Matt Haig: THE DEAD FATHERS CLUB

With The Dead Fathers Club, Matt Haig updates Shakespeare's Hamlet for the 21st century, focusing himself primarily on adding to the famous play's postmodernity and cuteness levels; he hits both with ease by replacing Hamlet with an unreliable, grade school-aged narrator. Our narrator (I'm never very good with names, although this one is on the tip of my tongue...it's not Philip, is it?) encounters the ghost of his recently-deceased father, who cries murder-most-foul and asks Philip (let's just go with Philip, shall we?), well more like demands of Philip, that he (Philip again) kill his (Philip's) uncle, who is now trying (rather successfully) to bed Philip's mum and take over the family pub. Hamlet ensues, sort of. I'm not entirely certain what to make of this book, to be honest. I enjoyed it, and made my way through it with great ease and velocity. I certainly wouldn't call it "bad" by anybody's standards (well, that's not true, some people just have terrible standards), and have since recommended it to people. Certain people. Certain people who like certain types of books. So I guess that's it: The Dead Fathers Club is worth reading if you think it's worth reading, because it is a good book. But, you might not think it's worth reading. That's up to you. Decide. Ignore my B+ grade, if so you choose.