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stephsz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
unavezmas's review
adventurous
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This book is a retelling of Macbeth which I just read. It plays out as you'd expect.
We follow girl rock band The Scottish Play as they become more famous and stuff starts happening. We have 1 person POV from each of the girls. On paper all the girls are very different: one has struggling with her addict parents, one had an abortion after abusive relationship with an older man, one really loves statistics and data. But in practise I couldn't tell the difference to the point when I sometimes had to return to the beginning of the chapter because I forgot whose POV I was reading.
To add insult to an injury the villain reveal didn't work for me. It was not forshadowed and I don't see a reason why no one mentioned it before. (Because the authors make it up as they go).
That being said though I had fun with it. It's only like 350 pages and I loved getting all the Macbeth references. Plus it's gay.
Crowe siting on his dad's lap with they/he pronoun pin and saying their dad is the best >>> everyone else
We follow girl rock band The Scottish Play as they become more famous and stuff starts happening. We have 1 person POV from each of the girls. On paper all the girls are very different: one has struggling with her addict parents, one had an abortion after abusive relationship with an older man, one really loves statistics and data. But in practise I couldn't tell the difference to the point when I sometimes had to return to the beginning of the chapter because I forgot whose POV I was reading.
To add insult to an injury the villain reveal didn't work for me. It was not forshadowed and I don't see a reason why no one mentioned it before. (Because the authors make it up as they go).
That being said though I had fun with it. It's only like 350 pages and I loved getting all the Macbeth references. Plus it's gay.
Crowe siting on his dad's lap with they/he pronoun pin and saying their dad is the best >>> everyone else
clarke's review
4.5
A combination of horror and rock, murder and Shakespeare. I was bound to love this. I desperately wanted to be friends with the group, and I'm equally as in love with Joan Jett (and share Maud's love of the runaways movie and trivia). They sound so cool, and we could probably share a wardrobe (and some bleach). Duff and Quincy, especially, I wish you were real. I was so frustrated and angry with Larry and Mac. A toxic relationship intertwined with Macbeth was a feast to read, but God I wanted to intervene! The Hecs as the three witches was a nice nod, and it wasn't too heavy handed with the metaphors. I do wish it was a bit more queer - there was a lot of LGBT representation in the characters but it was more stating facts than shown for the most part (and maybe I wish my two faves got together yknow).
I loved all the rock music included. Quotes, icons, inspiration, and just a general love of music. The passion and love for it came through, and it didn't feel like just name dropping. (I would like confirmation on if the character names were inspired by rock music, but I have an inkling they were).
I think I would've liked more horror. A certain characters descent into Shakespearean madness went from 0-60 very quickly, and I would've liked more haunting, paranormal shit, and general horror.
I think this does need another proof read, I noticed a couple things like missing speech marks, or a random bracket with no pair, etc. it wasn't a massive issue, but it made me stop and reread to make sure I was reading it right.
Overall, I really enjoyed this. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.
I loved all the rock music included. Quotes, icons, inspiration, and just a general love of music. The passion and love for it came through, and it didn't feel like just name dropping. (I would like confirmation on if the character names were inspired by rock music, but I have an inkling they were).
I think I would've liked more horror. A certain characters descent into Shakespearean madness went from 0-60 very quickly, and I would've liked more haunting, paranormal shit, and general horror.
I think this does need another proof read, I noticed a couple things like missing speech marks, or a random bracket with no pair, etc. it wasn't a massive issue, but it made me stop and reread to make sure I was reading it right.
Overall, I really enjoyed this. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Murder, Grief, Drug use, Body shaming, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Blood, Abortion, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death
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