Reviewed by Wendy Haynes
Henry Hamlet’s Heart, the first YA novel by talented author Rhiannon Wilde, won the State Library
of Queensland Glendower Award for an emerging Queensland writer in 2019.
Henry Hamlet’s Heart is ultimately a love story and finding love in unexpected places. Told
in first person, the reader is taken on a thought-provoking ride, walking in
Henry’s shoes as he navigates the last semester of high school, the stress of
exams, the pressure of ‘what’s next,’ and simply finding his way in life.
The story explores the friendship of a close-knit
group of teenagers but particularly the long-standing friendship between Henry
and Len. Sexuality is unravelled, opened, though not explicit, and gives the
reader the opportunity to explore with the main character the emotional roller
coast of love and falling hard.
This story also explores who you are to you, and who
you are in the eyes of others, and how there are shades of grey in just about
everything. The author has captured the essence of what it’s like for a
teenager experiencing feelings for another human being, and how feelings get
mashed up. The author meshes mood with the setting in an evocative way adding
an extra layer of depth to her characters.
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