Module 8: Something Rotten

Module 8

Something Rotten by Alan Gratz

Summary

This mystery is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamilton Prince is the only son of Rex Prince, who owned Elsinore Paper in Denmark Tennessee. Hamilton has come home to Denmark for his father’s funereal. His best friend Horatio has come with him to stay with him for the summer. Soon after their arrival security guards from the paper plant show Hamilton and Horatio a video that shows Hamilton’s father claiming he was being poisoned. Hamilton asks Horation to help him find who killed his father. He also is pulled into a dispute between the paper factory and Hamilton’s ex-girlfriend Olivia about the paper company’s role in polluting the river.

Citation

Gratz, A. (2007) Something Rotten. New York, NY: Dial.  

My impressions

This is a fun book that has the feel of an old school film noir style detective movie. The main character, Horatio speaks like the tough private eye. The tie in to Hamlet is interesting and anyone who knows Hamlet will enjoy the clever ways the author tied them together. There were a few places in the book where it actually mentioned Hamlet and that bothered me because if the characters are talking about Hamlet, and it exists in the world of the story then it would be very bizarre that the same circumstances are happening in this town with similar names to Hamlet. It was jarring and  it took me out of the story.

Review from Kirkus Reviews

Gratz is cornering the niche market of novels containing dissimilar topics. Here he combines Hamlet and hardboiled detective pulp. During a vacation from their academy, Horatio Wilkes accompanies his buddy Hamilton Prince to Denmark, Tenn. Just two months after his father passed away under suspicious circumstances, Hamilton’s Uncle Claude has married Hamilton’s mother. Claude now controls the Elsinore Paper Plant, a multibillion dollar company blatantly polluting the Copenhagen River. Horatio, with a knack for investigating, is determined to expose Claude’s corruption while Hamilton, dismayed by what he believes is his mother’s betrayal, drowns himself in alcohol. Ultimately, Horatio relies on environmentalist protester Olivia to reveal secrets about Elsinore. The many parallels to Hamlet are interesting, but Gratz wisely avoids producing a carbon copy of the tragedy. Horatio admirably plays the loyal friend but has a cocky voice that is too self-assured and as a teen rings unauthentic. However, this well-crafted mystery has appeal for readers familiar with both Raymond Chandler’s novels and Shakespeare’s masterpiece. (Fiction. YA)

(2007). [Review of the book Something Rotten by Alan Gratz]. Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alan-gratz/something-rotten/

Idea for use in the library

This book could go into a display of books that are based on or inspired by classic literature.