The court ladies, with their bright plumage and twittering voices, were like so many birds in a gilded cage. I was the plain robin among them, longing for freedom and unable to sing for the bars around me.

I am a person who hates Shakespeare and loves Shakespeare. The original text is just impossible for me, I struggle with the Old English and I don't have the patience for footnotes. I also do not enjoy the play format - it wasn't written to be read but to be seen and heard. That was the key to Shakespeare for me. It was Leonardo DiCaprio who taught me to love Romeo & Juliet, Heath Ledger for The Taming of the Shrew and Daisy Ridley who unlocked Hamlet for me. Is it "authentic"? No. And I'm okay with that.
I saw this sitting on a shelf in my local used bookstore and put it in my cart after reading a page or three. It's that kind of easily digested "King James lite" dialogue that still sounds formal but you don't trip over any of the words. I really enjoyed this retelling. Obviously it is expanded and Ophelia is the main character and not a minor character, as in Hamlet. Several things happen in the book that don't happen in the play, most notably the HEA - which I personally enjoyed very much. Very appropriate for Valentine's week reads. I'll be looking for more by Klein. ( )

teen/adult fiction. Maybe there could be more drama, or more witty banter? For all the things that happen to O and Ham, you would think it wouldn't read so much like a plain old historical fiction book--sort of like if Shakespeare wrote a longer story in prose... without all of the jokes. I read up to page 83 or 85 or so and it was perfectly OK, but I didn't see much point in continuing when there are so many other things out there to read instead. ( )

This book disappointed me so much because it started so good. Heart-pounding good. The writing was stunning, lyrical. It took Shakespeare's voice and translated it into something modern, something raw and real. The writing was s t u n n i n g...

Well listen here friends, after the first half of the book it turned terrible. Like no plot, characters were just abandoned and it was a miserable time. I'm not sure how Hamlet works since I've never read it, and don't know if maybe that's part of the plot, but this sure wasn't good.

It gave me something to read on the airplane, but other than that, I really wouldn't read again or recommend. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this especially since in high school I loved the play Hamlet. Klein fills in all the holes that could never be filled in a play. Her story seemed believable and pieced together the story of Ophelia and Hamlet so well I pretty much thought I was reading Shakespeare. The only thing keeping me from giving this book 5 stars is the last part of the book got really boring for me. I wasn't interested in that part of Ophelia's life and felt it wasn't really needed. If the whole part 3 was chopped and the epilogue was bumped up, I would have totally been head over heels for this book. I would recommend this book for anyone who loves Shakespeare and who maybe wants to know more about Ophelia. I also loved the twists the story had and the ending. I found myself surprised who I wanted Ophelia to be with. ( )

Ophelia by Lisa Klein is a YA retelling of Hamlet and is told in the voice of Ophelia. The original storyline has been changed in order to accommodate this plot, so in this version Ophelia doesn’t go insane nor does she die but instead fakes her death and leaves Denmark for the refuge of a convent in France.

Ophelia takes us through her life from her early childhood as a tomboy to her days in Elsinore Castle as an attendant to Queen Gertrude and she describes how her childhood friendship becomes an attraction turning into eventual love for Prince Hamlet. In this book they marry in secret, but his madness, brought on by the death of his father, ends their relationship and Hamlet turns his back on Ophelia, directly her to take herself off to a nunnery. Luckily Horatio, who cares very deeply for Ophelia, helps her escape Denmark when she is both in danger from the king and finds she is going to have Hamlet’s child. She has the child in secret, and realizes that it was Horatio who was the better man all the time.

An interesting story but unfortunately the author succumbed to one of my pet peeves in historical fiction, that of giving her lead female character modern sensibilities which made the story feel very false to me. Many of the characters were poorly defined, perhaps the worst one was Hamlet who came across very one dimensional. Ultimately this effort fell short of the mark, and as much as I realize that I am not the target audience for this book, putting a happy ending on a story that was meant to be a tragedy just felt wrong. ( )