easy to dislike, but Liu's Hamlet (Hayden) toes the line between sanity and paranoia so perfectly that he can never be termed a reliable narrator.

Yeah. I liked this a lot.