Reviews with content warning for Murder - Lady Macbeth

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

15 reviews

kabrahams's review against another edition

4.25

(I received a free eARC from NetGalley for review purposes.)

Ava Reid is one of my favorite authors, so this was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024. That being said, I think this is my least favorite of their books, although that could change with time as I think about it more or if I decide to reread it. Definitely not a bad book though, I just have complicated feelings about it that I will try to articulate.

From the very beginning, Ava Reid's prose had me in a chokehold. There is something about her prose, both lyrical and concise, that captivates me and I truly think they are one of the best writers currently publishing novels. While sometimes the metaphors in this book got a bit overused (particularly with the ermine), I loved the writing style and was constantly underlining things in my eARC. That said, I struggled to read this for long periods of time because this book deals with some very heavy topics.

When Roscille is forced by her father to marry MacBeth, she is both terrified of getting trapped in the cycle of breeding and birthing that is the burden of married ladies and determined to do whatever it takes to escape that fate. She has found that her gaze can entrance me and she uses this to bend them to her will. Roscille is a fascinating heroine because she is both tragic and terrifying. Some readers will probably find her incredibly unlikable in her ruthlessness, and yet, I could not help but root for her in the end. Ava Reid has really turned this classic tale on its head and I cannot wait to devour whatever they write next!

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deekayfrey's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Dark, Disturbing, & Delicious.

Ava Reid breathes new life into the tragic tale of Macbeth. Through the eyes of Lady Macbeth, the tale of their demise deepens into the harsh sting of a blade. Reid's style is poetic and brutal. Devastating and delightful. The story unravels in Lady Macbeth's desire to survive the marriage bed to her foreign husband, saving herself a perceived pain; she accidentally sentences others to a grisly fate.

"Madness, of all things, is the most unforgivable in a woman."

Thank you, NetGalley & Random House Publishing, for the eArc!

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princegene95's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Amazing adaptation of Macbeth from the pov of the Lady.

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mikaelawithak's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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the_rainydayreader's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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creadsfantasy's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book! Ava Reid is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite authors. I absolutely love how her settings are a character in her books and it's woven so flawlessly into the story, the character development and the plot. She took a story that almost everyone knows something about, and turned it on its head. She added her signature gothic style and the atmosphere was dark, dangerous, and haunted. There were so many quotable moments, moments where I gasped or cried, and the story still surprised me in so many ways. I loved how she chose to include the many names all of the characters would have had depending on the regional dialect and all of the historical research that went into the setting of this story. This will probably be one of my favorite books of all time and it will be difficult not to pre-order multiple editions of this book.

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designatedbanana's review

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dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“If she cannot have safety, if she cannot have love, at least she can have this. Vengeance.”

Lady Macbeth is a magical, devastating, and beautiful retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It walks a thin line between being inspired by the original text and retelling the story, as it exists within the same world but varies greatly from the original story. I believe this makes the book perfect for anyone, whether they are fans of the original play or not.
Lady Macbeth has always been one of Shakespeare’s most interesting characters, even from the male-centric story of Macbeth she shines through and captures the audience's attention. Hearing the story from her point of view is so interesting, it gives voice to her manipulations and schemes and helps us understand that she never wanted to be a monster but that is the role the men in her life forced her into. In this story she is even able to find comfort and love in the other outcasts of the world and find a way to forge a new path for them.
I have so many wonderful things to say about this book but if I continue I’m sure to spoil something so I’ll end with saying; this book is a must read for anyone interested in stories that give voices to women that have previously been drowned out by men. It also doesn’t hurt if you enjoy Shakespeare, but having knowledge of the play is not instrumental to the enjoyment of this book.

Thank you to Ava Reid, her publication team, and NetGalley for allowing me to enjoy an advanced copy of this magnificent book!

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chelsea_shelves's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I have a lot of feelings about this book because it was so highly anticipated, so I’ll put a quick review up top.

TLDR :

Stunning lyrical prose in a well researched story that couldn’t decide if it’s dark fairytale, historical fiction or fantasy that beats readers over the head with feminist-ish commentary. Character development is lacking and the FMC is not a baddie like the OG Lady Macbeth. The witches could steal the show but are not featured nearly enough.

—-

Full review:

This was quite a letdown for me as I so love Macbeth and the poetic prose of Ava Reid. I expected a lyrical, cutting and powerful retelling. What I got was lyrical but somehow lackluster while being extremely brutal. I will start with what I did appreciate. The bleak atmosphere was relentless and gothic. I loved the historical detail and especially the etymological attention throughout the novel. Reading it on my Kindle allowed me to look up words, places and people. Some were not even in Wikipedia, and I had to do a deep dive to find out more. This shows the research Reid put into this work. This lifted my rating.

The three witches were brilliant and by far my favorite part of the story. Eerie, unsettling and then later human, comedic, redeeming. I would read a book centered on them, for sure.

Now on to my critique. I found this overall to be overwritten and heavy handed with its feminist message of men are bad simple minded creatures and women are trapped. Set in the 900s it’s certainly fair to paint an extremely male controlled world, but the excessive commentary had me rolling my eyes far too often. It took away from what felt like a beautiful fairytale in the beginning - strong in metaphor, imagery and symbolism. However, every time I thought I understood what type of story I was reading I was proven wrong. 65% of the way in I had accepted that I was reading a dark historical fiction with some leaning into folklore of the time. Nope, suddenly I was to believe dragons and unicorns were absolutely real. Until that point the “magic” was more myth and superstition - fear, not reality.

So then it was a fantasy - except it wasn’t. It returned to brutal gothic drear. Then the ending surged back into high fantasy….. While I like good genre blurring, this did not work and did not feel believable. Just frustrating.

With the exception of Roscille I found most characters to be quite flat. Even her love interest as the redeeming male character was uncomplicated (save for his transformation which I will call more of an attention grab for marketing than character development…trying to be vague to not spoil the plot). Maybe this is back to the simple fairytale formatting, an attempt to make the characters archetypal - which I could be on board with if it was more consistent. The characters I did find compelling were brushed over. What a tale we could have received if we learned more about the backstory of the witches, the handmaids, Macbeth himself. But this was a world mostly devoid of females except for our heroine… a confused 17-year-old far from the fierce middle aged Lady Macbeth Shakespeare envisioned.

Taking away my comparison to the source material, I would still be underwhelmed and ultimately annoyed with how the ending didn’t match with the rest of the book. It was not convincing. So much potential here. I wanted to love it. I tried hard to love it. I could not.

Thank goodness for the absolutely gorgeous prose. Many lines I reread out loud just for their beauty or striking pain. For that reason, and for the clearly academic mind of the author, I may read more from Ava Reid. I’ve heard good things about Juniper and Thorn and ASID.

Content Warnings

sydverse's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Ava Reid’s prose is beautiful as always, it was so easy to get lost in the atmosphere that she’s created here. I’ve never read the original play so if you’re approaching this book looking for a faithful retelling I cannot be the person who tells you whether it is or isn’t, my lens of this story is how it exists on its own.

I think that there’s some great stuff here and the story held my attention through to the end. The end did feel quite rushed, and it made the slow pacing of the rest of the book feel off in comparison. I wish the last chapter could have been expanded in another chapter or two, with that time being taken from somewhere in the middle of the novel which felt the slowest in my opinion. So much happens so quickly in that last chapter that I was left with a bit of dissatisfaction when I finished just because of how quickly everything seems to just wrap up so neatly after an entire book of twists and turns.

I have seen some other reviews saying that Roscille completely lacked agency, and while I don’t completely agree I do wish that her power in the story could have been stronger. She goes through most of the book appearing to outsmart all of the men around her and setting everything up for herself, only for that to not be the case and it makes all that she did before feel wasted, though perhaps that was the point. Overall there's a general lack of nuance narrative-wide that as I begin reflecting on the book after finishing it left a lot of room for interesting conversations that unfortunately didn't happen. I think especially the attitude towards the Scots as a whole paints them all with a very broad brush in a negative way, which is something I think could've been handled somewhat differently.

My other complaint is the romance subplot. I think that had this subplot been removed, the story would have still worked the same and that it wasn’t necessary. I feel that it was so underutilized and explored that it was more of a detriment to the story, and it either needed to be focused on more and given more depth than what we got, or removed completely. It could go either way and I would be happy, I was just again dissatisfied with the pacing of the relationship development/the male love interest’s development as a whole and to an extent their motivations, but I won’t go more in detail to avoid spoilers.

Overall, this is not my favorite Ava Reid book but still a good read despite the qualms I may have with parts of the story. I wish I could give it five stars as this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, but the pacing problems in particular took it down to a four for me.

Thank you the NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review

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1aura_reads's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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