Book Review: Falling for Hamlet by Michelle Ray

Falling for Hamlet by Michelle Ray

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

    Meet Ophelia: a blonde, beautiful high-school senior and long-time girlfriend of Prince Hamlet of Denmark. Her life is dominated not only by her boyfriend's fame and his overbearing family, but also by the paparazzi who hound them wherever they go. As the devastatingly handsome Hamlet spirals into madness after the mysterious death of his father, the King, Ophelia rides out his crazy roller coaster life, and lives to tell about it. In live television interviews, of course.

Passion, romance, drama, humor, and tragedy intertwine in this compulsively readable debut novel, told by a strong-willed, modern-day Ophelia.

      A ridiculously humorous and modern retelling of the famous Shakesperean “Hamlet” through the perspective of the unbelievably brave Ophelia.

I was captured by this book with these line:

    “He was scrawling ‘To Be’and ‘Not to Be’over and over, ‘What’s that?’ I asked. ‘That is the question’”

Hilarious. I know.

     I have to be honest though, I can’t compare & contrast back-to-back Falling for Hamlet with the original manuscript because I haven’t read the latter. I did, however, know the gist of the story (yeah, I read the summary to give me a heads up of what to expect with this novel), so I can say a few words about this. There were major changes such as the setting (all of it), nevertheless the important stuff remained. This retelling by Michelle Ray is meticulously original in its own as if it was not inspired by any old stuff, the dark humor was clever and brilliant. Can’t say anything bad about it and I can’t find any fault or uncovered holes in the story.

     The idea of telling the story from Ophelia’s perspective was genuinely creative and smart as it proved to be well-informed and it set the story and ‘facts’ straight. I liked how each chapter opened with a live televised interview and ended with a scene with the detective’s questioning with Ophelia. The style somewhat gives the readers forewarning of what’s to happen. I also loved how the main essence of the story was kept in the novel- they all died. It’s tragic, yes, no doubt about it, but it’s cruelly valid to have the ending remain the same. I did not mourn with reading that chapter but I was humored because it was a funny and ridiculous thing to die of..the poisoning and Claudius may think he was clever but he was just stupid and what a jerk really. Although Hamlet did most of the heinous crime acts but I can’t really blame him and he had a brave and courageous ending. Ophelia, or “Phee” as Hamlet called her (which I like) is just as dangerously kick-ass. She may have done her fair share of mischief and wrong decisions, but in the end she’s the survivor because she’s the smartest of them all. To have done what she did deserves not only an Academy award but maybe a CNN heroes award too.

     Falling for Hamlet really wasn’t the best thing that happened to Phee but it was the most memorable, I am sure. Every part of the story after the King’s death revolved around that “Falling for Hamlet”. It did no one good, that’s why everybody died. At first, I wanted Phee and Hamlet to end up together but after reading the next half, just as Ophelia decided this time would be the last one, I also realized that it is really healthy for everyone that they not end up with each other. I soon found out that it was okay... this was not meant for a happy love story ending.

     It, after all, began with a sweet sugar-coated innocent teen romance, stained by social rumors & mildews, tainted by political maliciousness, contaminated by madness, and well, in the end we all learn that these four mixed together doesn’t end well.

Marvelous artful craft I did not regret to buy and read. :)

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Falling for Hamlet

Michelle Ray

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