Reviews with content warning for Child death - Hamnet

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

midwifereading's review

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Everything about this book feels real. Shakespeare is never once mentioned by name, and that's because he's not the center of this story. Instead, we find Agnes, his wife, at the center. Everything revolves around her--an intelligent, intuitive, and strong healer and mother who could not save her son.

Hamnet is a book about grief. Especially the grief of losing a child. It's very human, very rich, and very poetic. There's a dreamlike quality to it that suits the story, and it should be ready on a gloomy, rainy day.

O'Farrell paints a vivid picture of both the characters and the setting. The book has a strong sense of place and time, and the setting is almost a character itself. In addition, each character stands out as a richly colored portrait with depth and color and feeling. I found myself utterly lost in the pages.

I loved it.

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the_neeerd's review

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emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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repeatt's review

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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lizfields's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This was a super interesting novel about what could have happened to William Shakespeare’s son, but even more importantly, it’s a story about family and grief and how strongly they can be intertwined. I feel like the way the story was broken up was very back-half heavy, but I think that may have been O’Farrell’s intention, to hone in on the emotions of the Shakespeare family as they cope and transition to a new normal. I was very on and off with this book over about a month and a half, so it’s not the most engaging/engrossing book from start to end, but overall, I enjoyed this interesting read!

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somas's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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aidamaria_reads's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

An extraordinary interpretation of the life Shakespeare’s family might have led, based on the few things we now know about the playwright’s life.

Maggie O’Farrell knows her grief and how to spin it into print. The descriptions of pain and agony are almost poetic and yet so clear, so moving, that you have no trouble imagining just how the characters feel. I almost cried at times, wanted to slap certain characters straight into tomorrow had they not all been dead yet, and enjoyed the beauty of this work of historical fiction tremendously.

I can’t put my finger on why it’s not entirely a five-star read for me, but I see how the author received the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020 for this book.

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bluelilyleest's review

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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ecosy's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Hamnet leefde al enkele jaren op mijn Kobo en op één of andere manier vond ik nooit het juiste moment erin te beginnen. Nu besef ik dat dat lag aan het feit dat ik totaal foute verwachtingen had van wat voor soort roman het zou zijn. Ipv een gefictionaliseerde biografie is het een verhaal waarin emoties (en niet feiten) de rode draad vormen: liefde (voor de natuur, voor je romantische partner, voor je kinderen, je siblings), verdriet, eenzaamheid, angst, vervreemding. Het is daarenboven ook in zo'n mooie en rijke taal geschreven. Enerzijds voelde ik daardoor soms bijna fysiek mee met de personages maar anderzijds is haar schrijfstijl ook heel visueel: er zit, op het einde een beschrijving in van een uil die 's nachts over Stratford vliegt en O' Farrel beschrijft het zo zintuiglijk en accuraat dat ik het zonder veel moeite als een film voor mijn ogen zag afspelen, iets wat mij als rabiate lezer nochtans niet zo vaak overkomt. Gekoesterd, genoten maar ook wel bij gehuild.

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