The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu – Review

Published: September 12, 2023

Publisher: Solaris

Series: N/A

Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery

Pages: 432 (Kindle)

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
A lyrical, queer sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a locked-room thriller

Hayden Lichfield’s life is ripped apart when he finds his father murdered in their lab, and the camera logs erased. The killer can only have been after one thing: the Sisyphus Formula the two of them developed together, which might one day reverse death itself. Hoping to lure the killer into the open, Hayden steals the research. In the process, he uncovers a recording his father made in the days before his death, and a dying wish: Avenge me…

With the lab on lockdown, Hayden is trapped with four other people—his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, research intern Felicia Xia and their head of security, Felicia’s father Paul—one of whom must be the killer. His only sure ally is the lab’s resident artificial intelligence, Horatio, who has been his dear friend and companion since its creation. With his world collapsing, Hayden must navigate the building’s secrets, uncover his father’s lies, and push the boundaries of sanity in the pursuit of revenge.

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I was intrigued at the idea of a sci-fi retelling of Hamlet and I could hardly resist the delightfully bright cover design and the catchy title. The Death I Gave Him was undoubtedly one of the strangest books I’ve read  or will read in 2023. 

It begins with Hayden Lichfield walking in to find his father, Dr. Graham Lichfield brutally murdered in his laboratory. It’s late at night and the only other people on premise are his uncle Charles, head of security Paul Xia, his daughter and intern Felicia Xia, and lab tech Gabriel Rasmussen. It quickly becomes clear it wasn’t an intruder and the facility is placed on lockdown while Hayden tries to figure out who murdered his father for the Sisyphus formula – a revolutionary experimental drug that could herald an age of immortality for humankind. 

The story is actually the “true story” compiled after the fact, with data from security cam footage, Hayden’s neurolink device which records thoughts, and interviews with Felicia Xia. This surprisingly doesn’t affect story structure overmuch, aside from leading quotes from Felicia’s interviews and some author footnotes. That being said, this was a terribly confusing story that I found nonetheless intriguing enough to zip right through it. 

In all honesty, I didn’t love this. It was definitely not the right book for me, despite loving a good locked room mystery, because no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t get invested in the characters. Hayden and Felicia are the two characters we spend the most time with, along with Horatio, who’s basically an AI with a degree of sentience. All three of the characters just felt a bit flat and lacked the depth of personality this story needed. Hayden’s entire personality could be described as “troubled” and Felicia’s reactions to even the most horrifying events were just mildly violent. 

My verdict on this is this – lackluster and unengaging for me, personally. This actually has over 100 ratings on Goodreads and is sitting at 4.05 stars, so I do think this is a case of the book just not working for me. If you think it sounds cool, I’d encourage you to give it a try! This author has a novella or short story coming out later this year that I’m interested in, so I do plan to give their work another shot because I think the idea behind The Death I Gave Him was a cool one.