Thoughts Be Bloody by Auden Patrick
Overall Rating - 4.5
Emotional Impact Score - 4.75
Thought-Provoking Score - 4
Character Score - 4.5
Plot Score - 4
Worldbuilding Score - 3.5
Prose Score - 4.5
I could’ve loved less. I didn’t. I won’t.
To start with, this is a Hamlet retelling and it’s not shy about it. The main characters are named Hamlett and Horatio. They go to a magical school named Elsinore. Laertes is carried over by name. It doesn’t shy away from it’s source in that aspect.
This book makes you feel frantic and anxious and like you’re losing your mind alongside the narrator, Horatio. Overall, I really enjoyed this. The arc Horatio goes through is really good and I think it stands apart from the source enough to be a good novel on it’s own. I don’t remember much of Hamlet’s original story but I found myself enjoying things nonetheless. My biggest criticism with the book is, the marketing blurb says “Exploring classism, identity, and the true meaning of revolution, this dark academia novel is perfect for fans of R. F. Kuang’s Babel and S. T. Gibson’s An Education in Malice” but the ‘exploring classism’ and ‘true meaning of revolution’ aren’t really explored. Classism is touched on but the revolution is not really touched on at all. The ‘curse’ is maybe what it’s talking about but Revolution is ultimately not explored beyond a selfish motive. The penultimate act was heartbreaking, even knowing how it ends. I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading this, despite having some issues with the lack of exploring certain themes. The second person POV was also a nice touch.
Thank you, Auden and NetGalley, for providing me the opportunity.