31 March 2021

Review: Poor Yorick by Ryan North

Published: 2013
Acquired: September 2013
Read: October 2020

Poor Yorick by Ryan North

This is a prequel to To Be or Not To Be, North's "chooseable-path adventure" take on Hamlet; it is a short ebook (just 35 pages) that was available to Kickstarter backers. I read it very, very belatedly. You play as Yorick, trying to get a job at Elsinore entertaining Kid Hamlet so you can fulfill your role in his story-- dying so that he can hold your skull during Act V and pontificate on death.

It does not have the sprawling complexity of To Be or Not To Be or Romeo and/or Juliet. Instead, it's very linear; you are consistently presented with three choices, two of which will kill you, one of which will let you keep playing. North is a funny writer, so I was entertained, but I found that even at this brief length, the joke wore thin. Nice to read but I wouldn't rush out to find a copy. (I don't think you can get the ebook version anywhere anymore anyway, but it was reprinted as part of the collection William Shakespeare Punches a Friggin' Shark and/or Other Stories.)

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