For me, there are definite moments for books. Sometimes I'll read a review or see a book at the bookstore for months before I actually buy it. Then it might sit on a shelf at home for another few months or even years before I read it. I have a bunch of books that are waiting around for the perfect moment to be read.
The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig is one of the books that has been on my yet-to-buy list since it first came out in hardcover about a year ago. It's a retelling of Hamlet set in modern England. The book got good reviews and I had come this close to buying it a couple of times but just never did. I was really happy to find it on the new fiction audio book shelf at the library (free!). I just finished listening to it today.
OK, so maybe I should have known that it wouldn't be all that cheery considering the Hamlet angle and all but, darn it, the first couple chapters faked me out.
Eleven year old Philip's father has just died in an auto accident when, at the funeral, Philip sees his father's ghost. The ghost tells Philip that his uncle Alan is responsible for the accident - that it wasn't an accident at all but murder. In order for Philip's dad to avoid the terrors for the rest of his ghostly existence, Philip must avenge the murder.
Not so light so far, right? But the author does a great job with voice in this. Told in the first person, Philip's observations of the people around him in the months after his dad's death are funny. Maybe because he's so sincere, naive and matter of fact, it's got that whole "kids say the darnedest things" vibe. I got sucked into that note until the end. I was sort of expecting a happy ending or, at least, for Philip to come out of the experience relatively unscathed. I won't do a total spoiler but I will say that I'm glad I won't be funding that poor kid's psychoanalysis.
The boy who read the audio book was absolutely brilliant and I'm not sorry I listened but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next audio book is a little lighter. Whew.
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