#The Death I Gave Him

[aberfaeth]

okay wtf is tdigh because it sounds directly up my alley

this book is full of evil and wicked spells and potions that make you go insane. it’s kissing the locked tomb on the mouth and the blood they share is fucked up gay body horror. it made me cry and gasp and laugh and gave me a stomach ache. you know the ending and the book knows you know the ending and it manages to break you anyway. there is cybersex joe biden. there is a mixed media format. there is a woman covered in blood. there is a locked room mystery. there is biology nerd shit. there’s even hamlet of hamlet

[moonlarked]

reading reviews for the death I gave him by em x. liu be like

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Queer Sci-Fi Thrillers

The Last 8 by Laura Pohl (YA) The Salvation Gambit by Emily Skrutskie The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu

[evenaturtleduck]

I don't know yet if I like The Death I Gave Him (only 40 pages in so far) but I do appreciate how every Hamlet retelling I've found has let Ophelia get out alive.

Shakespeare: time to fridge the girlfriend

Everyone else: No! Final Girl time! (Ann Leckie hands her a knife)

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: THE DEATH I GAVE HIM by Em X. Liu.

Up next! Hamlet retelling but make it science + a locked-lab mystery (which is, of course, directly up my alley!). Horatio is the lab's resident AI, and I'm so excited to see how this goes.

[le-trash-prince]

screaming screaming screaming

[aroaessidhe]

read in 2023: retellings or reimagining/sequels

Wander The Night - Midsummer Night's Dream

Hamra and the Jungle of Memories - Little Red Riding Hood

The Water Outlaws - Water Margin

My Dear Henry - Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

Our Hideous Progeny - Frankenstein

Spear - Percival and the Holy Grail

The Death I Gave Him - Hamlet

Teach The Torches to Burn - Romeo & Juliet

Everyone’s Thinking It - Midsummer Night's Dream

A Crown So Cursed - Alice in Wonderland

Angels Before Man - The Bible

The Weight of Blood - Carrie

[wormwoodandhoney]

hey fellow lovers of genre swaps! em x liu has a queer hamlet retelling coming out- locked room sci fi thriller. check out the death i gave him, in september.

[kazz-brekker]

the death i gave him was so valid for being giving the ophelia character a gun

[ignitesthestxrs]

nails this week in honour of @ emdashliu's debut novel THE DEATH I GAVE HIM, a queer sci fi retelling of Hamlet, available now 💚🩷💚

[aberfaeth]

really its like if all those venom fics about the venom jacking him off were 10x more insane bc the venom is also a building that grew up with eddie brock and eddie brock’s father has just been murdered and additionally. ophelia is there

[moonlarked]

em x liu set out on a mission to hurt me personally i think

[therealfailwhale]

Horatio finally understands the horror of your body being only a body, a fleshy, visceral thing that you are made up of, this fatigued puppet, this breaking vessel.

The Death I Gave Him by Em X Liu comes out later this year and you bet your fucking boots I’m gonna scream about it even more.

[no-where-new-hero]

Local Tumblr Book Fiend Shocked That Highly Anticipated Novel Actually Lives Up To Expectations And Doesn’t Make Them Want To Hurl the Book Across the Room

[andromedaexists]

The Death I Gave Him || Em X. Liu

★★★★★

TW: SELF HARM (ON PAGE, WARNED), SUICIDAL IDEATION, SUICIDE (PAST, MENTIONED), MAJOR + SIDE CHARACTER DEATH

I feel like I need to mention how this book was recommended to me

Now that we know this very relevant background: The Death I Gave Him is one of the most mind meltingly fucked up thing I've read in a while, and I've gotten into erotic horror as of late

It is a queer and sci-fi retelling of hamlet that managed to be even more fucked up than the original, something I didn't think possible. Did it hit the sci-fi mark? Yes absolutely as soon as Horatio was introduced that was a yes. Is it queer? 100% it is because idk how else to describe what happens with Hayden and Horatio. Is it Hamlet??? Absolutely it is Hamlet may not be present by name but good fucking lord is the story interwoven into the very fabric of this book.

This book is also very unique in it's presentation, which I fucking love omg. It starts with a prologue that's less of a prologue and more of an academic introduction into the rest of the book. You see, this book and the recounting of what happened that night in Elsinore Labs is a recreation by a student a hundred years later based on what remaining evidence they have of the events. This is really fucking cool!!! Please give me more books like this!!! Learning about the student and their motivations through footnotes in the book is so fucking awesome!! Seeing where they had evidence for what happened versus where they created a fictional account based on personality, probability, and remaining dialog…. Stunning. Truly.

I also quite loved the interspersing of mediums in this book. We have traditional fictionalized prose mixed in with excerpts from Felicia's article after the events mixed in with readings from Horatio's systems and message logs from Felicia's pager!

It's all just so brilliant.

I'm making the call here to add the spoiler warning because I want to get into the characters a bit, so just be warned [SPOILERS AHEAD]

So, as per Hamlet, the first thing to happen is the death of the King. This time, our King is Dr. Graham Lichfield. A renowned scientist and researcher working on the Sisyphus Formula.

His son is Hamlet, of course. He's known as Hayden in this book and we get to see his descent into madness mostly through other people's (or other AI's) eyes. He is a pathetic man with no spine, just the way Hamlet should be.

Hayden's Uncle is Charles, of course. He didn't work on research with Graham and Hayden, but he does run the labs more or less.

Then we have the security guard: Rasmussen. I think he's supposed to be a stand in for Rosencrantz & Gildenstern, but honestly I read Hamlet back in high school and though I watch it at least once a year (David Tennant is the best Hamlet, I will die on this hill), I don't really ever remember Rosencrantz & Gildenstern. So this is just an educated guess.

From here, we have the Xia's. Felicia Xia and her father, Paul Xia. They are security and they are our Ophelia and Polonius. The brother exists as well in Arthur Xia, however he is not physically in the building and does not show up until literally the last chapter.

That leaves one. Horatio. Also knows as the Elsinore Labs Operating System. He is the AI of the building that has slowly gained consciousness over Hayden's life. He is also intrinsically linked to Hayden after the man turns on his NeuralLink so we know a lot about what's going on in Hayden's head because that's where Horatio resides.

Of course another key player in Hamlet was his mother, and while she is present as a character, she is not physically in the building.

And why do I keep saying physically in the building? Well that's because after the death of Graham; Hayden, Charles, Rasmussen, Paul and Felicia Xia, and Horatio are locked into Elsinore Labs. That's right, this is a locked door thriller.

This book is everything to me, like I am genuinely just so…. god I can't even think of the words for it and I am writing this the day after I finished it!!!

I was on the edge of my seat the entire way through the book, especially when we get lines like these:

It was Hayden Lichfield who I remembered. Not because he was brilliant (though he was), but because he was afraid.

Hayden Lichfield was afraid of death, because he was afraid of failure, and he spent his whole life trying to reverse it.

Hayden was not like me, but he was afraid of the same things that I was, and his fear changed the world.

What we understand of Horatio is inextricably entangled in what we understand of Hayden.

I would haunt you very cautiously. Leave some vague messages alluding to my existential dread in your shower every morning. Nothing special.

The Sisyphus Formula wasn't enough. It was never enough.

Do you want to live because you want to live, or because you're afraid to die?

Then be afraid. I will take you afraid and alive over anything else.

He splits himself open, willing or not, digs fingers into himself, thinks maybe the edges of death are pressing in at the edges, maybe finally he will find repentance here at the end of all things.

Just because you've been a jackass doesn't mean you've messed everything up irrevocably. You'll have good days and shit days and eventually there'll just be days, you know?

I am feral for this book, I am foaming at the mouth. I need to be buried with this book when I die. This book is intrinsically a part of who I am not in the same way that The Teras Trials and Bloom are. It speaks to something in my very soul

Anyways! I think that's really all I can say on this book without writing a whole ass analysis of it (which I would gladly do if people wanted that), so I will leave it here!