A review by eveningjaye
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

This can barely be called a retelling. All it has in common with the play is prophetic witches, people being murdered, the name Macbeth, and the fact that there are Thanes of Glamis and Cawdor. 

It left me with so many questions. For example:
  • Where are the compelling themes and motifs and psychological explorations of how murder affects the characters? 
  • Where is Lady Macbeth's agency? 
  • Why is she a 17 year old French girl who has things happen to her instead of literally being the force behind the plot? 
  • What does Ava Reid have against Scottish people?
  • How do you "give her a voice, a past, and a power" when she ALREADY HAD ALL THOSE THINGS IN THE ORIGINAL PLAY? Did Reid even read Macbeth or just an AI summary? This is, if anything, less "feminist" than the original,
    consider that she 1. has no agency, and 2. gets saved by a man.

Why is Macbeth so brutish towards his wife when there is literally nothing in the original play that would make you think that? Macbeth loves his wife in the play. He literally committed murder because she told him to. Ava Reid saw this and went "oh yeah this grubby barbaric (yes she uses this word multiple times to describe him and Scotland itself) definitely abuses women." Like??? What even.


This could have been an okay standalone or even an okay Bluebeard retelling. Literally all you would need to do is change the names of the characters and the location. It would have been that easy. 

Also, Athelstan was NOT King of England when the real Macbeth was alive, and why are the Scotsmen "barbarians"? Why is the only half-decent man in this book half-English? I think we as a society have done enough of that already.
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