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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The way this was twisted to fit with the original story of Macbeth is so interesting. Extremely fun read, and touches a lot on what comes with being a woman
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Truly, what the fuck. It’s not that I was expecting it to be 100% faithfully to the play, but for a book marketed as a feminist retelling it bizarrely reduces Lady Macbeth’s iconic character to a pathetic teenager. The author really hates Scottish people, as every time they are mentioned it’s only in relation to how violent they are. Lady Macbeth is inexplicably the only woman in the castle, except for the witches in the basement, for 90% of the novel. It may have been better standing on its own without the association to Macbeth, but I’m not convinced. And, oh yeah, Lady Macbeth has to constantly wear a veil otherwise her eyes will kill any men she looks at. She only used this twice (to get the guards to kill Duncan and themselves and to kill Macbeth at the end). She has had a traumatic past with the father and Macbeth. Why the hell do we have to give women a reason to act badly rather than them just being evil? (Although this doesn’t truly convey my feelings on the original Lady Macbeth). If this wasn’t enough, the love interest is a dragon by night. I’m sorry, what? Why? As I was reading it, I was quite proud of myself for realising it was a reference to the Laos of Marie de France (confirmed in the authors note) but what I don’t understand is why the fuck she felt the need to combine these two things. The writings itself is just ok, and suffers from a lot of repetition. I did genuinely enjoy the first fifth but then it just became a hot mess. I also enjoyed her other book, the Wolf and the Woodsman, so I was extremely disappointed to find out that this book is truly awful.
This is not the review I imagined myself writing for this book.
I am not usually one to read retellings, my experience with them is very limited, and didn’t leave lasting impressions at that, but I am a huge fan of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and of Macbeth specifically, it’s my favorite play by him for numerous reasons, and one of them was our titular character herself, Lady Macbeth.
Now, I love Ava Reid, I’ve always been mesmerized by the lyrical language they use in their writing as well as their ability to fuse that magical hint of the gothic and, at times, macabre, into her writing. But my most favorite thing about all of their previous books was always the female protagonists, I’ve loved every single one of them from the very first page, and it only grew from there.
So it was quite a shock when I found myself discontented with Roscille’s voice from the first chapter. At first I thought it was my existing biases. After all, this character is attempting to fill monumentally large shoes, and I thought that to give her the benefit of the doubt for a few more chapters would be the least I could do, I was confident that my opinions on her would change the more I got to live in her head, see the world from her perspective.
Imagine my shock when that didn’t happen.
Lady Macbeth is a book that attempts to do far too much with the wrong character in the wrong story. The original Lady Macbeth was unflinchingly ambitious, she was unwavering in her pursuit of power through her husband, and her ceaseless quest for it alongside Macbeth’s own greed and immortality made for a chilling masterpiece of a story. To make a victim out of Lady Macbeth is, in my opinion, to take away all of what made her unique. There are a thousand different women across all eras of literature who could’ve worn the victim’s mantle more convincingly, without it feeling like, and I’m sorry if this is cruel, a butchery of the original character.
Now, I did love some aspects of the book, the language is, as always, beautiful and flowery, the prose is excellent, the imagery is so vivid I could see the seas of Glammis raging beneath stormy skies, I could smell the salt air howling in the castle’s corridors. Reid has always been excellent at delivering atmospheric writing, and that hasn’t changed. And while I didn’t enjoy the female rage borne of wrongful treatment by men time and again in the context of Lady Macbeth’s character, I could still sympathize with a lot of it, and resonate with much more.
Lastly, the romance in the story didn’t feel necessary, even if it was brief. I don’t think it added much to the story besides serving as a nice ribbon to tie the story together in the Coda section.
In my heart, I know this is a 1.5 stars book at best had it been by any other author than Ava Reid, but I cherish them far too much to give them this low a rating, even if I disliked Lady Macbeth too much at certain parts. And so 2 stars feel more appropriate.
I am not usually one to read retellings, my experience with them is very limited, and didn’t leave lasting impressions at that, but I am a huge fan of Shakespeare’s tragedies, and of Macbeth specifically, it’s my favorite play by him for numerous reasons, and one of them was our titular character herself, Lady Macbeth.
Now, I love Ava Reid, I’ve always been mesmerized by the lyrical language they use in their writing as well as their ability to fuse that magical hint of the gothic and, at times, macabre, into her writing. But my most favorite thing about all of their previous books was always the female protagonists, I’ve loved every single one of them from the very first page, and it only grew from there.
So it was quite a shock when I found myself discontented with Roscille’s voice from the first chapter. At first I thought it was my existing biases. After all, this character is attempting to fill monumentally large shoes, and I thought that to give her the benefit of the doubt for a few more chapters would be the least I could do, I was confident that my opinions on her would change the more I got to live in her head, see the world from her perspective.
Imagine my shock when that didn’t happen.
Lady Macbeth is a book that attempts to do far too much with the wrong character in the wrong story. The original Lady Macbeth was unflinchingly ambitious, she was unwavering in her pursuit of power through her husband, and her ceaseless quest for it alongside Macbeth’s own greed and immortality made for a chilling masterpiece of a story. To make a victim out of Lady Macbeth is, in my opinion, to take away all of what made her unique. There are a thousand different women across all eras of literature who could’ve worn the victim’s mantle more convincingly, without it feeling like, and I’m sorry if this is cruel, a butchery of the original character.
Now, I did love some aspects of the book, the language is, as always, beautiful and flowery, the prose is excellent, the imagery is so vivid I could see the seas of Glammis raging beneath stormy skies, I could smell the salt air howling in the castle’s corridors. Reid has always been excellent at delivering atmospheric writing, and that hasn’t changed. And while I didn’t enjoy the female rage borne of wrongful treatment by men time and again in the context of Lady Macbeth’s character, I could still sympathize with a lot of it, and resonate with much more.
Lastly, the romance in the story didn’t feel necessary, even if it was brief. I don’t think it added much to the story besides serving as a nice ribbon to tie the story together in the Coda section.
In my heart, I know this is a 1.5 stars book at best had it been by any other author than Ava Reid, but I cherish them far too much to give them this low a rating, even if I disliked Lady Macbeth too much at certain parts. And so 2 stars feel more appropriate.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes