I can tell you the exact line in this book that lost me, referring to Gertrude saying, "her father's court held no more eager slut than she." I can also tell you the second time it lost me, when referring to Ophelia as "a novice slut." While everything else had such a mindful, romantic depiction, that is the word used to describe the two main female characters, standing out like two very sore thumbs. Poetic portrayals of Elsinore aside, this was an uninteresting take on Shakespeare's Hamlet, from an old white cis male gaze, that I am positively exhausted of reading. Villianizing a woman's sexuality while celebrating a man's is boring and I'm tired of reading about it. I am usually really engaged with familiar stories that come from a different character's point of view. I was not with this one. That being said, it's undeniable that Updike has a beautiful writing style, if the subject matter wasn't so cringy, I could see myself enjoying it very much. Imagery and foreshadow with the falcon and other birds had a lot of potential but did not have the follow through I was hoping for.