In this retooling of Hamlet, author Lizabeth Zindel gives the Shakespeare classic a thoroughly modern makeover. Throughout "A Girl," classic characters receive a gender switch: Holly = Hamlet; Oliver = Ophelia; Gardner = Gertrude; Claudia = Claudio; etc. In place of Hamlet, we have Holly, a female college student whose mother dies suddenly. Her father gets involved with another woman, who just happens to be her dead mother's sister, her Aunt Claudia. When Holly gets a visit from her mother's ghost, she wonders if there might be more to the story than what appears on the surface.

This version of Hamlet is infinitely less dense than the original, but it's breezy Cal-speak tone just doesn't impart the weight of the story. It's definitely a very dumbed-down take, to its (and the reader's) detriment. It's very difficult to see the rich character of Hamlet -- conflicted, three-dimensional, articulate -- turned into a college student who interjects "like" into her sentences. None of the characters in this remake is very well developed, or all that likable, so the book comes across as a poor imitator in comparison to the original. Zindel also takes liberties with the plot, which does nothing to enhance the story... If anything, it makes it even more trite and glib.

I'd recommend that readers start with the original before moving on to this contemporary take, otherwise their view of Hamlet might be slightly clouded. ( )

I stopped reading at page 40. I couldn't take the girls complaining anymore... ( )