This was ambitious and she easily delivered. This book is like time traveling to a world where women are powerless. This lady Macbeth is different from the original. She’s trying to stay one step ahead of her husband. Masterminding her way through the fragile male ego.

10/10
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This was incredible. I wasn't a HUGE fan of the idea of making Macbeth this Gigachad dude-bro toxic masculine character as I've always kind of read him as less than confident-- but this take on the story really works for me. This will be one that should be read in schools. Thank you, Net Galley, for providing me with an ARC of Lady Macbeth. I savored every sentence.

I absolutely loved this book and consumed it with a ferocity akin to the characters within the book. As the title indicates, this story is a retelling of one of Shakespeare’s darker stories, Macbeth but from the perspective of Lady Macbeth herself. I loved the authenticity Ava Reid brought to the time period and her ability to provide us with an incredibly complex and richly developed Lady Macbeth. Ava Reid’s prose is beautiful and her ability to create these spooky, ethereal and gothic worlds is top notch.

Lady Macbeth takes the reader on a very wild ride. At one point I told my friend that this book was giving me major Game of Thrones red wedding vibes and honestly that vibe never dissipated; it slowly grew and blossomed into a masterpiece in fury and revenge. Lady Macbeth is beautiful and savage, calculated and ruthless, intelligent and empathetic. I could go on and on forever.

If you love a good retelling, fantastical or classic, with a beautiful mix of horror please check this out when it hits shelves on August 13th.

There were parts of this I really loved, parts I didn't fully understand, and parts where the story seemed to drag. I'm not sure I have the necessary affinity for the source material to really appreciate this retelling. That said, the prose was beautiful, something I expect (and love about!) Ava Reid, even if the story itself wasn't always for me.

A novel based upon Shakespeare's play. Some license is taken with the story line. It's an interesting take on the play.

I was incredibly excited to get approval for this title, as it's been on my radar since Ava Reid announced it on her socials. Juniper and Thorn was a top title I read last year and I have looked forward to reading her books ever since. She masters blending historical fiction with incredible characters, dialogue, and scene setting and Lady Macbeth is no exception to this. She gave our titular Lady Macbeth such a lush and complicated background, which may cause Shakespearean brainiacs to dislike it. For me, personally, I enjoyed it. I thought Roscille being a scared and anxious 17-year-old (a literal child) was a bold move but made sense from a humanistic POV. It gives her more nuance and explains WHY she was the way she was in Macbeth, and isn't that what a prequel (so to speak) is supposed to do?

I was so intrigued by a Lady Macbeth retelling. I'm a former theater kid and was in Macbeth as a witch, and it was one of my more interesting acting experiences. Initially, it was hard for me to become engaged with the story. I think it took a minute to grasp Roscille's world and some of the characters in the story. It helped me to reacquaint myself with the politics and characters of Shakespeare's original play. In all, I feel like Ava Reid's reimagining was very creative. I enjoyed the feminist spin, the appropriating of the witches as other former Lady Macbeths. I also enjoyed some of the other magical elements, including the dragon and the romance. Ultimately, I just felt that the writing was a bit too complex at times and it was hard for me to maintain my attention. There are some good bones but maybe it could have used more development.

I feel like this book might be a little more YA than I originally thought. Speaking on vibes alone, I just wasn't interested.

Did not finish. I tried starting this several times and just could not get into it. I think part of it was the different name spellings confused me a little bit. Unfortunately it was not for me but I know people will love it.

I got this book as an eARC from NetGalley in February and finally read it. I wish I had read it sooner for it was truly an amazing read. In this retelling of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth has a name. It’s Roscille. While in the play she seems to be one of the ones pulling the strings, in this, her strings are being pulled. First, by her father, then by her husband, Lord Macbeth, who is cruel in this one. Here, it seems he has already started to go mad. She has a destiny thrust upon her until she finally takes the reins of her own destiny. She actually finds love as well amongst the chaos. When this book comes out in August, do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC!!!!

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. As a Shakespeare enthusiast, I was so excited to get approved for this book. I loved this author's A Study in Drowning and couldn't wait to get more of their writing. However, I think I might have gone in with too many expectations. This wasn't necessarily a bad book, but I think Reid was not sure of what to do with this book and with the characterization. Everything just felt clunky and off and I just could not enjoy this as much as I wanted to.

3.5 stars.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024. I wanted to love this, but this just did not work for me. This felt half formed. I did not understand Roscille’s immediate disdain for one character until she makes it so, and her immediate love for another which never gets a real payoff. Her thinking of herself as the most clever quickly became tiring because of how constant it was. Overall, I think this wanted to be more than it was and unfortunately it just wasn’t great. Also, justice for Scotland… it was written as horrible, cold and grey and full of brutish villains. Not a single redeeming quality to be found. Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey/Random House Publishing for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review which has already been published to Goodreads.

I really enjoyed this quiet, subtle reimagining of Macbeth from Lady Macbeth’s point of view. While you do get the main beats of the original, this isn’t an action packed adventure but a view of the events through the eyes of a scared, anxious 17 year old girl. Roscille is far from home, wedded to a stranger, and scrabbling to survive however she can in a world that gives women no power and no voice. It’s not always pleasant to be in her head, but this story isn’t meant to be pleasant. Combined with some magical elements and re-interpretations of the play’s final act, LADY MACBETH is both a delightful and bittersweet read.

Ava Reid is already a well-loved author on my bookshelf so when I saw Lady Macbeth announced I knew to expect a good time. Those expectations were met and far exceeded.

What I loved
1. As a standalone and a reimaging this story allows me to dive into a world I already sort of know and make myself at home in a story that I know will be wrapped up by the final page.
2. Centering the Story on Lady Macbeth allows the author and thus the reader to take a lens to the inherently sexist tropes and and actions
What Didn't work as well for me?
1. This plot was a bit of a slower-moving one which was difficult for me coming off of some of my more recent fast-paced young adult reads.
Who I would recommend this title for
2. The showing of accents in writing dialogue while interesting gave me serious flashbacks to trying to read Mark Twain back in high school.

Who Would I recommend the Title for

Lady Macbeth is Going to be a wonderful addition to the shelves of existing fans as well as an excellent entry point to the author's work for fans of gothic style YA.

I have not read Macbeth so I can't compare the two, but I really enjoyed this! The storytelling was beautiful, and its dark, gothic vibes make it a perfect Autumn read.

This was a hauntingly beautiful re imagining that was artful in its depiction of the deeply misogynistic society the main character existed in. The beginning of the plot was slow, but the authors beautiful writing kept me going.

Honestly, I’m grateful to get an advance reader copy from NetGalley, but I DNF this book at 40% because the plot was lacking and Lady Macbeth was severely boring, whiny, and so afraid to do anything at all. She’s 17 years old, just shipped off to a foreign land, married to this lord, and is afraid to do anything. She speaks of being “witch touched” with great beauty, but doesn’t use her looks to try and get away with anything she wants. She knows she’s a pawn but would rather sit in the corner and hide, yet she is the one pushing her husband to do this, this, and that to help appease her before they consummate the marriage. However, the whole time, she’s afraid of everything.

The book is marketed as a female empowerment novel, but to me, it doesn’t read like it at all.

I've noticed I have a tendency to be drawn to retellings only to realize I should have refamiliarized myself with the source material first. Even still, I found myself struggling to maintain interest as I found so much of the novel dry or fleetingly interesting at best. Having previously read Juniper and Thorn I was very excited for this one, but unfortunately it fell flat for me

I have not read Shakespeare Macbeth but have always been interested in picking it up so I have nothing to go on in comparison to origin story so going into this I only know that this is a reimagining and what the synopsis tells me.
If you are looking for a dark and gothic type story then this might be for you.
Overall I really liked the story and and liked Roscille’s character, but she is also only 17. But during the time periods in which this takes place that really isn’t surprising to me. I liked how she captured Scotland and the how detailed she got. All in all I really love Ava Reids writing and find it very additive as I flew through the book in about 4 hours.
I feel that I need to come back and reread this again after I go and read Macbeth for the first time. So I can compare and contrast this retelling from the original source material and I really can’t wait to do so!

Lady Macbeth is a masterful reimagining of Lady Macbeth and her story. I couldn’t put it down!

(Please note if you are a Shakespeare purist that doesn’t like seeing characters or plots changed, this might not be for you.)

Lady Macbeth is a teenage girl, wedded against her will to Macbeth and thrust into his strange world. She also must keep herself veiled at all times as she had rumored witch powers that will drive a man to madness. After she sends Macbeth on a quest that unravels into a bloodbath, she must not only survive, but learn about the darker parts of her own self.

I loved the gothic, atmospheric and lyrical writing of Ava Reid. Her feminist themes are always so poignant and gripping. The romance and fantasy in this book were subtle but powerful. I enjoyed the story and the ways she gave Lady Macbeth a new story and new purpose.

This is definitely a recommend! Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

TikTok review: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTNUePDK8/