Tuesday, January 09, 2007

The Dead Father's Club by Matt Haig

This is a pretty clever re-telling of Hamlet through the eyes of an eleven year-old boy in a small English town. After Philip Noble’s father dies in a car accident, his father’s ghost appears to him to tell him that his uncle had him murdered and that if young Philip can’t avenge him, and he has only a short time to do so, he will suffer the Terrors for eternity. The beauty is putting these demands at the feet of a seemingly normal kid. Who’s going to believe him? Is this really happening? How do you kill an adult? Where do you even start? The book is being marketed to both adults and as a YA novel a la Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime so it’ll be interesting to see how this book does and who it reaches. A good read.

2 comments:

Michelle Fluttering Butterflies said...

Ooh, I will definately put this on my TBR list. Thanks!

Reed Next said...

Hi Michelle, the book is already out in the UK so you should have no trouble finding it.

I have to ask: you responded seconds after I posted this review--how did you find me? I've really been blogging to no one since I started this in August.