Review Detail

Let me start by saying that this cover sucked me in. It's gorgeous! Then I read the summary and realized it was a retelling of Hamlet. I am a sucker for retellings of the classics. I love the fresh spins they bring when they are done correctly.



Unfortunately, I would not consider this one "done correctly." I tried. I truly did. I even made it to 81% complete before I just couldn't stand to read further. I finally gave up because, indeed, I do know how this story ends so I didn't feel the need to continue.



My biggest complaint with A Wounded Name was Ophelia herself. What an absolute mess. She took so much physical abuse from Hamlet that I found myself deeply annoyed with her. Maybe I was missing this whole victim mentality because that is not who I am, but it didn't seem right. He would choke her and leave bruises (and at times all but force himself on her) and she went along with it. She'd complain to herself about the abuse, but say she loved him soooo much that it was basically okay for him to do it because it was "her pain to carry"-- or some load of crap similar to that. All that being said, she came across as weak and pathetic. I read another retelling of Hamlet a few years back titled Ophelia that was incredible. That Ophelia was everything the foil to Hamlet should be. This mess of a girl was too pitiful to side with.


The writing also slowed me up at times. It was flowery and fluent, but also too much at times. I loved the poetic quality of some of the descriptions, but at times it seemed too long winded. I can say the author did a fine job of finding ways to use actual lines from the play in the book. Having them be spoken by Dane (aka Hamlet) during his bouts of craziness gave it a nice touch.


The paranormal element that was working in the story never fit for me. I see the ratings for the book are at 4.03 on Goodreads, so it obviously worked for others! I just don't know why I couldn't buy into it. Of course, I also did not finish this book so maybe I missed out on that critical piece. That may be too bad for me, because I have no plans to go back and finish those 50 or so remaining pages.