While Reid's prose is beautiful, this is definitely not a feminist retelling of Macbeth. I would barely call it a Macbeth retelling, since it really only utilizes the names from the play. This story seems more like a Sansa Stark retelling, not Lady Macbeth. I would also like to mention that this novel is barely fantasy and does not utilize blatant fantasy elements for most of the novel. Please read the content warnings before reading.

Throughout the novel, Lady Macbeth is timid, quiet, and submissive. For a supposed "feminist" retelling, most of her actions are forced or inspired by the men who surround her. In this book, she's shaking like a leaf just thinking about killing an "innocent old man" and begs the transfixed guards to do the dirty work for her. She's just a completely different character. She "gains" her strength and properly embodies the villainess character when she is finally able adorn her husband's name, therein taking on HIS attributes. A mask that she almost immediately removes. Her interpretations of her surroundings were so twisted, it established an unreliable narrator feeling for the entire novel. When someone asks her a question about her experience at one point, she says she's basically a dog, commanded to "speak". Like girl, he just asked you a question about your experience with something?

The repetitive bashing on Scots was heavy handed, and I completely understand how people are turned off by this. I got annoyed by it pretty quickly.

It's really unfortunate that Reid took a character that is an OG "Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss" woman who embodied "Fine, I'll just do it myself", and turned her into a wincing, terrified 17-year-old. From the beginning, I was expecting her to match Macbeth's energy and that really didn't happen until the last few pages. She kept doing mildly morally gray things and then wallowing in her guilt when the consequences of her actions negatively affected others. At every single turn, except randomly not with Lisander, she expected the absolute worst out of everyone around her. So much of the novel, especially the first half, is Lady Macbeth putting words in other people's mouths and creating false narratives to then judge the person on. If those spiraling, self-pitying thoughts were taken out of this novel, this book would be transformed into a novella. She was a puppet almost the entire story, always being controlled or manipulated by a man. I have genuinely no idea how this is remotely labelled feminist. Also, if I had to read the metaphor about lampreys circling in a pool one more time, I was going to DNF it.

The best things about this novel weren't related to the retelling of Shakespeare. Her and Lisander's relationship was compelling, and I would love to read more about them. Reid's prose, while heavy handed at times, is enjoyable to read.

This is the second novel of Reid's I have read and not really enjoyed. I will probably read Juniper and Thorn at some point, but I'm not in a rush.

Thank you Netgalley, Del Rey, and Ava Reid for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for giving me this ARC!

3 Stars!

I loved Ava's writing style in A Study in Drowning. When she announced a Macbeth retelling, I was so excited for it. I took Shakespear classes throughout college, and Macbeth was one of my favorite plays. I found that this story for me, wasn't a Macbeth retelling. I would've labeled it as a bluebeard. I know that retellings create their own versions, but this lacked so many things from Macbeth that I just didn't feel the correlation. Also, in many scenes, I got a distaste for what should've been the Scotland scenery and the Scottish people. There were a lot of inaccuracies. When I finished this one, I felt so confused and "What did I just read?".

And I don't understand the Dragon... That's all I'll say on that.

Overall, this one didn't hit with me. If you love Macbeth, I wouldn't go into this thinking of it as a retelling.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

A retelling of the famous Shakespearean tragedy, Lady Macbeth follows 17 year old Lady Roscille after she is married to Lord Macbeth. Her witch-touched eyes are said to inspire madness in men, but her plotting and strategy are her most dangerous weapons.

Disclaimer: I have never read Macbeth, so I am not sure how faithful or different this adaptation is compared to the original play!

What I appreciated the most about this book was the atmosphere. Ava Reid did an excellent job depicting the castle with the dreary and isolating vibes. The visuals were gorgeous and the language was unique and helped aid the storytelling. Additionally, the fantasy elements were so fun and engaging, I have a deep appreciation for how the magic was explained. I also liked the addition of feminist themes and the reclamation of power that was taken from you.

This book was slower than I would have liked. I felt like so much of the details were given to the setting and the gothic atmosphere, but nothing was spared to describe characters. Aside from Macbeth himself, none of the other characters stood out to me as three dimensional people. I wish I understood more about character motivations so some of the plot points weren’t so confusing. I genuinely feel like I missed a part in the beginning about where her handmaiden went? I felt there were still questions left unanswered after I finished the book.

If you love retellings of Shakespearean tragedies with feminist themes, fantasy elements, and gothic atmosphere, then Lady Macbeth comes out on August 13th!

It's not often I can clearly see, hear, feel, taste, and smell a world, but when Ava Reid writes, I am viscerally sucked into hers.

I have not read Macbeth, so my knowledge of the original story comes from the internet, and I cannot truly compare it to the original material.

I loved the mind games, scheming, magic, dragons, witches, curses, and dark, gothic atmosphere of the whole book, and I loved being in Roscille's PoV and how conflicted she is with the role she is supposed to play. I especially enjoyed the attention to detail around language that the author included. However, I did feel like the ending was abrupt and wished there had been more.

CWs: rape, abuse, murder, torture, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, child death, misogyny, poison, on-page lobotomy, and a lot more.


Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is actually devastating, but I am DNFing this. I am literally bored to tears. I've tried so many times to keep pushing and I am just not enjoying the story.

Ava Reid has become a favorite author of mine. I was so excited to be approved for this because I was really anticipating reading it. This would be on the lower end if I ranked their books. The writing is very well done. I thought the setting was described beautifully. I had a fairly difficult time getting through the first part of the book. The second half did pick up quite a bit. There are some parts involving Roscille and another character that I really enjoyed but won't talk about here due to potential spoiler issues. I do love a morally gray character and Lady Macbeth really fills that role.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First thing you should know about me, Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play, and I'm deeply familiar with it and the themes and history of the time.

Second, while I can always appreciate another lens shined on Shakespeare's work, I also NEED it to be saying something interesting that was not already in the original work.

So character changes, plot details, and modern-day influences can all be interesting. IF they are doing something different and unique with the already established work that modern readers can relate to.

None of that happened here.

I could not see any merit in changing Lady Macbeth's character so drastically that all of her scheming, understanding, and boundaries placed upon her during the time she lived was erased and replaced with a pretty teenager from France who lacked any and all nuance and subtlety.

I also had issues with the writing, which I had previously enjoyed from this author in A Study In Drowning. This felt so dry and stripped of all beauty to me. GREAT prose, in my opinion, should always be more than beautiful words. It should show us things about the characters and the world. It should illuminate things we already think and feel in our souls and put those to words we can not. And this had none of that. It is also repetitive in description lacking in rhythm.

Again, let me emphasize how much subtlety this entire book lacked. Every metaphor and every implication that misogyny is bad and women have no agency (something that was NOT shouted at us in the original Macbeth) and the Scots are nothing but brutes was obvious to the point of near literally spelling it out to us.

I wasn't expecting this to be an exact retelling at all. But I was hoping for it to have some of the same feeling, and certainly, I was expecting it to not be so lacking in feeling and depth.

I'm so disappointed.

I received an ARC for review

I think I'm done trying to force myself to like Ava Reid's books. At least her adult books, because aside from A Study in Drowning, every other book I've tried by them just doesn't work for me. Unfortunately this was another book that suffered from "but it sounds like everything I'd enjoy, why am I bored???" While it's clear Reid is an excellent writer, I find their prose at times overwrought, and with the angst of a Shakespeare retelling, it was just too much for me. I'll keep an eye out for her YA books, but this officially ends my journey with their adult novels. This book will find its audience, it just unfortunately isn't me.

Lady Macbeth is a retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth, but from Lady Macbeth's POV, after her father sends here away to be married, her new home isn't exactly as it seems. Lady Macbeth is alone and on a mission to outsmart her husband, and also discover the castles hidden secrets. The story is full of magic, deception, old prophecies and feminism.

While the writing was so beautiful and it was such an interesting perspective, I'm not sure this story was for me. I went into this so excited because I loved A Study In Drowning, and maybe it just wasn't the right timing or I'm just not as big of Shakespeare fan as I thought, but I had a hard time staying engaged. All things considered, I do believe it's such a powerful story and a strong FMC that leads it. I did feel confused for a lot of the book and that the love story fell a little flat, which made it a hard read for me to get through.

Lady Macbeth is an eerie yet mesmerizing retelling of Macbeth, from the perspective of the titular Macbeth's ruthless wife. Having read quite a few fantastical retellings of famous women in literature, I was curious to see what Ava Reid's spin would be.

Now, I thoroughly devoured this book, but for those loyal to the original text of Macbeth, it's hard to say whether this would be an appealing read. Reid has always played fast and loose with her retellings, and her Macbeth retelling is no exception. Where our titular heroine is ruthless and cunning in the original play, Roscille is a teenage bride, an isolated bastard daughter of Brittany, trying to be clever while woefully out of her depth. She may collect her small victories, only to be dealt a crushing blow in return. At the end of the day, Roscille is a woman living in a time and place that doesn't care to cede her any power, so she must seek it through other means. If you're a fan of how much of a powerhouse Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth was, as she fearlessly mowed down her opposition and urged her husband to claim his destiny, this would definitely be frustrating to read about.

As with Reid's other retellings, Lady Macbeth is a miserable book where the heroine goes through hell before emerging stronger. I enjoyed spending several hours letting Reid lovingly torture me with her gorgeous prose, fairytale references, and ever-mounting stakes, but not everyone is going to feel the same way. I'd say that of her books, this one is less like The Wolf and the Woodsman and more like Juniper & Thorn, so readers should keep that in mind before deciding to pick this one up.

Listen, the fact of the matter is that Ava Reid is phenomenal and should be allowed to write whatever she wants forever, actually.

ARC provided by Netgalley.

I am a huge fan of Ava Reid and will read anything she writes. I absolutely loved Lady Macbeth and will be thinking about it forever. I recommend this book if you are a fan of feminist retellings, villains, and stories with a gothic atmosphere.

Lady Macbeth was one of my most anticipated reads for the second half of the year, but I’m sad to say that it fell a bit flat for me. It has Ava’s typical soft fmc that is working against men who are constantly belittling and tormenting them but for some reason this didn’t work for me this time. The pacing felt off and often times I was just bored with the story but I kept pushing through because I love the way Ava wraps up a story. However, with Lady Macbeth, the closer we got to the end of the book I wasn’t sure how this one was going to end. The last 20 pages of the book felt very rushed to me and ultimately did not give me that super satisfying feeling that I was wanting. Ava’s writing and prose continue to be so beautiful and I loved the dark gothic vibes and I would love to see her create more worlds with those same vibes.

Thank you Netgalley and Del Rey for the chance to read this early in exchange for an honest review!

2⭐️ i’m sorry this was not for me at all. I was intrigued by the premise of this book, but wow everything felt so off about this book. I’m not someone who has triggers but the amount of abuse the female main character went through at a young age was a bit too much for me. Maybe some people will love this but it was not for me.

I was not sure how this was going to be a Macbeth reimagining, but trust Ava Reid to get the work done.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey for sending me an ARC!

This is my first Ava Reid, but it will not by my last. This is haunting and beautiful and I was absolutely captivated. Definitely a top read for me this year.

A reimagining of Macbeth with a decidedly feminist bend (and easier to understand language.) This is the tragedy of Macbeth from Roscille's POV. We see her "treacherous" ways, her scheming, her murderous villainy. All from a 17-year-old girl's perspective, one who was sold from her father's home in France to the wilds of Scotland to marry the laird Macbeth. She must use her wits and wiles in order to survive. But Macbeth has occult secrets of his own.
You'll probably love or hate it depending on your take for the Shakespeare play. Personally, I think it's better. ;)

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for this e-arc.*

Thanks Net galley, Del Rey and Ava Reid for letting me read this eARC! This was a beautiful haunting book that takes the Shakespearian tale of Macbeth and tells it from the perspective of the lady of the House when she first comes to Macbeth's house as his wife. I enjoyed spooky atmospheric description of the castle and the surrounding area of Scotland that it describes and if anyone is interested in reading anything for the fall season then this is one they should put on their TBR list. five Stars !

Reid’s novel delves deep into the psyche of Lady Macbeth, offering a fresh perspective on her ambitions, desires, and the darkness that consumes her. The prose is lush and evocative, capturing the intensity of the original play while exploring themes of power and guilt in a new light. Reid’s character-driven narrative and rich historical detail make "Lady Macbeth" a compelling and thought-provoking read for fans of classic literature and psychological drama.

Sadly this completely missed the mark for me. I did not care for the writing style, it was almost purposefully artsy to create intrigue but in reality made the book a chore to follow. Everything blended into itself from the bland plot to the characters. There was no world building to speak of.