Oh, this was a dark, twisty, gothic surprise and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I thought that the take on MacBeth was unique and held enough elements of the original play to keep Shakespeare enthusiasts happy. I am so glad that the author went heavy on the fantasy aspect.

I would’ve loved to see more interaction between Roscellie and Lisander. I could happily have read another 150 pages with more detail. I also would’ve loved more detail on the witches. I guess I just wanted MORE. It was so interesting that I was left wanting. I felt I was dropped into the story rather abruptly and it took awhile for me to get into it but once I was in I was completely hooked.

This author has a real talent for dark, gothic fantasy and I hope to see much more from her.

I am not one to notate books or highlight passages. I typically just read and continue on. But this book? I found myself highlighting so many sections because the writing hit me in the gut and took my breath away!

First, let me say that I am not a Shakespeare aficionado in any capacity. I am not familiar with Macbeth, and thus my view on this topic may differ drastically from one who is an avid fan of the original story. That being said, I loved this book. Any retelling of a famous story from the woman’s point of view as opposed to the typical male dominated stories is automatically working at an advantage.

I loved the mind of Lady Macbeth in this story as she manipulates and maneuvers the men to execute her plans as she envisions them. All while ensuring the men think their path is determined by fates beyond their comprehension. In reality, they’re all following a path created by a young woman. Not to mention, the visceral and ethereal writing in this book was so poignant and intentional that I truly felt as if I was shivering in the damp and claustrophobic Scottish castle next to Lady Macbeth.

Make sure to pick up this book when it comes out on August 6! Thanks to #DelRey and #NetGalley for a free ARC of #LadyMacbeth in exchange for an honest review!

This was the first I've read by this author. Lady Macbeth is the tale of Macbeth from the point of view of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has grown up being told that she is "witch-touched". As such, she always wears a veil to prevent people (men) from looking her in the eye and being ensnared by her powers. There are moments where elements from Shakespeare's Macbeth come through but it's less about her own motivations and more about being the perfect wife that she is expected to be. Most of the motivation for her seemingly comes from how other people have trained her to be. I would recommend this if you are a looking for an interesting retelling that is beautifully written but not as close to the well known Lady Macbeth from literature.

Thank you NetGalley for this earc!

3.5 stars

Ava Reid, as always, knows how to write a captivating and masterful atmosphere to lose yourself in. This was dark, bloody, and intense.

I was put off with the constant reminder that the Scots were brutal, barbaric people. You couldn’t read more than 2 pages without being reminded of that fact. And for a feminist retelling there was a disappointingly lack of women in this story. I guess I just wasn’t impressed by the characters themselves.

I think one benefit for me reading this is that I had very little knowledge of the original play this was supposedly a retelling of. Which from what I see of other reviews there is very little similar between the two. Since I had nothing to compare it to, and I didn’t go in with those expectations, I didn’t dislike it as much as others. But I was expecting more from Roscille character and her ‘gifts’.

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Ray for the eARC for an honest review.

This book was incredibly creative- Ava Reid is undeniably a great writer. The concept had so much potential- but unfortunately fell flat. The characters were interesting- but they lacked depth. The romance felt forced and out of nowhere. The ending was underdeveloped.

I loved a Study in Drowning so much, and I was so incredibly disappointed by this novel.

This was more a butchering than a re-imagining. I knew I would be a little bit more critical because Macbeth is my favorite play, but I also did not expect Ava Reid to eschew everything that made Macbeth so tragically beautiful. Macbeth is a story filled with so much love and that it is what makes it so heartbreaking. Macbeth can not help but love Duncan as a father and Banquo as a brother and Lady Macbeth as his wife, and that is why it's all the more tragic he leads them to the fates he does. All the love in the world is not enough for Macbeth to put aside his pride and ambition. Macbeth can not find a way outside of his prophecies. He struggles so deeply with his actions. He is quite literally haunted by them. And in Lady Macbeth he is an unfeeling brute, one that resembles his namesake in name alone and nothing else. He ridicules honor! Macbeth is haunted by honor!

Lady Macbeth herself is not any more feminist here than the she was in the Shakespearean tragedy. She has been stripped of her agency, rather, transformed into a motherless seventeen year old who is unable to imagine a version of herself that is not dictated by the men who surround her. You can make the argument that is precisely the point Reid is trying to make, but why would you take a female character who is so self-assured, who already is an independent, self-functioning character, and warp her into this directionless child in the name of feminism. It adds nothing to the feminist discourse around Lady Macbeth.

Also did not enjoy the English = civilized and Scottish = savage rhetoric. It was really weird, unnecessary, and it was even odder that it came from an American?

𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦-𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳; 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳.

It is said that Roscille of the Veiled Eyes is witch-cursed, her stare able to induce madness in men. She’s beautiful, clever, observant and is unceremoniously sold off to marry the brutal Thane of Glammis, Lord Macbeth.

Thrust into an unruly and leery foreign court, Roscille must rely on her instincts and cunning to survive. And thus begins a dangerous game of dark machinations, deceit, and murder.

This story is a gothic Macbeth retelling from Lady Macbeth’s perspective. We learn of her isolated upbringing, hopes, and fears. She endeavors to earn her new husband’s trust without drawing his ire. As she continues to prove her worth, Roscille learns of his occult secrets while discovering her own power. Will Roscille survive Macbeth’s nefarious ambitions or will they both slowly descend to madness?

With lush imagery and lyrical prose, Lady Macbeth is a gripping story depicting dark and mystical elements, simmering feminine rage, and a dash of romance.

So grateful to the author, Del Rey, and NetGalley for the ARC opportunity! This is my honest and voluntary review.

Dear Author,

I highly enjoyed your gothic retelling of Macbeth, but from Lady Macbeth’s point of view, and with the right amount of magic. This Lady is also cunning, but for her husband’s barbarism in every way, she plays with the men forced into her life, protecting herself. This Lady drives men mad with one look.

Artfully written, I was rapt with the tension in your words, the disgust of the men described around her, and thankful I stumbled upon your novel.

Yours truly,
J. D. McCoughtry

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the chance to listen to this e-arc.


Review will be posted on Goodreads beginning 07..29.24

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6591303658

💥💥Book Review💥💥

Lady Macbeth
By. Ava Reid

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stars

The novel is based on Shakespeare’s manuscript but take it with a grain of salt. This book has a pinch of lyrical darkness, bloody tyrannical rule, and diabolically fiendish intrigue.
If I were you, I would go blind into this book. That way you won’t compare between the real manuscript and this novel. This book deals the trials and tribulations of a woman in Scotland during the Shakespearian time. Everyone in this book I didn’t like and even if I did, it would change later, because nobody is honorable.
Then she throws cryptic witchery and a freakish liaison into the twists. I really enjoyed the book from the beginning and will be reading more from Ava Reid.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Ray for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I so wanted to like this but I am just not a historical romance, historical anything kind of girlie. I love Ava Reid so I wanted to read her other works too.
Reid’s writing is amazing though. Please do not get me wrong. This premise is just not what o was hoping for going into it.

Now if you’re a historical romance girlie - dive in.

Thank you for the opportunity to read the eARC though. I truly do appreciate it.

This book wasn't quite as...unhinged as I wanted it to be. I think fans of Ava Reid will love the book, because it's definitely an Ava Reid book in all the best ways. However, I don't know if fans of Lady Macbeth will like it. It was full of misogyny, which isn't shocking based on the setting, but Lady Macbeth is notorious known for driving the plot by pulling Macbeth's strings, and this version of Lady Macbeth didn't quite get there. She desperately wanted to, and she tried, but she always seemed to be...not outsmarted, but more smothered by physically dominant men. I didn't really feel that the characters were that deep, and it made it difficult to connect with them. And the ending was not as satisfying as I hoped, to make up for all the times that Lady Macbeth's plans were spoiled. I wanted to see her lean into her power a lot more as well. Also, there was a random dragon, which I didn't fully understand. I will recommend that the store purchase this book, and I will likely write a shelf talker for it, because again, I think it's really written for fans of Ava Reid.

Cover and prose were gorgeous but this one was difficult for me to get into. Ava Reid is incredible at crafting an eerie atmopshere, and that mood was probably my favorite part of the book. It didn't really feel like a Macbeth retelling, and I found it a little off-putting how the Scots were often described as brutish and barbarian. (This was something I noticed in the other Reid novel I've read, A Study in Drowning, with the main character and the world's equivalent of the English, which never truly got resolved there - hopefully in the sequel, but that's beside the point. Just interesting that it's shown up in both of Reid's novels I've read so far). I think I may have liked this better if it were marketed as loosely inspired by Macbeth rather than as a retelling, especially a feminist one - the woman characters were few and far between, and it was honestly a bit difficult to relate to any one of them; they felt a bit flat to me. I enjoyed it, but it certainly wasn't what I expected nor my favorite of Reid's stories to date.

This should not have been a Macbeth retelling.

If you take away the defining characteristics of Lady Macbeth and add in xenophobia and misogyny, you get this book. Truly the question I had at the end was why did this need to be Macbeth?? If you rename the characters, take away the like one obvious plot point, maybe change the setting, this could have been an original story and probably better for it (ideally also without the xenophobia and misogyny).

In this story, Lady Macbeth is a 17-year-old French woman sent off to marry Macbeth. The amount of times that Macbeth and the Scottish are referred to as brutish, barbaric, uncivilized, large, etc was truly off-putting. The fact that the love interest (not Macbeth) was half-English only added to this (and also why was he a dragon??? What did that even add to this story???).

I also take issue with this being called a "feminist" retelling, "giving voice, a past, and power that transforms the story men have written for her" (from the goodreads synopsis). This did not do that. It can be argued that this went backwards, even. We took an ambitious, powerful woman and made her into a nothing character. Roscille says she's "cleverer than her sex allows" but this is never shown to us. She sits in on a council meeting and the rest of the time is sitting in the corner. She's prettier than everyone else, but her eyes enchant men and she has to hide behind a veil. I assumed that was where Roscille's power was going to come from but then she doesn't even use her power except for the one time Macbeth tells her to kill Duncan and then to finally kill Macbeth at the end. There was so much that could have been done with that but Reid chose not to. Plot spoiler: Arguably the defining moment of the play and Lady Macbeth's character, when she convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan, plans it, and tells Macbeth to do it, is the complete opposite here. Macbeth forces her to kill Duncan, he plans it, he tells her what to do. And while this isn't the most egregious part of this story, I think it annoyed me the most. You just took away the whole point of the story??

As far as the feminism part, there were no other women in this story. Roscille has a maid, that is taken away, and then later gets a new one. There are no woman in the castle, there are no other women that Roscille interacts with. The only other women we see are the witches, chained in a dungeon (or something). I just can't see a story that doesn't have women, acknowledge women, celebrate women, as being feminist. I also do think that making Roscille younger was a disadvantage for the story - she didn't have the drive and ambition that Lady Macbeth needs to have, she was too naive about the world. And while I could see the argument that this is a different character than the actual Lady Macbeth (Gruoch, who Lady Macbeth is based on, does come into play but I won't spoil that), it didn't make sense to then retell the part of the story that is told here with this character.

Ultimately, this felt like a different story or a different retelling that was changed to be Macbeth which would explain why nothing felt researched or fleshed out. Or, in retelling the fictional characters from the play, Reid forgot that they were based on real people with real cultures (and that Scottish people exist). Either way this had potential but fell flat of the story it could have been.

One of the biggest disappointments of the year so far. I really wish Ava Reid had written her own gothic historical fantasy, even said "inspired by" Macbeth, instead of billing this as a "feminist retelling" of Macbeth. Anyone hoping for a Lady Macbeth origin story, as I was, or anything remotely related to the source material will probably be disappointed. This just recast Lady Macbeth as a 17 year old French girl and gave her a literal death stare (which I thought was just a rumor/myth until [SPOILER] she used it to kill the king??? And then there's the insta-love trope that I never enjoy combined with an extremely random dragon that threw me completely off.
If you have any appreciated for Macbeth, skip this one. It's getting three stars just because I did feel compelled (pun intended) to keep reading even though I wasn't really enjoying it.

Ava Reid's Lady Macbeth is a captivating retelling that offers a fresh interpretation of Shakespeare’s character, bringing depth and complexity to her story. Despite my limited familiarity with the original play, I found the novel's dark and gothic prose mesmerizing. Reid masterfully blends power, magic, and fate, crafting a compelling and atmospheric narrative. This beautifully written book is a must-read for fans of reimagined classics and gothic tales.

This was a highly anticipated book for me this year, and Ava Reid did not disappoint. I’ll be honest, I know nothing about the original Macbeth, so I went into this with zero context. But I don’t feel like it took away from my enjoyment of the story at all.

Once again, Ava created a world so dark, damp, gothic and creepy that it was easy to feel fully submersed it the story. Once I started reading, I didn’t want to stop. Her writing style is so poetic and darkly enchanting, and I loved it.

The journey we took with Roscille /Lady Macbeth was like a dark fairytale. Combine that with witchy female rage, secrets, magical empowerment, and the lengths women will go to survive and 🤌🏻 you’ve got the masterpiece that is Lady Macbeth.

With all the gothic fantasy themes and a surprising little side of romance, this book was the perfect dive back into fantasy for me!

“Roscille considers this: in order to be seen as merciful, one must first be seen as powerful. There is no mercy that a sheep can show a wolf.”
I can’t believe this has been sitting on my NetGalley shelf untouched since January. (Thank you for sending me an arc) I regret not picking it up sooner.
“If she cannot have safety, if she cannot have love, at least she can have this. Vengeance.”
This was classic Ava Reid, dark and empowering.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Why would I ever doubt that this book wouldn’t hit after A Study in Drowning?!?
Bringing a new perspective on an old, dark tale, Lady Macbeth exposes the ugly truth behind Macbeth’s narrative and places the story in the hands of a 16 year old girl. A girl who is primed and promised to a lord, who shouldn’t also be holding a deathly secret… but she is.

A story of fairytale, witchcraft, death and deception, Lady Macbeth is such a go-to gothic read for the fall! Leaning more YA, Ava Reid shows us what can really happen when you underestimate women who will stop at nothing to survive and how strong we can really be.

✨ Book releases on August 13, 2024!!!!

Special thank you to @netgalley @randomhouse and @avasreid for this early copy!

Lady Macbeth
Ava Reid
5⭐️

Pub Date: 8/6/2024

Just... wow!
This retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth is top notch for me. Obviously based on the title, the focus is on the Lady. Before diving in, I do recommend reading the original piece, the summary or watching a video of Macbeth to get a good context and to fully appreciate the beauty of this book. Although it's not necessary, I thought knowing the OG gave this book more depth. It enhanced my experience and I understood the references and the genius of this retelling better.

The plot is similar to the OG but not really. The timeline seems slightly skewed. Reid seems to have taken liberty on this. The vibe is dark, eerie, haunting. Cold and gray. Like how Lady Macbeth/Roscille perceived Scotland when she first arrived. Comparing the OG Lady Macbeth to this rendition of Roscille, they are both clever however, as the first one was portrayed as cunning, conniving and the instigator of Macbeth's deeds, the latter was more innocent, pure and only surviving. Atleast initially. There's now depth to her.

The plot does evolve from realistic to more fantasy. There's one "creature" in this retelling (I won't say what to maintain spoiler-free) that was a surprising inclusion. I wouldn't say that it's offputting but it definitely altered the whole vibe of this story. With the setting and timeline of medieval Europe, I expected different types of creatures instead.

Overall, I thought this was a beautiful retelling of Macbeth. The plot is sprinkled with the original verses (which is great) and fantasy. It's still a tragedy, with lies, plotting and betrayal. The concepts of regicide, patricide and all the -cides still exist. It's gray and dark and yet Reid was able to paint it in a different light.


Thank you @netgalley and @delreybooks for a digital and a physical ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Congratulations Ava Reid!

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I'm so grateful to have received an eARC to review. But I put off reading it partly because I've been hearing mixed reviews from other ARC readers. So I went into it with hopeful but lowered expectations.

There was some really great things in this book and a lot of potential, but ultimately it fell flat for me. It's definitely more of a reinterpretation of MacBeth than a retelling, so that's something to know going into it. It went beyond the Shakespeare play and more into the historical story. And although there were definite beats from the play, a number of changes were made, including to the characterizations.

I can see thematically what Ava Reid was doing with the book, and those were some of the things I thought worked well. But I didn't really feel connected with the characters and felt like something was missing from the book. I did feel compelled to read it, especially in the beginning, so something kept me picking it up. But overall, I felt this book was just so-so, definitely my least favorite book from this author.