Dating Hamlet: Ophelia's Story

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Dating Hamlet is good for anyone who does not like Shakespear. The original Hamlet is an ingenious tragedy, and Fiedler makes a joke out of it. All seriousness is lost by this false Ophelia play-acting everything. Fiedler's dialect is really bad, and it distracts from the plot of the story. I gave this book two stars instead of one because I couldn't seem to put it down. I did not like some of the things Fielder added (such as Polonius not being Ophelia's father, which wasn't in the orignal Hamlet.) If you want to read a great fantasy book with a strong female role, this isn't it. If you like Shakespear, don't read this book. But if you like characters who seem a little egotistical and fakey, this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Dating Hamlet is good for anyone who does not like Shakespear. The original Hamlet is an ingenious tragedy, and Fiedler makes a joke out of it. All seriousness is lost by this false Ophelia play-acting everything. Fiedler's dialect is really bad, and it distracts from the plot of the story. I gave this book two stars instead of one because I couldn't seem to put it down. I did not like some of the things Fielder added (such as Polonius not being Ophelia's father, which wasn't in the orignal Hamlet.) If you want to read a great fantasy book with a strong female role, this isn't it. If you like Shakespear, don't read this book. But if you like characters who seem a little egotistical and fakey, this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Great read......really fun!
Review: If you love a great adventure story with tons of romance and suspense throughout, this is so the book for you! I came across it at my library and since I had read "Hamlet" I thought 'what the heck'. I got home, started reading and absolutely could not put it down! Lisa Fiedler has written an awesome book for teens and has given Ophelia, a character before thought of as weak, a spunky attitude that many girls can identify with. The ending is the best and will not let down all you romantics out there!!! Read it, I guarantee you will enjoy it!

Rating:
Summary: Dating Hamlet- My thoughts
Review: It depends what you are looking for when you read this book. If you are looking for a story mirroring Shakespeares classic tragedy in every detail, then you will be disapointed, for in this version a lot of details have been twisted.
If, however, you open this book because you want to read a story about love, treachery and friendship in the Middle Ages from the perspective of a teenage girl, thn you will find this book better suited to you.
It is best not to read this with any expectations of it becoming your favourite book of alltime, because though the storyline is mildly interesting, and the language used conforms with the set time, and occasionly uses some original text from Shakespeare's play, the narrator (Ophelia ofcourse) seems a bit unbelievable, and the happy ending too contrived to be conceivably possible.
All in all, I'd say this book is worth buying if you've got a bit of spare cash and want a book to read on a rainy day, but it's not the sort of book I would recommend to make a big fuss about getting your hands on.

Rating:
Summary: I Adore "Ophelia"
Review: Like with many people, I would think, Shakespeare often depressed me to read or study and therefore I had to suffer the loss of absorbing great literature. Ms. Fielder's book, "Dating Hamlet," most seemlessly mixes the traditional tale with a far more up-beat (yet still dramatic!), behind-the-scenes version for young children and young adults to enjoy. Whilst (addictedly) turning each page, the reader enjoys a highly entertaining tale WHILE reading true Shakespeare and learning the orginal play. By contrast, Ms. Fielder's book, is, should I say, more enjoyable? Yes. It was a good read, took me only a few hours, and for a 200 page book was quite fascinating, exciting, and taught me a great deal about a play I would have otherwise avoided.

The main character is a bold woman, and a heroine you would root for, and gives the usually-thought insane Ophelia a much stronger, more intelligent side. I thank the author for making Ophelia a better role model through this book.

I hope they make this book into a movie -- it was very entertaining and sweet and will forever more let me watch the classic play "Hamlet" with ease.

Rating:
Summary: A Mixed Review
Review: On the good side, the book draws young readers in and should prove to be a good source for comparison with the original. Ophelia's character is anything but objectified as it is in the original. Fiedler's character has spirit and intelligence that may be inspiring to young girls reading the book.

However, there are some drawbacks to this book. 1) Everything seems to go right. The happy ending is a little too contrived and might dissapoint those true Shakespeare fans out there. 2) If the book is for young readers who identify with the teenage Ophelia, is it really a good idea to have Ophelia and Hamlet consumate their relationship? I'm not sure how to see this. 3) The author seems to take great joy in her little allusions to the real text, other Shakespeare works, and to modern slang (like "Just add water"). This can be corny and a little annoying.

All in all, this is much better than "Hamlet II: Ophelia's Revenge" but not nearly as good as the original. A good read for fun.

Rating:
Summary: Depressed about Hamlet's Tragedy? How 'bout try a Happy one?
Review: Well, i wouldn't say that this was the best novel i have ever read, but i wouldn't say it was bad. True enough, there are several points that are not at all corrisponding to Shakespeare's Hamlet, but it was over all amusing, if you want a Hamlet with a happy ending where everything goes alright and they live happily ever after, well here's your choice! it was an interesting read through and through, even though the idea is not exactly original because it was based on Shakespear's work, i'd say it is a original as it CAN be. Ophelia is a character who did not have enough influence to Hamlet in shakespear's play, now? and i agree with the author's idea about the fact that if Ophelia was a bit stronger, then she might have actually prevented this tragedy from happening, and she therefore created this version of Hamlet which is not only works but flows fairly well despiet the changes to the Original Hamlet.

I think that over all this novel was fairly interesting, i wouldn't call it 100 out of 100 points, but i think, for an teenage novel targeted for young adults i think this is an overall good read, worth your time. i especially liked the ending where the author cleverly brings in Romeo and Juliet, i'm actually hoping there might be a "Dating Romeo" in one of her next works.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed Shakespeare Fan
Review: Well, I'm afraid I must sharply disagree with the review above. I found this book to be faulty in several ways, not least of all the slips of modern idiom and turn of phrase into a story intended to be written in the middle-English style. The ending was a travisty that frankly, I found insulting to one of the Bard's greatest tragedies. The idea that they were all play-acting at the emotionally stirring events of the story cheapens the power of the Hamlet drama to no end. The sly references to things that happened in others of Shakespeare's works, while slightly amusing, threw off the story (such as a woman faling in love with another disguised as a man--Love's Labours Lost), and I thought the foreshadowing of modern inventions quite tactless (someday man will harness the lightning from the sky, etc.). Also, the main character, Ophilia, was entirely re-written from the person Shakespeare made her to be. This was less a re-telling of Hamlet than it was an alternate-reality style new story. Overall, I found it very disappointing.