Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid is a haunting and lyrical reimagining of Shakespeare's classic character. Reid masterfully delves into the psyche of Lady Macbeth, exploring her ambitions, fears, and the dark forces that drive her. The novel is rich in atmosphere, with Reid's prose painting vivid scenes that feel both timeless and contemporary. This retelling brings a fresh perspective to a well-known story, making it a compelling read for fans of historical fiction and psychological thrillers alike.

A new take on Macbeth... but the story is about Lady Macbeth and her journey as witch, bride, and villain. Ever since she was born she has been called witch, daughter of hagseeds... and the bastard child. Known for her unearthly beauty, said to entice and capture men, and for her mysterious gifts.... now she has been sold off to marriage in a strange land to a Scottish brute who is known for being a warrior and relentless both in the field and when it comes to the marriage bed. The Lady knows that his court is hostile and that to survive she must use all her cleverness... but every move will cost her and she must keep her witchcraft hidden if she wants to survive. But she can only endure so much before she snaps... and with a husband who is as brutish as he is ambitious, a court who is out for her, and the only solace she finds is in a rival prince who is somehow more monstrous yet kinder than her own husband.... the Lady must find a way to free herself before it is too late and she finds herself on the end of her husband's obsession with witches and prophecy... and find herself his newest victim. I have always enjoyed the Macbeth story and this was such a unique twist and take and I absolutely adored it. I loved that Ava Reid gave a voice to Lady Macbeth, I loved that she made her so much more. This was a really delightful read and the ending just felt perfect. I gritted my teeth while reading this book and felt the anger and vengeance that Lady Macbeth had been stewing in, I loved her endurance and strength. This is just a gorgeous take on a classic and one I would absolutely recommend for fans of the original or of anyone who enjoys female rage stories because rage she did and righteously so.

Release Date: August 13,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

“Death-touched. Poison-eyed. Witch-kissed.“

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
Rating: ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ .5

This was my first dive into Ava Reid books, and even though the first part of the book didn’t pull me in right away, I was intrigued. The writing was well done to fit with the nature of the story. Unfortunately, I do believe that I’ve found that I’m just not into historical fantasy. However, for lovers of retellings with fantasy elements added in, I think this will be a good read! There are some questionable bits about this book that I’m not sure will sit well with some, but I’ve also not read the original story of Macbeth.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I didn’t really enjoy this story as much as I thought I would. I don’t really know the original story of Lady Macbeth so I was excited to see how I’d like this retelling especially with it being a feminist character driven book. The storyline was a bit odd at times and hard to follow. The writing was still very beautiful and it being my first Ava Reid, I will be reading their other book. Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the arc.

"All hail the Queen who shows the dark threads beneath the world to which the mortal gaze is blind."


Roscille, a gorgeous foreign daughter, is being sent to the castle of a Scottish lord to be his wife. Macbeth has taken a great risk in securing the alliance with her lord, as she has been witch-kissed, cursed. It's said that if any man were to meet her eyes, they'd be overcome with their desire for her and eventually lose their lives. As she becomes Lady Macbeth, she learns the secrets and the way around the castle. But there's darker things at work, and trying to keep her life might just end up with her losing it.

I will say, the beginning of this book was a little slow for me, but that very well could be that I haven't read Macbeth itself before. I did read the summary of it to somewhat understand the storyline progression, and it picked up the pace. Roscille is just a girl trying her best honestly, and she deserves to be happy. Being foreign, accused as a witch, and stuck in a castle with literally only men sounds awful already, but especially during this era.
I did enjoy the book overall, I liked the darker and more fantastical take on this story, but now it makes me want to go read Macbeth itself to see the differences. You don't NEED to have read it to read this, but I feel like it makes it more fun to follow along.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review! Happy pub day Ava!

3.5 ⭐️
I’ve loved everything I’ve read by Ava Reid thus far but this story, although beautifully written, was not my favorite. I love how poetic and heart-wrenching her writing is and I obsessed over the many metaphors and symbolism throughout this story. there are so many quotes in this book that completely blew my mind!

I also adored the dark, lush atmosphere. I felt immersed in the story setting and could visualize the gloom of Scotland so vividly.

to me, the pacing of the book dragged in places and I got lost in the metaphorical writing which got especially confusing near the end of the book.

everything felt a bit hazy when reading this story, as if I was looking through a foggy window only catching glimpses of the depth of these characters, their motives, intentions, and personalities without truly connecting with them. I do love character-driven stories so this could be more of a “me” issue.

I was so fascinated by Roscille’s and desperately needed things to turn out well for her. I really wanted to know more about her but never felt like I got the full picture of who she was.

overall, I loved the poetic writing and the haunting setting but I wanted more from this story.

thank you Netgalley and Del Rey Publishing for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Audio, Del Rey, and NetGalley for the free audiobook and ebook in exchange for my honest review!!

3.5 - I unfortunately read this book at completely the wrong time (literally during the 2 days of my bar exam) which I think did not give it the best shot at me enjoying it fully. But what I will say is I really loved the audiobook and am so glad I decided to listen to it on audio!! The audiobook helped so much in understanding how to say the characters names and really get in character to understand the setting and the folklore behind Lady Macbeth. I felt like I was living in the book with Lady Macbeth because of the excellent narration and the narrator kept me engaged.

Although we all know the story of Macbeth (or at least I was one of the people that grew up reading Macbeth in school), Lady Macbeth takes a twist on the classic play. Roscille is given as a gift to Macbeth to be his bride. Roscille is desperate to survive despite all of the expectations on her: to bear a child and be a docile wife. Macbeth slowly turns to Roscille to strategize the victories he wishes to have against other leaders and kingdoms, and you can tell that Roscille is deceptive and cunning as she plans how to take vengeance and refuse to give into the role she has been forced to take.

I thought this book was a clever twist on Macbeth. While I didn't fully connect with Roscille and I found it interesting that she was so unlike Lady Macbeth in the classic. The changes to Lady Macbeth's character and personality I think were meant to take more of a feminist approach and exploration of sexism in the book, but sometimes it really jarred me as to how different Rosecille was from the character she was named after.

Overall, I thought this was an interesting book and I expect that I would have enjoyed it more if I read it at a better time! Definitely a fun spin on the classic and a really different way to explore and define the character of Lady Macbeth.

Ava Reid’s Lady Macbeth takes a fresh approach to Shakespeare's infamous villainess, reimagining her as Roscille, a 17-year-old French girl cursed by a witch and married off to Macbeth. While this premise holds promise, the execution falls short in ways that may feel all too familiar to readers of Reid's previous work, Juniper & Thorne.

One of the major drawbacks of Lady Macbeth is its thematic and narrative similarity to Juniper & Thorne. Roscille, much like Marlinchen, is a protagonist with little to no agency, repeatedly coming across as a passive character subjected to the whims and abuses of those around her. This lack of control over her life becomes tiresome, especially when the plot introduces yet another dark-haired love interest who, like Sevas, is thrust into an unwanted role and must hide his connection to Roscille while she endures further mistreatment from other male characters.

The story also suffers from a significant amount of repetition, which makes the first 60% of the book feel like a slog. Reid often repeats the same details and thoughts, whether it's Roscille fixing her veil, obsessing over Macbeth's size or Lisander's eyes, walking over the same gross puddle on her way to the dungeons, or mulling over the same thoughts again and again. This repetition not only hinders the narrative pace but also diminishes the emotional impact of the story.

While the concept of reimagining Lady Macbeth’s backstory had potential, Lady Macbeth ultimately struggles to rise above its repetitiveness and reliance on familiar tropes. Fans of Reid's work may still find something to appreciate, but for those who found Juniper & Thorne underwhelming, this novel may feel like more of the same.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I’m here to tell you that if you never read Shakespeare’s Macbeth, you’ll be just fine understanding and enjoying this book. I honestly think it might be better that way because there are no biases towards the original work.

Lady Macbeth follows a young bride sent by her father to a foreign lord. She is rumored to bewitch men with her eyes and is forced to wear a veil to prevent her from ensorcelling them. The story is told only from the point of view of Lady Macbeth, and I really enjoyed her as a character that is strong and stubborn, but also naive and struggling to learn her place in life.

As always with Ava Reid, she never shies from away from the gory or horrific. This one is definitely milder than her other works such as Juniper & Thorn, so I wouldn’t let the gore be a turn off unless it’s a hard no for you.

Nope. This wasn’t good.

One of my favorite characters in Shakespeare is Lady Macbeth. She’s tenacious, action-oriented, and goes after what she wants regardless of the consequences. She’s one powerful lady, seen as her husband’s “partner in greatness.” I mean, sure, she’s going to plot the murder of some characters to get what she wants for her family, but I didn’t say she was saintly.

Ava Reid took this dynamic, complex character and turned her into a wet rag of a human. In her retelling, she’s a seventeen year-old foreign bride of Macbeth, stumbling around the castle with none of the ambition that Shakespeare imbued his character with. She has very little agency of her own. Even though we follow her character around, this book is really more about the men in her life.

Furthermore, this strayed incredibly far from the plot of Shakespeare’s play. I’m not even taking about the dragon that makes a few appearances. (What a wild sentence.) Reid’s characterization of Macbeth and Banquo is just so wildly off. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a good dude, a loyal soldier, a man who loves his wife and sees her as an equal. His bromance with Banquo is my favorite friendship—you know, until he wants Banquo dead. Reid doesn’t give us Macbeth’s struggle over the idea of killing the king, his descent into evil. Instead, Reid skips to Act 3-5 Macbeth from the get-go. I don’t understand this choice, nor the choice to barely make Macduff a character. This was a mess and I’m mad that I spent hours reading this.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The book is available today, August 13.

Ava Reid once again dazzles me with her writing. I have never read Macbeth before and wasn’t really familiar with the story but I did some quick research and it’s so interesting to see it in Roscille’’s point of view. It was a bit difficult to get into but I did like the overall pacing. I still prefer a study in drowning but this doesn’t mean the book is bad! i’m so excited to see what else she gives to us🤍

There is just something so beautiful about Ava Reid’s prose. Their books are a must read for me be it their twisty YA books or haunting adult books. I’ve been eagerly looking forward to Reid’s newest adult book, Lady Macbeth because if anyone can offer more depth and nuance to the character I wanted it to be Reid.

Lady Macbeth is filled with the beautiful prose of Reid’s other books. At times I can practically feel the damp cold air of the castle this book is set in. I admit to being very familiar with the source material however I feel like it might be best to go into this book forgetting everything you know (or think you know about Macbeth). There are some fun references for the discerning reader but this book feels very separate from the Shakespeare story. I admit that my expectations and hopes for this book were wrapped up in a different direction however I really appreciate what Reid did with the character even if it wasn’t what I was hoping for.

Fans of Reid’s should definitely check this book out and anyone wanting another take on one of literatures most intriguing women.

Thank you so much to DelRey books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read in early copy in exchange for an honest review.

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.