A review by sydverse
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

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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