straightforwardly | 330 | rec-cember, week one: hamlet

I promised weekly recs for

rec_cember, and so today I come bearing the first of those rec posts! Specifically: I bring a list of Hamlet fic recs. I had a bit of a Hamlet moment back in November—rereading the play for the first time since 2020, having my usual amount of feelings, and dealing with those feelings by diving into the fandom page on AO3—and this recs list is the result of that.

Looking over this list, I feel like my favorite character is blindingly obvious... (Hint: it's Ophelia.)

mortuus est rex (kongen længe leve) (Ensemble, 9.4K)
The King is dead. His nearest and their dearest gather at his side and talk of the future. (Long live the King.)
If you only read one fic on this list, let it be this one. This is a lovely exercise in perspective, revolving around that pre-canon moment where Hamlet comes home after his father’s death, as told by five different POVs: Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius, Ophelia, and Horatio. The author does a great job of showcasing the limits and biases of each perspective—what they notice, what they don’t, how they interpret (and misinterpret) and understand one another. The prompt that apparently inspired this was one for “alternate character interpretations”, and the road they went for with Ophelia was not at all what I expected, but is one that’s going to linger with me.

A Document in Madness (Laertes, 4.9K)
Laertes knows what is rotten in the state of Denmark. He'd really rather not return, but finds himself summoned home on the the death of the king.
Hamlet as Lovecraftian horror, as narrated by Laertes. The tone here is wonderful, and I love how it takes the familiar beats of the play and transforms them without actually changing what happens via the addition of the eldritch hovering in the background, unbeknownst to Hamlet.

Chiaroscuro (Hamlet/Ophelia, 3.1K)
In which Hamlet is not himself and Ophelia learns why.
Another take on “Hamlet, but with eldritch horror elements”, but this time the horror revolves around Hamlet himself. I love the language here.

Ghosts of Elsinore (Ophelia, 13.2K)
Ophelia had always been a fool for love and charity. For sighing over the tragic hero, Sigismund, or Lancelot, for all Father would chide her sighs and her brother, Laertes, would make fun of her.

That her foolishness might lead to her ruin was what every lady was told. Yet how could it be so? When she loved her sweet prince loved her and Hamlet certainly made her believe he loved too.
A traditional “Ophelia was pregnant & this is how” fic, which isn’t my favorite kind of fic, but I thought this was a well-done example. The messiness of Hamlet and Ophelia’s dynamic worked, I thought, and the worldbuilding around ghosts in Elsinore intrigued, and served as an excellent thoroughline for this story.

Gracious (Hamlet/Ophelia, 1.0K)
Ophelia, afterwards. Sanity is only relative. Death, doubly so.
Featuring Ophelia as a ghost! I love the writing here—gorgeous and haunting.

marry, i will teach you (Ophelia, 1.0K)
Ophelia did take her lessons from the best.
A fic exploring Ophelia’s characterization throughout the lens of the play’s events. I love the use of second-person POV here.

Ill-Intentioned (Ophelia/Laertes, <1K)
When her brother is in France, he writes erratic letters that do not seem to feel the need to explain what he is doing or why.
I found myself particularly struck by the Ophelia and Laertes’ dynamic during my more recent reread of the play, but struggled to find fic that captured that same ambiguous feeling the play gave me, with two exceptions: this fic, and the Laertes-centric eldritch horror fic I mentioned above.

perchance to dream (Ophelia, <1K)
Ophelia rises from the river as a Nixie.
Lovely, creepy, supernatural vibes. Ophelia’s transformation and loss of self, as well as the encounter at the end, were all well done.