John Marsden offers up Hamlet in prose in a novel that brings the psychology of Shakespeare’s story into clear relief for young adults. Marsden provides vivid insight into the play’s characters, especially teenagers Hamlet, Ophelia, and Horatio. Hamlet, already burdened by conflicting feelings about his father, begins to crack under the pressure to achieve as the ghost demands he seek revenge for murder most foul. Ophelia suffers under her father’s paradoxical disregard and overprotectiveness, while her longing for the young prince intensifies. And Horatio’s loyalty and strong feelings for his best friend are complicated by his class status and the ever-growing chaos around him. Marsden illuminates anger and madness with striking clarity in a novel that also features powerfully sensual moments as the burgeoning sexuality of its teenage characters becomes another force they must deal with. (Age 14 and older)

The Dane as never seen before -- in a daring, dazzling, sexy prose retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy by best-selling author John Marsden. (Age 14 and up)

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, but Hamlet can’t be sure what’s causing the stench. His rage at his mother’s infidelities -- together with his greed for the sensual Ophelia and his dead father’s call to revenge a "murder most foul" -- have his mind in chaos, and he wants to scatter his traitorous uncle’s insides across the fields. But was it really his father’s ghost that night on the ramparts, or a hell-fiend sent to trick him? "Action is hot," he tells Ophelia, who lives shut up in a tower with her longings and lust. "Action is courage, and reflection is cowardly. Picking up the knife has the colors of truth. As soon as I hesitate. . . ." In this dark, erotically charged, beautifully crafted novel, John Marsden brings one of Shakespeare’s most riveting characters to full-blooded life in a narrative of intense psychological complexity.