"To Be or Not To Be" is More Than a Question - It's an Adventure!

Do you remember the "choose-your-own-adventure" books from childhood?? Even though I was a little older than the marketed reader for those books, I still found them to be completely fun. Being able to re-read a book and come up with a new story and ending each time - very clever. 

I've mentioned in the past my complete love of Shakespeare! But I never mentioned my complete love of what I think is his best play: Hamlet!  The story of the ill-fated Danish prince is magical for me. Therefore, what happens when you combine a choose-your-own-adventure story with The Tragedy of Hamlet?  You get To Be or Not To Be by Ryan North.

Synopsis: "William Shakespeare’s Hamlet has finally been restored to its original second-person non-linear branching narrative format. I know! What took so long, am I right?

Now it’s up to YOU to decide what happens next. Play as Hamlet and revenge your father’s death. Play as Ophelia and make scientific discoveries. Play as King Hamlet, Sr. and die on the first page!

This deluxe edition features insanely beautiful illustrations for every ending, a book-within-a-book, and lots of ways to stab dudes.

To be or not to be: that is the adventure!" (from the back cover)

Review: Yesterday, a colleague and friend mentioned this book to me and I ran home immediately to download it to my Kindle and I cannot be happier that I did. Web cartoonist, Ryan North's illustrated adventure of the Bard's Hamlet is sheer genius! I adore reading traditional Shakespeare as much as any other English lit major/teacher/nerd does, but this adventure book takes all the genius of Hamlet and multiplies it by a thousand.  The novel starts with the following line:

"Did you know that Shakespeare has completely plagiarized Hamlet from To Be or Not To Be? True Story."  Hilarious!  

Instead of some lame re-writing of Hamlet or a boring reinterpretation of new characters, Ryan North gives you a 700 page do-what-you-will adventure filled with action, sex, murder, chess, pirates, and a narrator that is just judgmental enough to tie the whole thing together perfectly. This book is romantic, epic, and at times self-aware, and allows you to experience Hamlet, Ghost King Hamlet, and Ophelia in ways that stretch the imagination almost to the breaking point. Technically, I have not completed the book yet. (Can one ever truly complete a chooseable-path-adventure book? Probably not, when it has over 3 quadrillion possible paths.) But I have already read large swaths of it, and it does not go wrong. 

Here's the incredible thing about this book - there is a 1-3 month wait for the printed book version, which I have ordered. I don't usually purchase many Kindle books (preferring to have a printed version in my hands), but I needed to get this book as soon as I heard about it. There was no way I was going to wait 1-3 months to experience this adventure. Sadly, the Kindle version doesn't have the illustrations, but that does not detract one iota from this novel. I am completely enchanted and give the book my highest recommendation.

Rating: 10 out of 5 stars  :-)

Fun fact about this book: The author, Ryan North, funded and self-published this book through Kickstarter.  It was the fastest and largest fundraiser in the history of Kickstarter. The book received over 15,000 backers and North raised over $580,000 - the initial goal was $20,000. Slate magazine has a great article about this unprecedented phenom.

My favorite Hamlet - Kenneth Branagh!