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Tragic Volume 1
In a contemporary re-telling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, TRAGIC follows the 17 year-old Harper Hayes as she unravels the mystery and grief surrounding her father’s death.
After her father Hamilton Hayes dies a mysterious and tragic death, Harper Hayes is convinced that he was murdered and her first suspect is her uncle Clayton, who has been sleeping with her mother, Greta. With the help of her ex-girlfriend Talia and her best friend (sometimes with benefits) Holden, Harper is determined to find her father's killer. But when Caius, Talia's father and Hamilton’s business partner, is found dead, Harper realizes the answer to Hamilton’s murder is more complicated than she had initially realized. And when Harper starts seeing his ghost in the form of a teenage Hamlet everywhere and slipping into hallucinations of his murder that end with blood on her hands, one thing becomes clear--in order to uncover the truth about what happened to her father, Harper has to confront her own demons and ones that haunt the Hayes family.
After her father Hamilton Hayes dies a mysterious and tragic death, Harper Hayes is convinced that he was murdered and her first suspect is her uncle Clayton, who has been sleeping with her mother, Greta. With the help of her ex-girlfriend Talia and her best friend (sometimes with benefits) Holden, Harper is determined to find her father's killer. But when Caius, Talia's father and Hamilton’s business partner, is found dead, Harper realizes the answer to Hamilton’s murder is more complicated than she had initially realized. And when Harper starts seeing his ghost in the form of a teenage Hamlet everywhere and slipping into hallucinations of his murder that end with blood on her hands, one thing becomes clear--in order to uncover the truth about what happened to her father, Harper has to confront her own demons and ones that haunt the Hayes family.
112 pages, Paperback
First published September 13, 2022
2 people are currently reading
3954 people want to read
About the author
Dana Mele
4 books407 followersDana Mele is a Pushcart-nominated writer based in the upper Hudson Valley. A graduate of Wellesley College, Dana holds degrees in theatre, education, and law. Dana’s debut, PEOPLE LIKE US, was published in 2018 and shortlisted for the 2019 ITW Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel. A second YA thriller, SUMMER'S EDGE was published by Simon & Schuster in May 2022.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
December 25, 2022
A boring and muddled murder mystery. The conceit is that it is a modern gender-swapped retelling of Hamlet but in a world like ours where Hamlet is also a famous play. Harper Hayes' father has been murdered, and his ghost -- attired in a Hamlet costume from his youthful performance of the role -- is haunting her to find out if her uncle or mother had something to do with it. Harper mopes accordingly as she fumbles slowly through her investigation. She suffers convenient memory lapses that make her a possible suspect also.
The Hamlet hook is not enough to overcome characters who are flat and lacking charisma. It seems like the plot here may twist away from the original, but as with a lot of murder mysteries I read, I really don't care whodunnit or who they dunnit to, so I don't feel much need to come back for future installments.
The Hamlet hook is not enough to overcome characters who are flat and lacking charisma. It seems like the plot here may twist away from the original, but as with a lot of murder mysteries I read, I really don't care whodunnit or who they dunnit to, so I don't feel much need to come back for future installments.
July 29, 2025
(3.5 stars)
Star for premise, star for art, half star for story.
My main issue with this is that I'm not really sure why it's adapting Hamlet-- the author says in the afterword, for example, that she made Hamlet a woman to 1) honor the queerness inherent in the original and 2) avoid addressing (well, remove) his obvious misogyny in how he treats women. Which... okay, but that's part of Hamlet. That's a major facet of Hamlet. I'd want any adaptation to address it!
I felt this way about pretty much every choice made in this book. Why does the play Hamlet exist in this world, requiring the main character whose friends have the last name Polonius to crack little meta jokes about how in Hamlet the uncle did it? It's very strange to open on the father dead in the orchard, have the ghost still there (but looking like her father as a young actor playing Hamlet for some reason?), have the mother sleeping with the uncle and-- well-- all the characters from Hamlet-- and then go oh no actually this isn't Hamlet it's a totally different modern story which merely mirrors it exactly and the characters will reference Hamlet as if it's not strange that everyone's name is a version of the name of their corresponding character from Hamlet. I mean, if Talia's last name is Polonius still, why not just... make her Ophelia...? Why are we trying to make Polonius-character a suspect in Hamlet Sr.-character's death... after his own death? I don't know, I just didn't get why the various decisions were made to the point that it seemed like the decision to include (or not) various elements was totally random, or based on aesthetic or something.
I didn't come here to read a new mystery solved by new teens-- I'm here for a Hamlet retelling, and there's a reason Hamlet has nearly no mystery to it. It's certainly possible that the uncle is not at fault and Hamlet is insane, but the original play doesn't present any possibility other than Hamlet's as a serious one for a reason, and, again, it just felt like the author here didn't get why and how the original worked, and didn't change things for intentional reasons, and if there's one thing that gets to me it's an adaptation which misunderstands, or simply doesn't understand, the logic behind its predecessor. There are so many good reasons to change things-- there are so many good reasons to make Hamlet a butch bisexual girl! So why didn't we see any of those??
(IMO, Harper is not a genuine homage to the homoeroticism in Hamlet, and just making her in a relationship variously with both Ophelia and Holden does not address, honor, or resolve the original dynamics at play between all three characters. This is especially frustrating to me because of the possible utilizations of Hamlet and Ophelia being paired by their parents, Hamlet's misogyny towards Ophelia, and of course whatever is going on between Hamlet and Horatio. This adaptation is fundamentally unconcerned with those dynamics, which, as someone who loves them very much, is horrifying.)
This might be in part because of the choice to inject the sequences of the play seemingly at random: in this first volume, we see (in order) the death of Hamlet Sr., the encouragements to Hamlet to be mentally well (Act 1), the "now might I do it" re: Claudius (Act 3), the appearance of the ghost (...to Hamlet only??) (Act 1), the interrogation of Gertrude by Hamlet (Act 3), and the death of Polonius (Act 3)... but no sign of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Act 2), the play-within-a-play (Act 2), or Hamlet's to-be-or-not-to-be or speech to Ophelia (Act 3). Again, baffling-- I just don't understand why the author would rearrange the scenes when they happen in order for a reason.
This also leads to each interpolation feeling like a cheap reference rather than a real emotional peak, which is awful-- I love the original "now might I do it" scene, for example, because Hamlet has had time to not only know with ample evidence that his uncle is the murderer but also to know that nobody will do anything about it. He must kill Claudius, and yet he doesn't, and while his reasoning is sound, it's still an excuse made by a deeply traumatized person who has never killed someone before, and suddenly realizes, filled with rage and revenge and ghosts, he fundamentally cannot do it now. And this leaves him dead by the end of the play, because Claudius gets time to plot and Hamlet runs out of time to outrun him. This is an intense emotional turning point, and the version present in this graphic novel is gutted by the omission of the play-within-a-play, Hamlet's to-be-or-not-to-be, the many instances of characters ignoring the evidence Hamlet has, and so on and so forth. It's just painful to feel nothing when reading those words. I guess I'm finding out that I love the original play very much, because the gulf between the way I felt reading that vs. this is so vast. No more like the original than I to Hercules...
Without the original's emotions and tension to intrigue me, I'm left with a lot of new characters who don't totally seem to have their own personalities separate from the original play. It's like the author intended for me to paste the originals over them, but they're not the originals; they are drastically changed for a modern setting. I love original Ophelia, for example, and could read her for pages and pages and pages, but this one doesn't seem to have her own unique conflicts related to any of the major themes of the original-- and I say this not as a scholar or anything, but as someone who has read Ophelia's scenes and enjoyed them! Talia has merely broken up with Harper and is now jealous of Harper's FWB with Holden because, well, she's the ex-girlfriend in this story. She's close with her brother. Her father is dead. She tells Harper quite explicitly that she Couldn't Make It Work Because Of Her Depression in a line that is a little too "characters are aware of how this will look to people on Twitter" for me.
With that said: I love the art. I do love the premise. I hate leaving this review because, good or not, the book was worth a shot in making... I just can't justify my reading another entry in this series or even recommending it to my beloved friends who adore Hamlet because it doesn't adapt Hamlet. I love gay lady Hamlet! I'm confident I'll find a version that works for me.
Star for premise, star for art, half star for story.
My main issue with this is that I'm not really sure why it's adapting Hamlet-- the author says in the afterword, for example, that she made Hamlet a woman to 1) honor the queerness inherent in the original and 2) avoid addressing (well, remove) his obvious misogyny in how he treats women. Which... okay, but that's part of Hamlet. That's a major facet of Hamlet. I'd want any adaptation to address it!
I felt this way about pretty much every choice made in this book. Why does the play Hamlet exist in this world, requiring the main character whose friends have the last name Polonius to crack little meta jokes about how in Hamlet the uncle did it? It's very strange to open on the father dead in the orchard, have the ghost still there (but looking like her father as a young actor playing Hamlet for some reason?), have the mother sleeping with the uncle and-- well-- all the characters from Hamlet-- and then go oh no actually this isn't Hamlet it's a totally different modern story which merely mirrors it exactly and the characters will reference Hamlet as if it's not strange that everyone's name is a version of the name of their corresponding character from Hamlet. I mean, if Talia's last name is Polonius still, why not just... make her Ophelia...? Why are we trying to make Polonius-character a suspect in Hamlet Sr.-character's death... after his own death? I don't know, I just didn't get why the various decisions were made to the point that it seemed like the decision to include (or not) various elements was totally random, or based on aesthetic or something.
I didn't come here to read a new mystery solved by new teens-- I'm here for a Hamlet retelling, and there's a reason Hamlet has nearly no mystery to it. It's certainly possible that the uncle is not at fault and Hamlet is insane, but the original play doesn't present any possibility other than Hamlet's as a serious one for a reason, and, again, it just felt like the author here didn't get why and how the original worked, and didn't change things for intentional reasons, and if there's one thing that gets to me it's an adaptation which misunderstands, or simply doesn't understand, the logic behind its predecessor. There are so many good reasons to change things-- there are so many good reasons to make Hamlet a butch bisexual girl! So why didn't we see any of those??
(IMO, Harper is not a genuine homage to the homoeroticism in Hamlet, and just making her in a relationship variously with both Ophelia and Holden does not address, honor, or resolve the original dynamics at play between all three characters. This is especially frustrating to me because of the possible utilizations of Hamlet and Ophelia being paired by their parents, Hamlet's misogyny towards Ophelia, and of course whatever is going on between Hamlet and Horatio. This adaptation is fundamentally unconcerned with those dynamics, which, as someone who loves them very much, is horrifying.)
This might be in part because of the choice to inject the sequences of the play seemingly at random: in this first volume, we see (in order) the death of Hamlet Sr., the encouragements to Hamlet to be mentally well (Act 1), the "now might I do it" re: Claudius (Act 3), the appearance of the ghost (...to Hamlet only??) (Act 1), the interrogation of Gertrude by Hamlet (Act 3), and the death of Polonius (Act 3)... but no sign of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Act 2), the play-within-a-play (Act 2), or Hamlet's to-be-or-not-to-be or speech to Ophelia (Act 3). Again, baffling-- I just don't understand why the author would rearrange the scenes when they happen in order for a reason.
This also leads to each interpolation feeling like a cheap reference rather than a real emotional peak, which is awful-- I love the original "now might I do it" scene, for example, because Hamlet has had time to not only know with ample evidence that his uncle is the murderer but also to know that nobody will do anything about it. He must kill Claudius, and yet he doesn't, and while his reasoning is sound, it's still an excuse made by a deeply traumatized person who has never killed someone before, and suddenly realizes, filled with rage and revenge and ghosts, he fundamentally cannot do it now. And this leaves him dead by the end of the play, because Claudius gets time to plot and Hamlet runs out of time to outrun him. This is an intense emotional turning point, and the version present in this graphic novel is gutted by the omission of the play-within-a-play, Hamlet's to-be-or-not-to-be, the many instances of characters ignoring the evidence Hamlet has, and so on and so forth. It's just painful to feel nothing when reading those words. I guess I'm finding out that I love the original play very much, because the gulf between the way I felt reading that vs. this is so vast. No more like the original than I to Hercules...
Without the original's emotions and tension to intrigue me, I'm left with a lot of new characters who don't totally seem to have their own personalities separate from the original play. It's like the author intended for me to paste the originals over them, but they're not the originals; they are drastically changed for a modern setting. I love original Ophelia, for example, and could read her for pages and pages and pages, but this one doesn't seem to have her own unique conflicts related to any of the major themes of the original-- and I say this not as a scholar or anything, but as someone who has read Ophelia's scenes and enjoyed them! Talia has merely broken up with Harper and is now jealous of Harper's FWB with Holden because, well, she's the ex-girlfriend in this story. She's close with her brother. Her father is dead. She tells Harper quite explicitly that she Couldn't Make It Work Because Of Her Depression in a line that is a little too "characters are aware of how this will look to people on Twitter" for me.
With that said: I love the art. I do love the premise. I hate leaving this review because, good or not, the book was worth a shot in making... I just can't justify my reading another entry in this series or even recommending it to my beloved friends who adore Hamlet because it doesn't adapt Hamlet. I love gay lady Hamlet! I'm confident I'll find a version that works for me.
August 26, 2022
Rep: bi mc, sapphic li with depression, Black side characters
Galley provided by publisher
Tragic is a retelling of Hamlet, set in the modern day, which pretty much follows the original story as closely as possible. In all, I liked this one, but not much more. While it didn’t try to do anything at all revolutionary with the plot or characters, reading it was a good way to pass the time. But as I said: I only ever really liked this one. Perhaps it was the format, perhaps because it didn’t do much new with the story. Either way, a decent enough read, but nothing really special.
Galley provided by publisher
Tragic is a retelling of Hamlet, set in the modern day, which pretty much follows the original story as closely as possible. In all, I liked this one, but not much more. While it didn’t try to do anything at all revolutionary with the plot or characters, reading it was a good way to pass the time. But as I said: I only ever really liked this one. Perhaps it was the format, perhaps because it didn’t do much new with the story. Either way, a decent enough read, but nothing really special.
September 27, 2022
I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I was really excited about the concept, a modern take on Hamlet, but it didn't feel quite as I expected. The pacing is way too fast and I couldn't really feel like the characters were growing on me because of that. I appreciated the LGBTQ+ representation and I did feel like that made it more interesting. That being said, and having read Hamlet, I wish there had been more of an inspiration on Hamlet's character too, I would have liked to see a more philosophical main character, reflecting more on her choices.
July 18, 2024
‘Tragic Volume 1’ by Dana Mele with art by Valentina Pinti is a graphic novel that reimagines Shakespeare's Hamlet through a contemporary lens.
Harper’s dad has died and Harper suspects it’s murder. Harper is now seeing his father as a ghost, and the ghost confirms this. Now, hanging out in his father’s old theater, The Elsinore, it’s up to Harper to figure it out. If you are familiar with Hamlet, you will know the typical suspects.
It’s a fun spin on a classic with some interesting characters. The art works, and I enjoyed it.
Harper’s dad has died and Harper suspects it’s murder. Harper is now seeing his father as a ghost, and the ghost confirms this. Now, hanging out in his father’s old theater, The Elsinore, it’s up to Harper to figure it out. If you are familiar with Hamlet, you will know the typical suspects.
It’s a fun spin on a classic with some interesting characters. The art works, and I enjoyed it.
January 27, 2025
I need the next volume like right now!
August 28, 2022
Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a digital arc of this book!
3.5 stars 🌟
My life is a Shakespearean tragedy.
Oh same Harper, same.
Harper's dad winds up dead and due to his unresolved murder,he comes back as a ghost to help Harper with the investigation. Harper has to team up with her ex girlfriend T, her friend (with a few benefits) and T's brother to solve this case. Someone is lying and they need to figure out why.
For a book with a plot this grim, this book was actually hilarious. The characters had these one liners that had me cracking up.
Okay, the illustrations were gorgeous! We also got a main character who was clearly a member of the LGBTQIA so yay!! 🎉🎉
And I liked the cliffhanger ending.
However, this story was a little too convoluted for me.I found out it was a Hamlet or Hamilton retelling which I haven't explored so maybe the confusion was also on me, but I feel like this story could have been simplified further( since it's a YA comic).
With that cliffhanger, I'm eager for the next volume.
3.5 stars 🌟
My life is a Shakespearean tragedy.
Oh same Harper, same.
Harper's dad winds up dead and due to his unresolved murder,he comes back as a ghost to help Harper with the investigation. Harper has to team up with her ex girlfriend T, her friend (with a few benefits) and T's brother to solve this case. Someone is lying and they need to figure out why.
For a book with a plot this grim, this book was actually hilarious. The characters had these one liners that had me cracking up.
Okay, the illustrations were gorgeous! We also got a main character who was clearly a member of the LGBTQIA so yay!! 🎉🎉
And I liked the cliffhanger ending.
However, this story was a little too convoluted for me.I found out it was a Hamlet or Hamilton retelling which I haven't explored so maybe the confusion was also on me, but I feel like this story could have been simplified further( since it's a YA comic).
With that cliffhanger, I'm eager for the next volume.
August 30, 2022
This comic was interesting and I really like the idea of it! A gender flipped, contemporary Hamlet retelling with queer characters! The murder was also intriguing as I thought I knew who the killer was throughout but the ending completely through me off! However, there was something about the comic where I couldn’t get fully engrossed in it. Unfortunately I couldn’t find myself connecting with the characters and I found it difficult to read on because of that. Nevertheless I do want to find out who the murderer is so I might pick up later volumes!
Thank you NetGalley for giving me this ARC!
Thank you NetGalley for giving me this ARC!
August 10, 2022
Representation: bisexual white protagonist, queer secondary character, Black secondary character.
Content Warning: blood, grief, parental death, violence, anxiety, depression, trauma.
Review to come...
Content Warning: blood, grief, parental death, violence, anxiety, depression, trauma.
Review to come...
August 17, 2025
I had trouble keeping track of who was who for the off-screen characters who are suspects in the murder. I like the way the creator modernized the otherwise familiar story of Hamlet.
October 3, 2022
Thank you Netgalley for the arc!
I went into this with little knowledge on the graphic novel or author but enjoyed it more than I thought. Although the story felt a little rushed and sometimes confusing in places. I found it left me wanting to pick up and read the next edition after ending on a cliffs hanger. I found the characters, enjoyable but not loveable. I also enjoyed the tone and style of the graphic novel.
I read afterwards this is supposed to be a queer retelling of Hamlet which does infact help it make a bit more sense. Looking forward to seeing what's next in the series.
I went into this with little knowledge on the graphic novel or author but enjoyed it more than I thought. Although the story felt a little rushed and sometimes confusing in places. I found it left me wanting to pick up and read the next edition after ending on a cliffs hanger. I found the characters, enjoyable but not loveable. I also enjoyed the tone and style of the graphic novel.
I read afterwards this is supposed to be a queer retelling of Hamlet which does infact help it make a bit more sense. Looking forward to seeing what's next in the series.
January 17, 2023
4 stars for an interesting and different graphic novel series~
This wasn't particularly my cup of tea, but it was different. This was definitely better as a graphic novel than it would have been as maybe a middle grade book or a novel, but there were parts that were not so captivating. It fell flat at times.
I was not able to finish reading my ARC copy however due to the limitations of viewing with Adobe.* However, from the portion that I had been able to view, this was definitely worth the read!
Thanks to NetGalley and Legendary Comics for providing a digital ARC for review!
This wasn't particularly my cup of tea, but it was different. This was definitely better as a graphic novel than it would have been as maybe a middle grade book or a novel, but there were parts that were not so captivating. It fell flat at times.
I was not able to finish reading my ARC copy however due to the limitations of viewing with Adobe.* However, from the portion that I had been able to view, this was definitely worth the read!
Thanks to NetGalley and Legendary Comics for providing a digital ARC for review!
September 14, 2023
I've got really mixed feelings about this book. I'm invested enough in the mystery to read the second volume, but I don't care about any of the characters, not even enough to dislike them. The Hamlet overlay felt kind of clumsy to me, mostly because Hamlet is a real play that really exists but all the characters still have closely paralleling names and roles. Honestly, I feel like it was a misstep to publish this as two volumes, because I just have this sense this would have played better together in one book. Sure, it would have been a big volume, but it would have been better for the story.
July 28, 2025
An uneven, modern day updating of Hamlet with some gender swapping. Harper's father dies and she thinks he was murdered. Then she starts seeing and talking to his ghost dressed as Hamlet from an old production he was in. He was maybe murdered or maybe it'll turn out Harper has some mental issues. It could go either way at this point. I'm undecided at the moment if this is a story worth finishing out with the 2nd volume.
June 30, 2022
This is an imaginative and clever retelling of Hamlet. I liked the touches of humor and the modernization of the story, but I wish there was a stronger resolution at the end. However, I know this is only volume one, so I kind of expected a cliffhanger. When the next volume comes out, I’ll make a point of continuing this graphic novel series.
ARC from NetGalley
ARC from NetGalley
August 23, 2022
I didn’t know what to expect when starting this book. I don’t often read graphic novels but I would like to read more.
This was a nice graphic novel, I was interested in the story. It is a mystery, they try to find the killer(s) of their fathers. The art style is great and made it fun and easy to get through.
I was intrigued and would like to know how the story develops further.
This was a nice graphic novel, I was interested in the story. It is a mystery, they try to find the killer(s) of their fathers. The art style is great and made it fun and easy to get through.
I was intrigued and would like to know how the story develops further.
August 30, 2022
This was entertaining enough, but I wasn't super into it either. I love Hamlet and it was really fun to see it brought into our modern world and gender flipped. I wish it wasn't volumes and that it had been a longer graphic novel to cover the full story, because we land on a real cliffhanger. I'm not sure yet if I'll pick up vol 2 or not.
November 27, 2022
Although the premise of a play being presented as a graphic novel was a novel idea, including the fact that it has a wide diversity of characters in this retelling of Hamlet, I couldn’t help but struggle to get into it. There were times when the story felt rushed and other times when it felt slow. I hope we get to see a steadier pacing of this story/play in the next volume.
August 23, 2022
I was curious about this retelling and the representation but just couldn’t get into it. It felt like a chore to get through it.
I have seen some positive reviews though so it’s clearly just not my thing.
I have seen some positive reviews though so it’s clearly just not my thing.
December 10, 2022
Hamlet retelling with nothing to write home about other than some addition of a contemporary setting and a gay character- was lackluster through and through be it the storyline and dialogue to the illustrations.
February 16, 2023
A super fun and imaginative queer retelling of Hamlet! The art here really shines-- Valentina Pinti's art and Chiara di Francia's coloring are both distinctive and eye-catching-- and effectively supports the clever, often hilarious, writing. I can't wait to see where this goes!
March 16, 2023
There's so much Hamlet shoehorned to fit this downward spiral of a murder mystery that it just felt confused and shallow. The art and coloring were captivating, but the story fell really flat for me. I likely wouldn't have finished had it not been assigned reading.
September 16, 2021
Bookmarking this spot for updates! I'm so excited to be bringing this story into the world along with the gorgeous artwork by Valentina Pinti and colors by Chiara Di Francia. More news soon!
Want to read
August 4, 2022Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
September 11, 2022
Entertaining.
December 23, 2022
That was interesting, but now I gotta wait for vol. 2.
January 11, 2023
I really enjoyed the fast pace and look forward to volume two.
February 15, 2023
Very clever adaptation of Hamlet. Excellent writing!
July 30, 2025
Ehhhh it's alright I guess. The art is lovely, I just didn't find the characters very compelling which made it hard to get invested in the story.
August 14, 2025
I'm so confused.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews