The Dead Fathers Club (2006)

Written partially in a stream-of-consciousness style, partly just like a young teen might think-write (and without apostrophes or quotation marks), this is a modern-day version of Hamlet. It is not identical to Shakespeare's play, but certainly based on the play and contains many obvious and subtle references (former: protagonist's father has died and the ghost visits his son; latter: names like the fish, Gertie after Gertrude in the play). The style of writing is not unlike The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime but less on the spectrum. It is quirky but it works really well. Clearly it was carefully crafted, and the stress, horror, conflict of the characters shines through with showing, not telling. Very emotional and clever. It has its own ending and leaves much of the interpreting to the reader. Brilliant. ( )