A review by canonicallychaotic
The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye
5.0
Suffering
something terrible is happening in new york city. ben dane’s father is dead and his mother has married his uncle. he’s enlisted the help of his best friend horatio to help investigate the death, but he and horatio haven’t even seen each other in a year. somewhere else in the city, his ex-fiancée, lia, is creating magical bouquets under the guidance of three mysterious women.
(to quote taylor swift: i think i’ve seen this film before. and i didn’t like the ending.)
the king of infinite space is a retelling of shakespeare’s tragedy of hamlet. but in the way you may have dreamed about while you read it in your high school english classes—let’s give the women actual agency, and make it canonically queer.
i studied hamlet in school, and i would consider it my favorite shakespeare play (although i don’t know it as well as i used to). i loved being able to read this and make connections. to put pieces together, and feel like a scholar. to hear lines that sounded just slightly familiar, and felt like a knowing look shared between friends across a room.
but for the familiarity of the story of hamlet, here i was still absolutely blown away by every choice made by faye. moments left me saying “no, she wouldn’t.” and screaming and crying over interpretative choices made.
it has easily become a new favorite. a book that left me in full sobs. a story of grief—for love lost and love just out of reach. for your parents and for your children. for the life you could have had, and the life you thought you did. a story of magic. a story of fate and time and the multiverse. a story that makes you think—maybe this time.
i talk a lot about rereading books. i love the familiarity of it. but sometimes i reread books because they beg to be reread. they have big reveals that change everything. reveals that say: look back. you should have seen this coming all along. how could you have not seen it?
before even this, i knew early on listening to king of infinite space on audiobook that this would be a book I would want to return to because of the magnetic and gorgeous prose. my fingers itch to highlight words i remember hearing. and in ben’s pov, there are stylistic fonts that show his thought processes. while i listened to the audio, i would often times open the book to flip through just to see how it was written. sometime soon i will give king of infinite space the full reread it deserves.
(and then—maybe this time.)
cw: death, suicide attempt and ideation, drug use and abuse, alcoholism, knife and gun violence, arson
“time. time will fuck with you endlessly until you’re compost. you can’t hide from it. there’s no hiding from anything, and especially not endings.”
something terrible is happening in new york city. ben dane’s father is dead and his mother has married his uncle. he’s enlisted the help of his best friend horatio to help investigate the death, but he and horatio haven’t even seen each other in a year. somewhere else in the city, his ex-fiancée, lia, is creating magical bouquets under the guidance of three mysterious women.
(to quote taylor swift: i think i’ve seen this film before. and i didn’t like the ending.)
the king of infinite space is a retelling of shakespeare’s tragedy of hamlet. but in the way you may have dreamed about while you read it in your high school english classes—let’s give the women actual agency, and make it canonically queer.
i studied hamlet in school, and i would consider it my favorite shakespeare play (although i don’t know it as well as i used to). i loved being able to read this and make connections. to put pieces together, and feel like a scholar. to hear lines that sounded just slightly familiar, and felt like a knowing look shared between friends across a room.
but for the familiarity of the story of hamlet, here i was still absolutely blown away by every choice made by faye. moments left me saying “no, she wouldn’t.” and screaming and crying over interpretative choices made.
it has easily become a new favorite. a book that left me in full sobs. a story of grief—for love lost and love just out of reach. for your parents and for your children. for the life you could have had, and the life you thought you did. a story of magic. a story of fate and time and the multiverse. a story that makes you think—maybe this time.
i talk a lot about rereading books. i love the familiarity of it. but sometimes i reread books because they beg to be reread. they have big reveals that change everything. reveals that say: look back. you should have seen this coming all along. how could you have not seen it?
before even this, i knew early on listening to king of infinite space on audiobook that this would be a book I would want to return to because of the magnetic and gorgeous prose. my fingers itch to highlight words i remember hearing. and in ben’s pov, there are stylistic fonts that show his thought processes. while i listened to the audio, i would often times open the book to flip through just to see how it was written. sometime soon i will give king of infinite space the full reread it deserves.
(and then—maybe this time.)
cw: death, suicide attempt and ideation, drug use and abuse, alcoholism, knife and gun violence, arson