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25th out of 52 books
—
45 voters
Something Rotten (Horatio Wilkes Mysteries #1)
Something is rotten in Denmark, Tennessee, and it is not just the polluted Copenhagen River. Hamilton Prince?s father has been murdered, according to a hidden video message. Horatio Wilkes, Hamilton?s best friend, is visiting the Prince mansion when the video turns up. The guys need to find the killer before he strikes again. But it won?t be easy. Suspects are plentiful. O...more
Hardcover, 208 pages
Published
October 18th 2007
by Dial
(first published January 1st 2007)
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Jan 13, 2008
Jennifer
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
someone who was going to buy the Cliffnotes to Hamlet
Recommended to Jennifer by:
Powell's Daily Dose
Shelves:
read-young-adult
Something's rotten in Denmark. Denmark, Tennessee, that is. As a fan of both Raymond Chandler and Shakespeare, the author Alan Gratz has attempted to blend the two in a sort of "Pulp Shakespeare" or "Hardboiled Hamlet" (this according to the back flap of the book jacket.) The story is told from the point of view of Horatio Wilkes, who has come to spend some vacation time with his best friend, Hamilton Prince. Hamilton is heir to the Elsinore Paper Plant fortune (said "plant" also the source of t...more
In this hard-boiled teen retelling of Hamlet, Horatio Wilkes spends a summer in the small-town home of his buddy Hamilton Prince. The Prince family runs a paper plant which is currently undergoing scrutiny for pollution. On top of that controversy, Hamilton's father has just passed away, and his mother just married her dead husband's brother. When Hamilton gets a video from his dead father claiming that he'd been poisoned, Horatio promises to root out the murderer. Something is rotten in the tow...more
This book was fun to read, even though it was written for an audience much younger than me. I enjoyed Mr. Gratz's interpretation of Hamlet's character in a modern context, although that trend is increasingly overexploited and decreasingly original. I thought using Horatio's character as the narrator was an interesting touch, especially since he was recycled into the next installment of the series, "Something Wicked," in the same context. It was amusing seeing Gratz translate the events of "Hamle...more
Something Rotten
by
Alan Gratz
Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark – namely the Copenhagen River which is so polluted that it smells. This is the first of many clever tie-ins to Shakespeare in this loose contemporary retelling of Hamlet. If you’re not a Shakespeare fan, don’t worry, the story carries itself.
This charming, witty novel opens with the death (perhaps murder) of Rex Prince head of the Elsinore Paper Plant. Hamilton Prince, the heir apparent to the Prince family fortune, has gone...more
by
Alan Gratz
Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark – namely the Copenhagen River which is so polluted that it smells. This is the first of many clever tie-ins to Shakespeare in this loose contemporary retelling of Hamlet. If you’re not a Shakespeare fan, don’t worry, the story carries itself.
This charming, witty novel opens with the death (perhaps murder) of Rex Prince head of the Elsinore Paper Plant. Hamilton Prince, the heir apparent to the Prince family fortune, has gone...more
Oct 04, 2009
Mary
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
high-school-books,
middle-school-books
Denmark, TN, smells awful from the toxic discharge of the Elsinore Paper Plant. Hamilton Prince (called Rex), who recently died always maintained that it couldn't be cleaned up. His brother Claude, who has married the grieving widow, Trudy, and now is running the plant, is also not interested in cleaning it up. When Horatio Wilkes, a good friend of Hamilton Prince, Jr. arrives at the Princes mansion in Denmark, the first person they see is Olivia - a one-time girlfriend of Hamilton's - protestin...more
This was such an interesting book. For ingenuity and creativity in retelling the Hamlet story, I give him 5 stars. For execution of the language, only 2 stars. It really should have fewer stars, but I'm such a sucker for Shakespeare retellings, I rounded up for the plot.
I LOVED the clever modern adaptation where Rex Prince is the new king of the Elsinor Paper Company in Denmark, Tennessee, after the sudden death of his brother and recent marriage to his brother's wife. Hamilton Prince sees his f...more
I LOVED the clever modern adaptation where Rex Prince is the new king of the Elsinor Paper Company in Denmark, Tennessee, after the sudden death of his brother and recent marriage to his brother's wife. Hamilton Prince sees his f...more
Jan 28, 2013
Sally Kruger
added it
Looking for a good mystery? How about one with a quirky resemblance to Shakespeare's Hamlet? SOMETHING ROTTEN is just the ticket!
The setting is Denmark, Tennessee. Hamilton Prince's father has died under mysterious circumstances. Hamilton's mother doesn't waste any time getting married to her dead husband's brother and even less time making sure he becomes her partner in the family paper mill business.
Enter Hamilton and his friend from boarding school, Horatio Wilkes. The two are all set to spe...more
The setting is Denmark, Tennessee. Hamilton Prince's father has died under mysterious circumstances. Hamilton's mother doesn't waste any time getting married to her dead husband's brother and even less time making sure he becomes her partner in the family paper mill business.
Enter Hamilton and his friend from boarding school, Horatio Wilkes. The two are all set to spe...more
I read this on the advice of a patron (meaning I didn't actually know what it was about), and, considering how common Shakespearean quotes are as titles, I didn't realize until I started reading that it was a modern retelling of Hamlet. Ordinarily, I'm not really excited about that kind of thing, and the first chapter didn't change my mind much, but once Gratz gets all the silly parallels to Shakespeare out of the way (it's Denmark . . . Tennessee! It's the Elsinore . . . Paper Company!), he get...more
A surprisingly faithful adaptation of Hamlet as a teen adventure/mystery novel where Horatio Wilkes helps his trust-fund prep-schoolmate Hamilton Prince investigate the possible murder of his father. I haven't seen the film The Bad Sleep Well, that previously mixed noir and Hamlet, but this book is well aware of the history of adaptations of the text, with nods to both Stoppard and Strange Brew. A few of the transmogrifications of characters surprised me, as -- initially -- did the author's relu...more
I had heard of this book earlier this summer and have been looking forward to reading it. It's a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet set as a murder mystery and I must say I found it more appealing in its concept than in its execution.
Horatio Wilkes spends his summer at the home of Hamilton Prince, a school friend who has been deeply shaken by the unexpected death of his father and his mother's quick remarriage to his uncle. Hamilton's family owns the Elsinore Paper mill which is the ma...more
Horatio Wilkes spends his summer at the home of Hamilton Prince, a school friend who has been deeply shaken by the unexpected death of his father and his mother's quick remarriage to his uncle. Hamilton's family owns the Elsinore Paper mill which is the ma...more
I loved this book. Alan Gratz is a genius. I is known among my friends that I am a Hamlet junkie, and I am addicted to reading variations of the classic Shakespeare tale, good or bad. Fortunately enough, this book was on the good side of the spectrum. No matter what, even though I know it doesn't work out with them usually, I am 100% Team HamletxOphelia. I don't like Horatio. I like him as a person, but not for Ophelia. So going into this, I was worried that they'd end up together, but Senior Gr...more
A fun, quick read that made me want to pick up both Hamlet (which I had finished and forgotten in high school) and Infinite Jest again(which I had abandoned due to work ethic). I love retellings, fan-fictions, and pastiches like this. It is fun to find the clever ways in which an author can reinvent and borrow themes.
I was disappointed with the fairy-tale ending and cheesy town-hall hearing/courtroom trial. It felt like the author was trying to end it without too many loose ends. I would have pr...more
I was disappointed with the fairy-tale ending and cheesy town-hall hearing/courtroom trial. It felt like the author was trying to end it without too many loose ends. I would have pr...more
A fun and frivolous read based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. Horatio Wilkes decides to spend the summer with his wealthy best friend Hamilton Prince. Over witty banter and funny one-liners the two uncover a mystery behind Hamilton's father’s death. Together they uncover the mystery and reveal Hamilton's uncle Claude's vengeful plot to take over the paper empire.
Although not the best written novel, I enjoyed the sarcastic humor and seeing how Gratz would give this play a modern twist. I think this bo...more
Although not the best written novel, I enjoyed the sarcastic humor and seeing how Gratz would give this play a modern twist. I think this bo...more
I thought this book was very entertaining. I thought the whole time that Claude had killed Rex and when the end turned up I knew I was right and was glad I was. The part that surprised me the most was when the car exploded with the hemi pedal, but at the same time I thought it was funny. My favorite characters had to be Gilbert and Roscoe they were the funniest characters of the whole entire book. I was surprised that Olivia and Hamilton got back together; I thought that Olivia and Horatio would...more
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An amazing Modern day re-telling of Hamlet that also works as an intense hunt for a murderer.
Hamliton Prince has problems. His dad is dead and mom has married his uncle. Also he has broken up with his girlfriend and his families paper plant is polluting his hometown. Now it is up to Hamilton's best friend Horatio to solve all of the problems before Hamilton drinks himself to death. Suspects abound is it Hamilton's jelious uncle? his activist girlfriend? His aduterous mother? or was his father mu...more
Hamliton Prince has problems. His dad is dead and mom has married his uncle. Also he has broken up with his girlfriend and his families paper plant is polluting his hometown. Now it is up to Hamilton's best friend Horatio to solve all of the problems before Hamilton drinks himself to death. Suspects abound is it Hamilton's jelious uncle? his activist girlfriend? His aduterous mother? or was his father mu...more
Summer reading for the Liberal Arts Academy at HVA. Reading was simple, yet had some rather humerous lines scattered throughout the novel. The author was comfortable following the story line of Hamlet until the end. Since he didn't take the "everyone dies" approach of the orignal, it seems the author had a difficult time deciding how to resolve the story. The novel fizzles, unravels and ends instead of really resolving. It is as if Gratz just became tired of writing and decided to end the book i...more
I love a well done retelling of a classic, and this is one of the best. Gratz shows great ingenuity and creativity in this modern day spin to the Hamlet tragedy. Seriously, clever. So maybe Horatio is a bit too perfect, but it he is still very much a teenager (ie. throwing out glib and sarcastic remarks at practically every single adult that he meets). Unless you have actually read Hamlet, some of the funnier references will be lost, but you'll still enjoy the humor and the suspense.
Really looki...more
Really looki...more
The book was ok. I did not like how it took so long for them to get into the storyline and how it took them a few chapters to figure out how Rex Price was murdered. I also didn’t like how it was basically a modern day version of Hamlet. I thought it was pretty cool how Claude Murdered Rex by putting something in his Drink. Also how he tried to kill Hamilton. I did like how they figured out that Claude murdered Rex Prince. I thought it was entertaining when the cops were friends with Claude and w...more
This book was a lot better than I thought it would be and I’m not much on reading but this book I really wanted to read it. This book had me thinking at first it was going to be slow and not much fun but it changed my mind after the first chapter. it did have a few point that was slow but it wasn’t to bad. I have never read hamlet but I knew the main point and i could see the comparison of it to something rotten.I wish some of the minor characters had I bigger part in the end of the story. and t...more
1 like · like · see review
It would be too easy to make a pun based on the title of this condescending teen version of Hamlet, so I will refrain. Let the reader beware, however! A heavy-handed retelling of the famous Shakespearean work, it will leave those familiar with the play shaking their heads and confuse those who have never read it. The author seemed to be confused about his purpose and tone, for it varies widely from hard-boiled (or, rather, over-easy) mystery to stereotypical teen romance to preaching environment...more
The book was all right. Not really something I might have picked out on my own. If you’re a person that really likes mysteries it will be a great book for you. It was really slow at the beginning but toward the end it got more interesting and pulls you in to the book. It might have been a little better if it wasn’t so much like hamlet. I’m just not a Shakespeare fan I don’t really like all the drama he said she said stuff. It kind of bores me allot. But if you like that stuff then I recommend th...more
I recently enjoyed Something Rotten by Alan Gratz which gives us a new spin on the classic of Hamlet. Set in Denmark, Tennesee, a teenager named Horatio Wilkes is visiting his friend Hamilton whose wealthy family owns a paper plant that is making the town’s river polluted (hence the title). I don’t want to give too much away, but I loved the clever way Gratz portrays the ghost of Hamlet’s father: the two friends are saying hello to the security guards that watch the paper plant through a series...more
The Little Bookworm
Horatio Wilkes is spending a few weeks at his friend Hamilton Prince's house. Hamilton's father died recently and, with his mother marrying his uncle right after the funeral, Hamilton isn't doing too well. But when a mysterious message from Hamilton's father arrives claiming to have been murdered, it's up to Horatio to solve the mystery and save Hamilton. But whodunit? Was it Rex Prince's younger brother or his wife, Trudy, or Hamilton's ex-girlfriend, Olivia, who was after th...more
Horatio Wilkes is spending a few weeks at his friend Hamilton Prince's house. Hamilton's father died recently and, with his mother marrying his uncle right after the funeral, Hamilton isn't doing too well. But when a mysterious message from Hamilton's father arrives claiming to have been murdered, it's up to Horatio to solve the mystery and save Hamilton. But whodunit? Was it Rex Prince's younger brother or his wife, Trudy, or Hamilton's ex-girlfriend, Olivia, who was after th...more
Rating A+
Review How can I say anything bad about this book? I can't. The only bad reviews this book gets are from people who were expecting a modern re-telling of Hamlet to have a twist ending. It doesn't. The same person who did the killing in Shakespeare's classic did the killing in Something Rotten. New endings and surprise twists aren't the purpose of this book.
This book is so beautiful in it's simplicity, wit, and ability to get you to want to read Shakespeare. I am now yearning to go back...more
Review How can I say anything bad about this book? I can't. The only bad reviews this book gets are from people who were expecting a modern re-telling of Hamlet to have a twist ending. It doesn't. The same person who did the killing in Shakespeare's classic did the killing in Something Rotten. New endings and surprise twists aren't the purpose of this book.
This book is so beautiful in it's simplicity, wit, and ability to get you to want to read Shakespeare. I am now yearning to go back...more
Alan Gratz knows how to capture a teenager's voice, which is probably the biggest appeal in Something Rotten. While Horatio is brilliant at solving mysteries, he is still very much a teenager in that he behaves like one, such as by throwing out glib and sarcastic remarks at practically every single adult that he meets.
It was a little ironic that the book was an obvious modern take of Shakespeare's Hamlet, when Horatio makes a comment about how much he dislikes attempts to modernize classic works...more
It was a little ironic that the book was an obvious modern take of Shakespeare's Hamlet, when Horatio makes a comment about how much he dislikes attempts to modernize classic works...more
1 like · like · see review
Compared with other young adult mysteries I’ve read recently, Alan Gratz’s Something Rotten: A Horatio Wilkes Mystery has a lot going for it.
The book is an updated version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Horatio Wilkes visits his high school buddy, Hamilton, in Denmark, Tennessee. Hamilton is a mess because his father has recently died and his mother has married his uncle. He has a girlfriend, Olivia, whom he has alienated.
Gratz does a good job of giving this classic tale a modern twist. However, he do...more
The book is an updated version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Horatio Wilkes visits his high school buddy, Hamilton, in Denmark, Tennessee. Hamilton is a mess because his father has recently died and his mother has married his uncle. He has a girlfriend, Olivia, whom he has alienated.
Gratz does a good job of giving this classic tale a modern twist. However, he do...more
Alan Gratz has created a wonderful mystery based on the Shakespeare play Hamlet. Horatio Wilkes is the best friend of Hamilton Prince and is spending several weeks with him at his family's home in Denmark, Tennessee. Horatio and Hamilton know eachother from boarding school and even though they come from very different backgrounds, they are very close.
Hamilton's father, Rex Prince, is dead and his uncle, Claude, married his mother about a month after the funeral. This alone has upset Hamilton ver...more
Hamilton's father, Rex Prince, is dead and his uncle, Claude, married his mother about a month after the funeral. This alone has upset Hamilton ver...more
Mar 03, 2008
Christina
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
mystery lovers, Shakespeare freaks, eco-acti
Great fun! A modern retelling of Hamlet, as a noir-ish murder mystery. (And with a happier ending.) Our narrator is high school senior Horatio Wilkes (and there are fun injokes about his name), who is visiting his best friend Hamilton Prince (get it, yuk yuk), a rich playboy whose father died two months ago and whose uncle Claude quickly married Hamilton's grieving mother. Hamilton's received a videotape of his dad before he died, saying he's been murdered (I love this modern way of having a "gh...more
Maybe someone with a shorter attention span would enjoy this one. The bantor is lame and not really in line with the scene at times. Seemed like the author was just trying to be cute at the moment. No great surprises around any corners. Horatio has been asked by his college friend to help find his father's killer. The father died of cancer, but left a videotape saying he had been poisoned. The obvious suspect is the stepfather who is also the dead man's brother. All Horatio has to do is prove it...more
Something Rotten was extremely suspenseful. I didn’t want to even open it at first but when I did I couldn’t stop reading. The main idea of this story is catchy and the details the author throws in there make you want to keep on reading. I thought the back round information on the characters really helped the reader understand the situation. I also loved the way it was written. The author used words that caught my eye and made me picture situations and put myself in the characters shoes.
1 like · like · see review
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Alan Gratz was born and raised in Knoxville, TN, home of the 1982 World's Fair. After a carefree but humid childhood, Alan attended the University of Tennessee, where he earned a College Scholars degree with a specialization in creative writing, and later, a Master's degree in English education.
In addition to writing plays, magazine articles, and a few episodes of A&E's City Confidential, Alan...more
More about Alan M. Gratz...
In addition to writing plays, magazine articles, and a few episodes of A&E's City Confidential, Alan...more
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