Would be great paired with Hamlet in the HS classroom. ( )

The Dead Father's Club is passable, but is not a particularly memorable retelling of Hamlet.

Haig moves the plot elements of Hamlet to a modern British setting, with the part of Hamlet played by a confused 11 year old boy whose dad has just died in a car accident. The conflict is set up to be read on two levels- the classic level where Phillip's dad goads him on to seek revenge on his Uncle Alan and on another level where perhaps Phillip is making this all up in order to deal with the tumultuous changes in his life.

The novel starts out well humanizing and modernizing the characters, but I feel like it doesn't earn or realistically portray Phillip's later drastic actions. They feel obligatory (to follow Hamlet) rather than naturally flowing from character development. Furthermore, the realistic portrayal of how these actions impact the real world is somewhat glossed over, especially in regards to Leah (fill-in for Ophelia), I felt. Ultimately, I find this attempt to be true to two sources (the original and to modern-day reality) ended up watering down the emotional depths of both- and giving poor resolution to both interpretations of the central conflict. ( )

The Dead Fathers Club is a modern-day adaptation of Hamlet. Phillip Noble, the 11-year old narrator, has just lost his father to a car accident, and now sees him as a ghost. His father accuses Phillip's Uncle Alan for murdering him and trying to now control Phillip and his mother. His father tells Phillip that the only way he can rest in peace is if Phillip gets revenge for his father. Thus begins Phillip's journey to discover the truth about his uncle and attempt to get revenge for his father before his uncle kills him and/or his mother.

The book is written as if it was by an 11-year old with poor punctuation, repeated run-on sentences, and observations of an adult world through the eyes of one so young. While that style is not my favorite, Haig did a decent job. The book itself leaves you guessing until the end, and beyond, since there is little resolution. While written as though it was by an 11-year old, I would say the novel is more suited for 13-14 year olds given language and some sexuality that parents of children 10 and under may not approve of. My rating for the book stems from the book just not being my cup of tea in terms of style as well as the very open ending. Overall I'd recommend it as a bit of light summer reading. ( )

My friend who runs ChicksDigBooks.com told me that this book was awesome and also had ghosts in it like my novel. And it did! And the thing about the ghosts here is that they are tricky. Right now the ghost in my novel is very earnest....but what if the ghost was tricky? That would be interesting.... ( )

This book contains no commas, apostrophes or quotation marks, a pointless liteary gimmick that quickly grows old. I'd read some favorable reviews and began with high hopes, but they were crushed flat as I progressed through the story. The Dead Fathers Club is othing but a palid, pretentious take on an age-old classic. It wasn't even funny. ( )