Reviews

A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein

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katreadsalot's review against another edition

3.0

A beautifully written and fantastic historical fiction novel featuring Kit Marlowe. I loved the depiction of historical London.

zed_dog's review against another edition

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Strong character development? No

2.5

I found this book over-written: lots of paragraphs that could have been sentences; big pauses for thought that interrupt dramatic moments, and could have been illustrated through dialogue or action. The pacing also suffers from all the shifts in point of view: the reader gets too much information beyond what the protagonist knows, killing any mystery—and the

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plotting against him

doesn’t go anywhere anyway. The

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juxtaposition with Faustus

at the end was a nice touch, but

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the web could have been woven much tighter around Kit, to give him a proper tragic fall (like Faustus’), inevitably precipitated by his actions, rather than an ambush.

Kit also doesn’t mature over the course of the book: he seems exactly as hotheaded and stupid at 28 as at 21, and I always find this lack of growth frustrating. He’s described as a clever, persuasive person—a good liar. But in action, he almost always makes rookie mistakes, and takes too long to figure out (or even remember) what’s going on. Basically, I wanted to like this book more than I did. I think I wanted either a KJ Charles book based on a true story, or a gay Wolf Hall—and this fell short of either.

kimmag92's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I discovered A Tip for the Hangman from a Substack I subscribe to about under-rated books and I am so happy they recommended this! I absolutely loved this book and it's the fictionalized version of Christopher Marlowe's life he deserved. So many books that I've read that have Marlowe as a character have tended to treat him as a villain as well as being a one dimensional character. Epstein's Marlowe has depth and complexities that make him a very interesting and compelling character. Their depiction of Marlowe's and Tom's relationship was beautiful and I cared so much for them.

I also really enjoyed that they acknowledged Shakespeare as a character. Recently I've found books where Shakespeare is a side or minor character the author weirdly dances around him like He Who Must Not Be Named. If we acknowledge Shakespeare in a book the Trace will not be placed on us.

anastasiacarrow's review against another edition

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4.0

WHAT THE FUCK ALLISON I TRUSTED YOU

I AM A PROUD MARLOVIAN BC IF THAT THEORY ISN'T TRUE THEN THAT MEANS MY FAV IDIOT REBEL SPY PLAYWRIGHT DIED YOUNG AND TRAGIC FOR NOTHING. HE DESERVED SO MUCH MORE.

JUSTICE FOR KIT MARLOWE!!!! i'm SOBBING