Module 9: Mystery

March 18, 2018
Module 9: Mystery

Title:

Something Rotten by Alan Gratz

Genre: Mystery, Young Adult, Classic Retelling

Book Summary: A summer visit to his best friend’s house in Denmark, Tennessee becomes a visit of mystery and suspense. Horatio Wilkes becomes embroiled in the mystery of who killed the senior prince. Was it Hamilton’s mother, who remarried his uncle/now step-father? Was it Hamilton’s ex, Olivia, who is the most vocal person about the river pollution supposedly caused by the family’s paper plant? When Horatio is shown a video left to Hamilton by his father, in which he says he is being poisoned, Horatio starts down a path that he really didn’t want to head, he is able to piece together clues that show that Hamilton’s Uncle is the killer. 

APA Reference of Book: 

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

Impression:

While the most obvious suspect was the uncle, I still thoroughly enjoyed this modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I liked that Horatio only wanted to help Hamilton break his alcohol habit and that he chose not to drink, just because, not with an moral reasoning behind it. There was no bad language or gratuitous scenes in the book to prevent it from being read in an English class. This would be a good adaptation to pull in the most reluctant reader. It was easy to read and did make me chuckle in a few places. 

Professional Review:

Kirkus Review (September 1, 2007)
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)

REVIEW, K. (2018). SOMETHING ROTTEN by Alan Gratz | Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 18 March 2018, from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alan-gratz/something-rotten/

Library Use:

An English class could complete a compare and contrast to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. The book could also be included in a library display over literary adaptations, both written and graphic novel adaptations.

Read alikes:

The following are all modern day adaptations of Shakespeare's plays that can be read in ELA classes.

Something Wicked by Alan Gratz - 
Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney
Juliet Immortal (Juliet Immortal #1) by Stacey Jay