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.

I uploaded my review to Goodreads and will upload it to Amazon on publication day.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Ava Reid for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Lady Macbeth coming out August 13, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Macbeth is one of my favorites of Shakespeare, so I was excited for this reimagining. This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I thought the writing was very poetic and I loved the fairy tale vibes. However, I couldn’t really get into the story. Lady Macbeth wasn’t quite what I imagined. I thought the hate on Scottish people was a little odd considering Macbeth is Scottish. There were some action filled parts and I liked a lot of it, but I don’t think I quite vibed with the book. I would check out other books by this author!

I will start off by saying I skimmed Macbeth in high school (I did a little dabbling in truancy ok) but I did revisit it while reading this. So I wasn’t going into it with any fierce loyalties to the characters or major plot points. It is important to note this is a reimagining, not a retelling. The prose itself was really enjoyable, but I just at no point really cared what happened to anyone. So overall, I liked this author's writing style, this one just didn't hit the mark for me. Roscille’s character kind of baffled me. The ending felt rushed, and I cannot say why without spoiling. I wouldn’t really call this feminist, either. The characterization of Scotland/ Scottish people was… interesting to say the least.


Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

It’s always an honor to have the chance for an early read on @netgalley and especially when it’s @avasreid ‘s latest. Her retelling of The Scottish Play, titled LADY MACBETH is feminist gothic fantasy as only Ava Reid can deliver. Her writing is as exquisite as ever, and her willingness to go deep into the casting of women in history in the role of the villain or witch is complicated, dark, and as uncomfortable as it must be to do her topic justice. This book was an absolute page turner, and I couldn’t put it down.

Really liked this one!! I’m in love with Ava Reid and I need everything she’s ever written injected into my body.

Let me start by prefacing that I am not at all familiar with Macbeth. I did not run into it at all during high school, and never considered reading it for pleasure. Just not typically my thing.

But… a retelling with a strictly female POV? I’m on board!

I did watch a little explainer video on Macbeth when I knew I received this ARC, so I wasn’t completely clueless on the plot. Not sure if the story would’ve been better or worse with extra context (if I had actually read the original), but I really liked my experience and how refreshing this felt.

The first 2-3 parts felt a bit slow, but were necessary to set up a few different plot points. You could feel the characters inadvertently setting themselves up for failure or misfortune every step of the way. But even as Lady Macbeth was unknowingly hindering her future self, you couldn’t help but root for her and know that she’d be able to handle it and work her way through.

I wasn’t expecting any sort of big fantasy element, but I’m happy to say my expectations were exceeded just a little bit haha it did feel slightly random, but I loved it 🥰

The light romance was also a pleasant surprise, and I can’t wait to reread this knowing how things play out there.

And all the commentary on being a woman my god in 👏🏼 love 👏🏼 I have so many different things highlighted and I just want to paste the quotes all over my walls. This was such an empowering, but quick story and I feel very grateful that I was given the chance to read it early 😊

DNF @ 30%. This book is beautifully written and perhaps even has a interesting plot. But it's not Lady Macbeth and it's not feminist, so it's completely failed to deliver what I was expecting and what I wanted from this novel. I'm quite tired with "feminist retellings" of classic figures that make them beautiful and waifish and without agency in front of their brutish, powerful men. Reducing Lady Macbeth's influence, her love for her husband, and her viciously ambitious nature does not make her any more feminist. And making her, the Scottish play's all important Lady, French is just a bafflingly stupid choice. I really enjoy Reid's writing and, if this were it's own story, it might even hold the potential to be a good story. But as a reworking of Macbeth it just doesn't work. If you want to write about retellings with waifish French women, perhaps try Jean Racine, not the Bard?

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

Read if you like:
- macbeth
- women’s wrongs
- female rage

Let me just say, it’s been a while since I’ve read/seen/thought about Macbeth. So, I pretty much went into this book blind, besides knowing there are witches involved.

I enjoyed this book, though I wouldn’t say it’s a strong retelling. Reid presents us with a dark, gothic story entwined with magic and demonstrates the struggle of a woman who is essentially forced to become who we all know is Lady Macbeth. I had expected Roscille to be a strong, powerful, determined woman, but time and time again we see her beaten down by men. Despite having her agency stripped away, she is able to use her cleverness and her ‘witchcraft’ to her advantage. Reid’s beautiful prose fully immerses you in the vastly dark and magical world that our protagonist lives in. However, I really wish a certain character had been introduced earlier in the book - it would have made the ending much more rewarding.

If you’re in the mood for a darker story, that can be violent at times, then this may be the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballentine / Del Rey for a free digital copy of this book. This is my honest review. Publication date: August 13, 2024.

Lady Macbeth retells and revamps the story of…I mean, guess. Lady Macbeth, or Roscille of Breizh, is married off to Macbeth, Thane of Glammis, in medieval Scotland at seventeen years of age. She’s known in her home court for her ethereal, supernatural beauty: her silver hair, unbelievably pale skin, and eyes so capable of ensorcelling that she wears a veil to protect the men around her. She’s called witch-touched, and the men around her fear her for it. Moving to Scotland is a dramatic change: Roscille’s handmaiden is removed from her and presumably killed, the castle is high on a cliff’s edge over a cold sea in constant turmoil, and the landscape and court are equally cold and barren. Macbeth of Glammis is an imposing figure, both in notoriety and physical stature, treating Roscille gently at first, but as his power and ambition grow, feeding off each other, he becomes more violent towards her and his fellow Scotsmen.

As the focus of the Macbeth tale has changed, so have the major themes. The original explores ambition and manipulation: Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth is known in literature for her maturity and uncontested wielding of her power over her husband, and her eventual madness. Reid’s Roscille embodies the ermine of the French court, a naïf thrown alone into a culture and role only familiar for the violence enacted upon the women in the space. And this is the theme of this telling: the eternal and inevitable violence and abuse men do to women, and the ways in which women bear these mistreatments. The witches of the play become Les Lavandières, or the washerwomen, who Macbeth keeps at his disposal for his prophecies. Duncane’s sons become more prominent players, and Macduff is relegated to a handful of paragraphs offscreen.

Reid’s Lady Macbeth is atmospheric and tense, drawn with cold, harsh lines and ragged texture. Roscille is torn between her naïveté and the role thrust upon her as wife and queen, and she finds herself similarly torn between love for another man and service to her husband and country. Attempts at petty grabs for agency are rebuked and punished, and only once she is disposed of entirely does she grasp the power she’s been able to wield the whole time. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the novel and the incorporation of additional supernatural elements that would have been present in the folk tales of the period—the setting is used to its fullest extent. The twists on Les Lavandières and Banqhuo and Fléance’s roles were used to expand upon Macbeth’s character, as for the first half of the novel he spends so much time offscreen. The confluence of cultures—French, Breizh, English, Norse, and Scottish—fleshed out the sprawling politics behind and beyond this Scottish clan.

The nature of adaptation and retelling, however, is that it inherently draws comparison to the source material. Trading the Lady Macbeth for this child in a hostile environment is a bold move, as is the highlighting of more minor or entirely off-page characters, such as Duncane’s sons and the Banqhuo line. I love a clever, manipulative royal, but Roscille was constantly thwarted and punished for the only power she had, which does fall in line with the theme of men’s violence towards women. I do believe I would have found the novel more enjoyable as its own work, divorced from the cultural weight of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth—I found myself continually questioning why Reid chose that character to tell this story. Truly, I think Roscille could have been an Ophelia or a Desdemona and would have borne equal similarity to her source. I’d recommend Reid’s Lady Macbeth for those seeking an atmospheric tragedy, political medieval fantasy, or those who want to explore Lady Macbeth’s growth from a porcelain naïf to the Lady Macbeth of Shakespeare’s first act.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thanks you Del Rey/ Penguin for this arc in exchange for an honest review

2.5 stars sorry :(

- Scotish( apparently innacuratly)
- M/F romance
- Magic
- War
- Forbidden romance

Warning there is mention and fade to black scenes of Grape

This book I was really excited for after A Study In Drowning I loved that book so much, however I just felt meh reading this and it just wasn't what I want it to be.

I did enjoy the aspect of her magic only affecting men, good touch and I enjoyed the dark and rainy feel to the book.

I have been told there is incorrect spelllings and Scotland facts, but I will leave their accuracys up to our lovely Scotish reviewers.

I can see there will be an audience for this book but sadly it was not me.