This was probably the most twisted and dark book I’ve read all year. I honestly don’t even know what to think. A young adult book loosely based on McBeth, what a wild ride! Sinister and disturbing. A book full of unlikable characters doing despicable things and yet you can’t turn the pages fast enough. Cannot wait to see what’s in store for us next from this crazy author.

A modern retelling of Macbeth? Uh, yes please!

At times, the writing felt disjointed and confusing. I found myself reading a few scenes a few times in order to really grasp what was going on. To be completely fair, though, I feel like this added to the creepiness (I'm not sure if that's the word I'm really looking for here) of the book and I really enjoyed it.

Was this retelling of Macbeth a little outrageous? Yeah, absolutely. But I loved it. It was violent and dark and powerful in ways that are a little more relatable than the classic Macbeth.

This was a really powerful story, but there was something about the tone that just didn't quite work for me. Definitely worth a read, but probably won't be one I read again.

A badass tale of revenge that left me feeling empowered and ready to fight the patriarchy to the death! Come on female empowerment!

Thank you Wednesday Books, St. Martins Press and Hannah Capin for an advanced copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Foul is Fair
By: Hannah Capin

Note: This book contains possible triggers and sensitive material. Please visit hannahcapin.com/foulisfair for a more detailed description.

*REVIEW* ☆☆☆☆☆
First, note that Foul is Fair is a feminist retelling of Macbeth, and it's serious girl power all the way. Second, understand that this story requires a definite suspension of disbelief, and, as such, it's not for everyone. I know some readers like stories grounded in nothing but truth and reality, but you won't find that here-not completely, anyway. No-this is a tale of vengeance for each and every girl who has ever been drugged, duped, used or tossed aside like a worthless nothing. If a guy has ever made you feel small, this one is for you.

"Are we the villians?"
"No," I say. "We're fate."

Foul is Fair is a story of revenge, of karma, of fate giving the wicked exactly what they deserve. Does seeking revenge for a horrible wrong a villian make? In this story, Jade is an avenging angel with black wings and righteousness on her side. Those whom she seeks deserve everything they will get for the acts committed against Jade. I am not going into detail because I don't want to give anything away. In the overall picture, Jade and her "coven", three best friends, devise a step by step plan to right this atrocity and carry out said plan with exacting perfection. Female bonds and the power of women is forefront here. It's refreshing to read about a group of girls who believe in and will literally do anything for each other. Jade is a larger than life character. She is wild, determined, cunning, devious and strong. Jade is also a little on the crazy fearless side, but her flippant, unconventional out of the box personality and thought processes make her an authentic individual. Jade is very in your face jumping off the page. Her anger is a tangible force; her need for revenge is genuine and relatable. I believe every word she says. Despite her viscous nature, Jade is now one of my favorite characters ever. Jenny, Summer and Mads also have big personalities and make non conformist lifestyle choices which suit them well. High school dynamics and social hierarchies are depicted so accurately throughout the entire story, lending a feeling of authenticity that gave me flash backs to my own high school days. I love the writing style because it's different from most things I've read. The pace has a feeling of urgency. The dialogue is conversational, subtle, normal-but ripe with meaning. The method by which the girls first reveal themselves to the guys is an eerie tableaux written with powerful simplicity, and I loved it. This story is brutal, and I do mean, in all seriousness, BRUTAL. Expect bad language, graphic scenes, violence, etc. I was utterly speechless and disbelieving, but secretly glad in an almost giddy way, numerous times. I kept thinking this or that wouldn't or couldn't possibly happen, then it actually did, and wow! Hannah Capin pushed the boundaries of young adult way out there with this one, and I'm so glad she did because it's brilliant. Even so, this story is, sadly, centered around an exaggerated version of something horrible that happens to girls and women every day. I think it's time for this type of story. The content could not be more important, timely and relevant for every female. The general idea and portrayal of such astounding girl power is a positive thing. I am not, however, condoning violence of any kind, rather I am suggesting a push toward standing up and standing strong together in a man's world. There are numerous important lessons regarding sexual assault, bullying, drinking, partying, peer pressure, etc. to take away from this book. I love this story for so many reasons, and I hope other readers, especially girls, find it as enlightening as I did. You are not alone. You are not powerless. You are, probably, not a villain, either. Right?

Foul is Fair by Hanna Capin is a hooking Macbeth inspired story of blood and revenge that will leave you at the edge of your seat! There are definitely a lot of content warnings that can be found on Capin's website: https://www.hannahcapin.com/foulisfair

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I was so unsure of the ending ad how Capin was going to formulate something that I will accept because I have grown so interested in the characters! However, she proved me wrong and I was just in awe after finishing this book.

this book made me feel like I could rip into a boy's chest, pull out his still beating heart, and grind it into dust beneath my boot. it also made me very sad.



I've never quite understood what the appeal of claws is, but I do now.

The story itself was compelling -- whether that's because I have complicated feelings about sexual assault plots that makes me pay really close attention (well...), or because it's a Macbeth adaptation (a not-insignificant part of my interest), or just because it was well done (which it was).

SPEAKING OF MACBETH. I delighted in the transfer of Macbeth from Shakespeare to contemporary. Foul is Fair is a book all it's own (see: my use of adaptation, not retelling) with more depth and twists than the source material. The names might be one of my favorite little details? I mean, how clever is it to twist Banquo into Banks? And making them LAX bros?? incredible.

ALSO!! THE THREE WITCHES!!! AND "LADY MACBETH" WORKING WITH THEM! UGH!!!

The prose honestly wasn't my favorite (my favorite would be idk normal prose or Stiefvater). It was a little choppy, but that did add a lot of atmosphere to the story and it didn't take away any of my ability to really dive in.

The imagery was amazing. I always love books that play like movies in my mind. To me, it's a sign of great flow and storytelling, and Foul is Fair played all the way through.

That ending made me gasp! I'm intimidated! And sad, kinda!

Overall I highly recommend, but only if you're ready to feel like you have claws.





Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

There are so many things I loved about this but I think the one thing that stands out the most to me was how fantastic the writing was. I was hooked!This one is an unforgettable story for many factors. It is supposed to be the retelling of Shakespeare's Lady MacBeth but I haven't read that book, so I don't know how faithful it is to it. This story features the issue of a bullying mentality often found among students.I had some questions through the story that I felt the author didn't explain them and this is my only issue!

Everyone loves a good revenge story, and this is definitely a story of revenge. I do have some mixed feelings about this story. While it is a dark reality that we live in that girls are assaulted at parties and no one ever deserves to find themselves in that position, this is decidedly a dark path that one girl walks down. 15 year old Elle finds herself the victim of a brazen sexual assault at a party. Refusing to become a victim Elle, and her coven of friends begin a targeted revenge campaign meant to eliminate every boy who had a hand in Elle’s rape. Going through a physical transformation, Elle enrolls at St. Andrews and begins her campaign of manipulation. With the help of her friends, each boy is slowly eliminated. There is a poetic quality to the writing that is a little different from the typical narrative. In general this story is a little unsettling, as Elle seems to spiral and lose herself with each successive killing. This seems to be a first novel in an ongoing storyline, and I am intrigued enough with it to pursue the story into future novels. Review posted to Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Amazon.

I am going to break out of my norm just a little here because it is hard to stay out of first-person when I do not like a novel.

My first issue with the novel is the aesthetic. I was not thrilled with this cover at all. I felt like it was sloppy and did not fit the tone or plotline at all. The color choice is a little off-putting, and I’m sorry, but what is her chin on? This is probably my least professional review ever, and I apologize for that, but this cover, it really bothers me.

Then there is the plot. Once I read the plotline, I was instantly drawn in. I love historical retellings, and I love revenge stories, they are (usually) gritty and tension driven. However, honestly, once I started reading, I was almost immediately put off because I could not connect to the main characters.

Yes, this is supposed to be a retelling of Macbeth from the female perspective and Jade is the Queen while her best friends are the three witches. Nevertheless, the writing style it lost me. It is everything terrible about an unreliable narrator because Jade tells the story in a jarring and slightly unbelievable. It seems unrealistic, how accommodating everyone is, how easy it is for her to tell her parents and her friends, and then start at a new school. Yes, it is significant that she does not allow herself to be a victim. However, instead of coming out of the situation in an empowering way or gets her revenge in an empowering way, she just comes off as cruel and unrelatable. Yes, something unimaginably horrible was done to her, but she lets herself drown in that pain.

The character dynamics, again, they just were not believable. Starting at the new school, makes Mack fall in love with her instantly, gets involved with the in-crowd in a snap? Sorry, but as much as this is fiction, the reader should not have to suspend belief that much.

I wanted to like this book, the premise was everything I usually love, but it comes down to the writing, to the tone of the story, both of which are off-putting. It was a struggle to read this novel, and honestly, it almost made it to the DNF pile.

Wow! Talk about a pissed off teenage girl! A modern retelling of MacBeth mixed with the spoiled, stupid children of Gossip Girl.

Elle is molested at a Prep school party and vows to get revenge on all of the boys and girl involved. With her cliche of girlfriends, she leads Mack to destroy his friends.

An interesting take on a classic, it was suspenseful, thought provoking and bloody. I’m not sure I liked any of the characters, each was horrible in their own way and I felt such hatred for them. Foul is Fair is definitely worth the read to form your own opinions.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is a trip, to say the least. It's thrilling, dark and vengeful. I was drawn into this story from the very beginning. The only issue I had was occasuonally I struggled to keep up with what was going on at certain points, which is why I went with a 3 star rating instead of higher. Overall, this was really interesting and everything became clear in the end.

I get that the author was trying to go for a modern take on Macbeth--think Bard meets prep school. But god, the writing was SO melodramatic, so repetitive, and so difficult to follow. For being based on a play that mixes magic and realism in such a seamless way, it was hard at times to tell if Capin was doing the same thing, or speaking metaphorically. Honestly, this was a DNF for me.

I didn’t know what was waiting for me when I started this book. I remembered it being a Shakespeare retelling, but to be quite honest, I haven’t read enough of Shakespeare to really notice the similarities there. But that didn’t affect my reading experience at all either way.

The thought “this book is f*cking badass” came to me from pretty early on as that’s what this book is. Effing badass. It’s bloody, it’s savage, it’s empowering as hell. Whether you yourself have experienced anything remotely similar to Jade, you will root for her anyway. Even though what she does is really, really messed up, you understand where she’s coming from.

I definitely didn’t feel bad for all the golden boys in this. I felt like I knew what was about to happen, but there was still enough of twists and turns to keep me on my toes. I wasn’t disappointed.

The thought of “how can they get away with this” came to mind quite often, but if you’re from a powerful enough – and rich – family, anything is possible. That was probably one of the most captivating subjects that was mentioned in the book for me – the fact how certain things are noticed, but not ever mentioned to anyone. No one does anything even though they know what’s happening is wrong. They’re probably afraid something bad’s going to happen to them as well if they so much as make a peep. Kind of feel that would’ve been true.

All in all, this was nothing like I had ever read before and I can’t wait for what Hannah Capin has in store for all of us next. What an epic story!

Hannah's writing hand me hooked from the moment I opened up this book! It was everything I was looking for in trying not to hit a slump. 

Foul Is Fair reads with such a dark and gritty feeling.  Jade, from the moment we meet her, has such a feeling of emotional disconnect - before we end knew what happened to her - but that somehow made me feel even more connected to her.  I found Jade to be a strong character.  I loved how she interacted with the other characters, the St. Andrew's crowd and her friends, who she constantly refers to as her coven (love!).  However, with Jade's emotional disconnect, I never really felt the love of her friends.  Everyone felt like they were kept at an arm's length, even when she was getting their help.

I don't know how she manages it, but Hannah manages to make everything so dark and gripping that I never wanted to put the book down.  I'm still reeling after finishing the book only a few short days ago and I'm not even fully sure of my feelings.  What I do know is that this tackles rape culture in a fantastical, yet somehow respectful way.  I have seen others compare it to Heathers, and yes I feel like it has similar tones to it (although it has been many years since I have watched Heathers).

Overall, I would gave this book 4 stars and I'm glad I got to read this when I did.  Thank you Hannah and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy.

https://youngatheartreader.blog/2020/02/15/blog-tour-foul-is-fair-by-hannah-capin-review-excerpt/

I haven’t been doing a great job keeping up on writing book reviews for a few weeks, so this one is very overdue! But I received an eARC of Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin from Wednesday Books and NetGalley. Why am I not surprised that the publishers of Courtney Summers have given us another kickass girl-centred revenge plot? This time it’s loosely based on Macbeth, but even if you aren’t aware of or don’t care for the Shakespearean allusions, it’s still a captivating story of violence and revenge. For the first chapter or so, I was nervous I would end up hating it—Capin’s style is definitely distinctive here—but eventually I surrendered myself to the prose.

Content warnings for the book/discussion in this review: rape/sexual assault, violence/murder, scene that depicts transphobic bullying.

Elle and her friends crash a prep school party, and several of the popular boys at that school target Elle for rape. She responds to this by transforming into Jade, an avenging queen of a coven of witches—Mads, Summer, and Jenny—who together will bring down this group of boys in the bloodiest fashion possible. Jade transfers to the prep school and rises through the popularity ranks, courting an up-and-coming golden boy—Mack—and plotting murder.

One’s enjoyment of this book will depend greatly, as I intimated above, on how one feels about the prose style. Capin’s description and dialogue are lyrical in a way that probably is a nod to the story’s dramatic origins. Narration itself is sparse, exposition even more so. Although nominally told from Jade’s point of view, the only real glimpses into her mind we are allowed involve her thoughts on her revenge plot. We learn remarkably little about Jade as a person, because for the duration we’re entangled with her, she is a creature consumed by her need for revenge. Other exposition is delivered almost like an afterthought.

Honestly, though? In any other book I probably would have ripped this choice apart. I love novels because I love straightforward prose. That might make me boring, but it’s a subjective aesthetic! So take this for the high praise coming from me that it is when I say Capin makes this style work for me. Similarly, I reserve the label “cinematic” for very few books, because I don’t visualize when I read. Foul is Fair is undeniably cinematic. The pacing and expository style make me think of those movies where you start off having no idea what the hell is going on, but there’s a lot of flashy and glittery costumes and perfect white teeth and teens drinking, and eventually you grasp the plot. Again, I don’t normally enjoy those movies, but something tells me I could enjoy that kind of movie if it were Foul is Fair.

This really is a horror story, when you get right down to it. It’s a horror story where we’re on the side of the monster. It’s so interesting, because almost certainly that wasn’t Shakespeare’s intent when he wrote Macbeth, yet Capin has managed to take that kernel of an idea and turn it into this sympathetic murder plot, and I really like it! Morality is really ancillary here to Jade’s need to punish the boys for what they did. She doesn’t just kill them: she nefariously manipulates another person into doing the work for her in brutal and fantastic fashion. And it’s very hard to look away—yet I kept finding myself taking breaks because I was just so exhausted by the intensity!

Also, given my newly out status, it behoves me to mention: trans character! I appreciate how Capin almost casually drops in the fact that Mads is trans without making too big of a deal. There is a flashback that depicts some bullying Mads experiences after coming out in middle school, which I assume is meant to demonstrate Jade’s fierce and violent loyalty to her coven. However, I really do like that Capin doesn’t reveal Mads’ deadname even though Jade certainly knows it—there is no reason for Jade to share that with us. She just says “Mads’ deadname” wherever necessary, and it works very well.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I will say that Foul is Fair maintains its pace and adrenaline throughout the book. I was not disappointed.

Wednesday Books reached out to me a little while back to participate in the Foul is Fair blog tour and I was very excited to be working with them again! This book is what I would describe as Heathers meets Macbeth, in the best ways possible. It's very graphic and gets very dark at times, so it's definitely not for certain groups of people. Also good to note that this book has a hefty trigger warning at the start because it deals with issues like sexual assault, transphobia, violence and more. So, if you are planning to pick this book up, make sure you read that warning and heed anything that may not be safe for you to read!

It’s safe to say I loved this book. This was a fantastic blend of the classic Shakespearean Macbeth plot but mixed in with Heathers vibes. It’s not a spoiler to say that this book is filled with death. That’s pretty much implied by the mixture of these two sources of inspiration, but at the heart, this book is about revenge.

Elle is a deeply hurt girl, and she channels all of her energy into the blinding rage she feels after being sexually assaulted at a high school party. The characters all feel kind of caricature-like, mainly because it’s fairly easy to see that they are embodying the tropes provided in the source materials. I had a couple of funny epiphanies while reading about where the Heathers comparisons come in… but I don’t want to ruin those for you. It was fun and frightening and a little disturbing to read about everything Elle does. But in the end, I would definitely recommend this book to someone who loves Macbeth or Heathers (or both). I’ve never read a YA book quite like this, and you may not have either. Go check it out!

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

I am uncomfortable rating this because I am not someone who has ever been sexually assaulted. That being said, I did not like the route the characters in this book took to get revenge for the main characters rape.

The main character Jade had such a distinct voice. I really enjoyed the dark and violent descriptions we got from her point of view. Her way of seeing the world was super fascinating. Driven by revenge she totally went the distance and I loved every minute of it. She didn't shy away from her revenge plan or eventually change her mind like many other stories I've read. She stayed the same pretty much from the beginning. Even though she had major flaws as a person she was still a character I could root for. She was vain, ruthless, and a little psychotic, but all of it was highly enteratining. Her ability to read people well enough to get them to do what she wants was a lot of fun. I do wish I'd gotten to know more about her before her need for revenge took over her entire life. I really appreciated how supportive her parents were.

Despite Jades relationship with her close group of friends feeling codependent at times, I still liked how she could depend on them for anything. I love the whole Im the type of friend who will help you hide a dead body. Each girl had their own personality and backstory. I don't know if Jennys character was needed since she didnt add much to the story, but I didnt actually mind her unlike Summer who I found too pushy. Mads was the type of friend to see through your bullshit and call you out on it, but will have your back no matter what. I connected the most with Lilia, the queen bee at Jades new school. Some of the characters actions didnt always feel realistic, but maybe that's because they just weren't something I could relate to. The characters still felt real enough for me to picture them as individual people though.

This story was definitely more plot than character driven. It was dark twisted blood bath and I had a whole lot of fun reading it. The gripping plot filled with one murder after another kept me engaged from start to finish. I loved all the scheming and how the main character planned out her revenge. She took her time and played with her targets, inflicting as much damange as possible before killing them off. I do wish I hadnt seen the twist coming from a mile away. Maybe a little less forshadowing or more misleading would have helped. I also think an epilogue after everything was said and done would have been nice, but I don't mind open ended conclusions. Im glad the story focused on the revenge portion over describing the sexual assault. It happens right at the beginning, but it isnt shown in detail. The flasbacks still had an emotional punch without being graphic.

The story takes place at a rich catholic private high school. The life of the rich and spoiled gave this a gossip girl vibe, but with a shit ton of murder. The mention of coven in the summary had me believing this was going to have more magic than it actually did. I think the girls turn into birds at some point, but Im not sure if it was just in the main characters mind or if it was some kind of symbolism. I loved the message that trauma doesn't have to change someone. They can take that power away from their abuser and be like I wont let you break me or turn me into something I wasn't already. It just really resonated with me personally. I would recommend this if you love revenge stories where the main character doesnt have a change of heart, but actually rips their enemies to shreds.