Hello everybody, my name is Cara, and today I am here to do the Hamlet Book Tag.
This tag was created by Allie from alliembooks and she was also the one who tagged me, so
I will link her original video down below.
She is so wonderful, you guys should definitely check her out.
Now as you guys know: I absolutely love Shakespeare, and as you may NOT know, Hamlet is actually
tied for my favorite Shakespeare play.
So I was SO excited when Allie tagged me in this and let's get into the questions.
Question #1 is Hamlet: Name a book with an unlikable main character.
And I'm going with Asking For It by Louise O'Neill.
Now as I mentioned in the wrap up when I talked about this book, I think the fact that the
main character is so unlikable is an intrinsic part of the book and the story and what makes
it so powerful.
This book follows our main character Emma O'Donovan who is kind of the classic beautiful
party girl, everyone loves her, everyone wants to be her and to be her friend.
And then one night she turns up on her parents' doorstep and she is bleeding and broken, and
she has been horribly raped during the previous night's party and events.
And this book really follows the aftermath of that event and basically how her sexual assault
becomes this media sensation and people all over the world are taking sides and kind of
weighing in on whether or not Emma deserved what she--what she got.
And that's why I think it's so important that Emma is such a--an incredibly unlikable protagonist,
because like she's--she's mean to people, she's cruel, she can be so unfeeling to people
who care about her.
She has so many character flaws, and none of that means that she deserves what happened
to her, like I think that's such an important part of this book; I think Louise O'Neill
did that very deliberately when she was creating Emma's character.
And I think that this whole book is just such a--a powerful argument for the fact that nobody
deserves that kind of thing to happen to them.
Question #2 is Gertrude: Name a book with a living parent or parents.
This is actually really difficult in a lot of fiction but I'm going with Red Leaves by
Sita Brahmachari.
This is a book about 3 different children and how their lives sort of interconnect through
the way they find this wood.
And family is an incredibly important part of this book.
One of our main characters, Zak, is biracial and his relationship with his father and mother
is very complicated.
Because for one thing his mother is a warzone reporter, and he never knows if the last time
he sees her is gonna be the last time he EVER sees her.
And there's just--there's so much going on with his family life and his--his relationship
with his parents.
But I think they are such strong characters and strong influences, even Zak's mother,
who is like for the most part kind of an offpage character.
You get such a feeling for who she is and how Zak relates to her, and then another thing
about this book that I really love is one of our main characters Aisha, she lives with
a foster family, a foster mother.
And her foster mother loves her so much, like, and I think this is such a powerful argument
for the fact that adopted families and found families are true families, you know?
Like Aisha is just as much this woman's daughter as anybody's birth mother.
And I think that that is such an important thing to read in books, and especially for
books with younger characters you know so kids can kind of...see that relationship and
see it celebrated rather than feeling like kind of a second place, almost, to living
with your birth parents.
And this is just such a fantastic book and I highly recommend it.
Question #3 is Claudius: Name a book with an unlikely villain.
My answer for this one is Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi.
And I picked this book because the villain of this story in my opinion is actually a
place, like it's the entire world of Furthermore which is sort of this...it's like dark whimsy
almost?
It's like this very magical, beautiful, strange, and wonderful world...but, the dark side of
that.
And I think Tahereh Mafi does such a great job kind of building that world and we get
to see these characters like interact with it and try to survive, and even though there
are characters along the way who you're kind of trying to figure out are they on our main
characters' sides or are they--are they the villains, you know are they against them?
I really feel like the strongest antagonist in this book is the entire world of Furthermore
itself, and I think that's so cool.
Question #4 is King Hamlet: Name a book that has a ghost/apparition, or any character from
beyond the grave.
And my answer for this one is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
And the title character of this novel, Rebecca, she is...like your whole sense of who she
is, is through other people's memories and other people's like dialogue about her.
And I think that Daphne du Maurier did such an incredible job crafting a character like
second-hand like that, because she feels like such a real presence in the story, she absolutely
like permeates the entire book, and she at this point has died like, she's not alive
for any of the events of the book but you definitely feel like she's a strong element
in the story and she's definitely a fully-realized character.
And I think that's so impressive that du Maurier was able to do that with somebody who you
never--you never really see her.
Question #5 is Ophelia: Name a book with a female character who deserved better.
And oh my God, you guys; my favorite question, I--I have some thoughts on this topic!
And the answer I went with is from The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
And I am talking about Isobel.
If you guys have read this book, do you remember Isobel?
I don't blame you if you don't, because frankly even the author seemed to kind of not think
she was important.
But Isobel is sort of set up as like the romantic false lead for Marco?
Because you know from the back of the book that Marco and Celia are going to fall in
love, that like that's gonna be an important thing in the book.
So when Isobel and Marco start this relationship, you know it's gonna end badly, in one way
or another.
But I really really loved all of the scenes with Isobel!
Like from her introduction to the last time we see her in the book, it's like every time
she's on the page, I wanted to know more about her.
I wish she had a bigger role in this book, I just think she's so interesting and she's
so underrated like I think her--her strength is so underappreciated by the characters in
this book.
Like she's so smart and she's really--she's doing the best she can to kind of hold these
situations together, to kind of like make the best of things, and nobody appreciates
her for that.
I mean, I guess sometimes they're actually unaware of all that she's doing to help them,
but I just...I love Isobel so much and I just wish that we had gotten more of her or that
she had gotten--like that she had---she really did deserve better, like I just wish that
she had gotten...something.
Something.
Question #6 is Laertes: Name a book with a strong sibling relationship.
And I'm actually going with Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George.
Now if you guys saw my [next-to-last] wrap up, I'll link that down below in case you
haven't yet, but I...I had a lot of mixed feelings about this one, but one of the things
that I did really love were the characterizations in general, and especially the relationship
between our main character and her oldest brother.
But the lass and her brother Hans Peter have just such a wonderful sibling relationship
and friendship, and he really--he makes to take care of her, especially because her mother
especially doesn't really take care of her, or doesn't care about her very much at all.
And just their relationship is just such a highlight of this book.
I really believed their kind of teasing way they talked to each other but also this really
deep love they have for each other, and that is something that I really enjoyed about this
book even if some of the other elements were not my favorite.
#7 is Polonius: Name a book with a controlling father or father figure.
And I'm going with The Young Elites trilogy by Marie Lu.
Now in this book Adelina's father is not only controlling, he is actually abusive, so definitely
a trigger warning for that for this book.
Seeing her like kinda come into her own strength and power and really like fight back and teach
him a lesson is just such--such a good part of this book.
And I think that the fact that this whole series--this trilogy is kind of marketed and
written as kind of a villain origin story, it's so important at the beginning of this
story to see why Adelina is making the choices she does, like even when she's doing bad things
if you as the reader can understand or empathize with why she's doing them, I think that really
helps kind of buy into this whole like villain protagonist thing and the fact that one of
the characters she does this to is her horrible abusive father, I think that's a big component
of why I enjoyed this novel, I know it's kind of polarizing, some people really don't like
Adelina, I find her a really likeable unlikeable character, especially in the first and third
book.
So definitely recommend this series.
#7 is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Name a book with a strong friendship.
And my answer for this one is Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George; just realized I have
2 Jessica Day George books in this tag, but that's fine!
And this is actually a trilogy I still have to read the third book but I'm really enjoying
these so far.
And the friendship I'm talking about is between our main character Creel and her best friend
Marta.
And in both the first book and the second book, I just--I love the way that their relationship
is written and just the way they interact with each other, the fact that they support
each other and they tease each other and they also kinda pull each other back from making
bad choices, 'cause you know, that's one of the important things that friends should do!
And I just--I just love all of their interactions so much.
The female friendships in these books are just amazing; they're so well-done and even
though not every female character is a good person, like is someone that you want to see
succeed in these books, it's still--like I think there's still so much evidence of girls
helping each other and supporting each other and getting along.
And Creel and Marta are just such a good example of that.
And they're not the only ones, there are other female friendships in this book as well.
And finally, Question #9 is Horatio: Name a book where you changed your opinion about
a character or the book itself.
And this is actually something I talked about recently, and that is Raisa from the Seven
Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima.
This is the second book, The Exiled Queen, and this is really when I started to change
my perspective on Raisa as a character, because...oh my gosh.
This girl is just--she--she's so strong and brilliant and wonderful.
I just love her so much, I think that all of her decisions I can see why she makes them
and that is such an important thing for me with characters, I know for a lot of people.
Because even if like you want--you want your characters to have flaws, but you don't want
them to make stupid decisions just--just to like mix up the plot I guess?
And Raisa never does that, like she's doing the best she can in an incredibly stressful
situation.
She's like coming into her own as a leader and just--everything she does, like every
conversation she has with people...I just like want to stand up and cheer for her because
everything she says is just like, so good?!
And I was talking to Aoife from Fred Weasley Died Laughing because she really loves this
series, and Aoife mentioned one of the scenes--one of the scenes in the third book where she
looks around and she's like "Hey, uh, why aren't there any women on my council?"
And everybody's kind of like "um...*vague shrug noises* I don't know, you know that's
just not how things are, blah blah blah" and she's like "Yeah well we're gonna change that
so uh, next time I expect more women."
Like, "Bye.
Raisa out!"
*contemplates Raisa's amazingness in silence for a moment* It's, it's just everything.
I love her.
If you guys have not started this series, it's--it's so good.
Even if you don't like her in the first book, because I really thought she was spoiled and
just really frustrating and kind of a cookie-cutter standard like princess trope?
And she's so not, she get so much better, she grows so much, and like...I could, I could
gush about her all day, but...Raisa, man!
Okay everybody, so that was the Hamlet Book Tag.
Thank you again Allie so much for tagging me and for creating such a wonderful Shakespeare-themed
tag; makes my heart so happy!
I'm going to tag Tricia from TellHerAStory and Amy from Blonde and Bookish because they
are 2 of my--my fellow Shakespeare gals, and of course anybody else who sees this video
and who wants to do it, you don't have to be a Hamlet expert to do this tag.
You don't even have to be like a Shakespeare fan to do this tag, the questions are just
really fun and interesting.
And if in the future that kind of leads you to dip your toe into Shakespeare, and to maybe
try some of his plays, then of course that's all the better, but it's really not a prerequisite,
I promise, you guys.
Thank you guys so much for watching, I will see you soon with another video, and I hope
you love the next book you read.
Bye!
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