Rotten Review: Kliatt

Wendi is outdoing me lately with the blog posts - or as Jo would say, she's beating the pants off me. I may have more exciting news to come this week, but for now I have to share this very good review of Something Rotten from Kliatt, a bi-monthly magazine that, according to their web site, "publishes reviews of paperback books, hardcover fiction for adolescents, audiobooks, and educational software recommended for libraries and classrooms serving young adults." Kliatt is used by teachers and librarians across the U.S. and Canada to select "the latest and best materials." That's good news for me!

Here's what they had to say. Oh, and there's a well-deserved spoiler alert in there, so skip those two sentences if you're looking forward to reading the book without knowing some of the specifics . . .

Students who have slogged through Hamlet will enjoy this witty, modern retelling of the old story through Horatio's point of view. The Prince family lives in Denmark, Tennessee and runs the Elsinore Paper Company, which is polluting the river and stinking up the town. Not only that, Hamilton Prince (Horatio's best friend) has a new father. Yep! His uncle has married Hamilton's mother "Trudy," within two months of her husband's mysterious death. This book is rife with many clever comparisons, and Gratz has manipulated the story to fit a modern setting. BEGIN SPOILER ALERT: In this book, all's well that ends well. Olivia/Ophelia lives and she and Hamilton get back together, and the bad guys are caught. A few notable deaths and timely explosions do make the scene. END SPOILER ALERT: The title indicates this is the first of a series, leaving open the question of whether Horatio is going to show up at his sister Desdemona's wedding, or his sister Miranda's island hideaway; or maybe he'll appear on his sister Juliet's balcony in the next book. He has six sisters, so the question of where he is going to insert himself next, where no Horatio is in the cast, is one to ponder. This book is good fun and might make an excellent reward for those who score "A"s on their Hamlet tests.

Myrna Marler, Associate Professor of English, BYU
for Kliatt Magazine

Thanks, Myrna! May your children all have good teeth and high SAT scores. Although I would like to point out that you don't have to have read Hamlet to enjoy Something Rotten--but it's even funnier if you have! (If I do say so myself.)

Here's a link to a PDF of the review, if you're into that sort of thing.