Ava Reid reimagines the story of Macbeth but through the eyes of his bewitching, mysterious wife, Lady Macbeth.

Reid’s storytelling always draws me in. Her prose is so beautiful, and I enjoyed how she wove in stories of Scotland and folklore, even though at times they were very haunting and cautionary.

I’m not too familiar with the original Shakespeare story of Macbeth, so I went into this story blind, and it was too dark for me.

2.5/5

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

God I wanted to love this book but sadly it fell far from my lofty expectations. Reid’s writing was still as sumptuous as ever. However, the characterisation was severely lacking for me.

An absolute great book to foll9w up the success of ASID. Ava Reid's writing lived up to all of my expectations and this book was nothing short of fantastic. I can't wait to hear it on audio soon!

Many will open this book and expect many Shakespearan references, but Ava Reid has given new life and a voice to Lady Macbeth. You are full immersed in her plight and everyday life trying to navigate her new role in a foreign land. Reid did a good job showing the young mentality and naivity through this character...one who hasn't fully lived and desires much. Readers will either love or pity her. Personally, I wanted more from the story because of its slow pacing and felt as though the ending is where the real action occurred only to abruptly end.

To be honest, I’m not a fan of Shakespeare. I struggled with his works in high school & haven’t attempted to read them since. I have only ever read a simplified version of Macbeth with my ESOL students. So I suppose I have a very different background to many reading or wanting to read this book. That being said, I did enjoy it quite a bit.
It started off slow & a bit confusing for me but it picked up midway through & I was intrigued by the liberties Reid took with the source material. I don’t want to give away spoilers but there’s a rather large magical twist that I definitely wasn’t expecting.
Overall, I think I would probably liked it better if I had a better grasp on the original but then again, I might have hated it.

Listen, as a Lady Macbeth retelling, this one kind of missed the mark for me. Reid took one of the most iconic bad bitches in herstory and made her a kind of lame teenager. Which was an interesting choice for a feminist retelling of that character, and kind of unforgiveable.

That being said, if you look at the book at just inspired by Macbeth (I know, really nit-picky semantics), I really loved what Reid did with the story, especially in the ways she turned it even more fantastical. I also think that Reid just really excels at writing women who've been made to submit learning to own their power. As I mentioned before, THE Lady Macbeth was possibly not the right choice for that particular storyline (and this will probably not sit right with Shakespeare purists), but I really enjoyed meeting the completely re-imagined Lady Macbeth of this novel, and watching her come into her own.

I absolutely love Reid's writing style in general; her words are so lyrical, and I've never read a book of hers that hasn't pulled me in completely and held its grip on me through the end. This one is no exception. This was overall a phenomenal read, and I recommend it. It would be a 5 star for me if it didn't give the OG Lady Macbeth such a dirty edit. I suspect this will one of those books that generates very polarizing opinions, so I think it would be a particularly fun group or book club read.

Thanks to the team at Penguin/Ballantine/Del Rey for the eARC of this book!

This was the first I've read by Reid and I wasn't mad about it, but did have pretty high hopes seeing all the positive praise of A Study in Drowning and I'm not sure this hit the mark for me completely.

Lady Macbeth is the tale of Macbeth (shocking, I know) from the point of view of Lady Macbeth. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure if LM is given an age in the original, but in Reid's tale, she is 17 years old. She 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. A bit of a twist from what Will wrote! There are a lot of things like this that Reid has taken liberty with to weave in a more fantastical element to this tale. Overall, I think she does this successfully! The key elements of the source material are here, some in a new way, and we ultimately end up in a similar place at the end (with a twist).

Here's where it feel a bit flat for me. With such an iconic character, there are a lot of existing ideas on who Lady Macbeth is and what she is like. For those who know Macbeth, this character is conniving and vindictive. She does everything she can to forward Macbeth's goals and fulfil the prophecy. She could be described as blood thirsty. Part of me wondered when reading this book, where are her teeth?

Without getting too spoiler-y, there are moments where these elements of LM come through in Reid's book 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 (for lack of a better word) her to be. She makes many references to what her father would think or what she thinks Macbeth will expect of her and yes, most of this thought process is ultimately for her to serve her own purposes, but what she is trying to achieve for herself is really more of an afterthought brought on by her fear of Macbeth than her really trying to meet her own ends.

It really left me with the thought that if an author is going to put their spin on a character who has been in the public lexicon for decades, they really have to go all in on what they're setting out to do. I'm not sure this book did that successfully, at least for me.

In the end, I would recommend this if you are a looking for an interesting retelling that is beautifully written. May advise steering clear if you're after a Lady Macbeth power showdown.

Who is ready to sink there teeth into this beauty? Of course if you are a fan of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth then why wouldn’t you give this a try. As for those who aren’t a big Shakespeare lover, this one will still knock your socks off for the fantasy twist. Lady Macbeth is a young girl here, married to Macbeth against her will and forced into his weird world. She also must keep herself veiled at all times as she had rumored witch powers.. Ava Reid uses that element as inspiration to capture an engaging plot.

My type of retelling!

I loved Lady Macbeth! I had some trepidation going into this, as Macbeth is one of my top works by Shakespeare. However, Ava Reid absolutely smashed it! Her writing style paired so well with the story of Lady Macbeth and delivered such a beautifully haunting gothic tale that had me turning to the next page well into the night.

If you love retellings, Shakespeare, and Macbeth....... and even if you don't, you won't want to miss this one!

This book felt like an insult to me. With bad writing, plenty of repetition and an underdeveloped story, I have never felt so wronged by a book until now.

This book was INCREDIBLE. A haunting, gothic reimagining of the play by Shakespeare that takes the character of Lady Macbeth and turns it on its head. This retelling takes Lady Macbeth, a villain in the play, and explores her past, circumstances, and the people she is victim to. Was she really the villain we have believed her to be? Who was really in control? It is a powerful story and thought-provoking story of a woman who takes control of her circumstances.

Ava Reid's writing is beautiful and very compelling to read. I have loved their writing since reading Juniper and Thorn and this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with this arc!

How I love unreliable narrators.

This confirms my theory that Ava Reid can simply never miss.

Ava Reid specializes in twisty, weird, gory, fairytale-like story with a hint of romance. The monsters are complicated characters, the narrator is disarming yet unreliable, and the scenery transports you to the equivalent of dreary gothic paintings washed with dust and cobwebs in dark castle corners.

Lady Macbeth is no different. You question the narrator’s status as heroine or villain, doubt the intentions of those around her, and lose yourself in yet another cliffside manor with a vengeful ocean waiting below (à la A Study in Drowning). Highly recommend! Perfect rainy day autumn read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the digital ARC of “Lady Macbeth” by Ava Reid.

While reading, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy and anger toward both Roscille and Macbeth. She’s young and fearful over the situation she’s found herself in, which is understandable. Her upbringing and rigid rules surrounding men also impacted her reactions and thoughts, and she too was manipulated. The manipulation she enacted on Macbeth and others out of spite was not something I could condone, since it led to unnecessary death and violence. She blames Macbeth for the deaths and seems shocked to realize his violence, but also overlooks that her hands too are red with blood. It seemed unfair to Macbeth since despite his past dalliances, and proclivities, but he still holds responsibility for the violence he carried out - his desires pushed him too far and corrupted him. He too was manipulated though… not only by his wife but by the witches whispering the things he desperately wanted to hear. They too seeked their vengeance.

This honestly leads to this story being the almost perfect tragedy. Lady Macbeth was always the perfect Shakespeare villain, she too shares just as much blame for the death and violence. In this story she's also painted as a victim of machinations, as well a heroine.

4/5

I was really disappointed with this book. I've lived Ava Reids previous works but I feel like she did not have an understanding of Lady Macbeth and her characterization was disappointing

This is a highly anticipated read for a reason. We have the stunning writing we know and love from Ava Reid and a twist on a classic tale. This one has original language that can be difficult to learn but a glossary is included. This wasn’t full of big epic dramatics but it was spooky and gory and probably exactly what you want.

Ava Reid is quickly becoming a favorite of mine and I loved this chilling, unsettling take on Shakespeare. The atmosphere Reid creates and the feelings she evokes are so visceral and I could not put this down. Also there's a dragon, as a little treat. A fantastic read.

Great story! I love retellings and this one is definitely top tier! A classic play retold in Lady Macbeth’s POV? Loved it! 😍

Wow wow wow. I went into Lady Macbeth a little nervous because I had seen some mixed reviews, but I absolutely loved it.

This is a reimagining of Macbeth told from the perspective of Lady Macbeth. As someone who isn’t super familiar with the story of Macbeth, I can’t speak to how closely it follows the original story.

Our protagonist, Roscille, is a seventeen year old French girl who is sent to Scotland to marry a man she doesn’t know and is afraid of. She is very prejudiced towards the Scots and views them as quite barbaric. In order to appease Macbeth, and keep him at a distance she is forced to use her wit and makes some horrifying choices in the process. She is a flawed character who is doing what she has to do to get by.

I came for the cover and stayed for the gorgeous writing, gothic setting, and feminine rage. Expect: curses, gore, witches, dragons, rage, vengeance, light romance.

Lady Macbeth was a fantastic read that will be perfect for fall and winter.

I loved the idea behind this book a retelling of Macbeth from Lady Macbeths perspective but it didn't live up to the expectations I had for it. While I enjoyed the book and am glad I tried a book out of my comfort zone I just felt there was a lot potential that fell flat. I enjoyed Ava Reid's writing style and would read more from her in the future. Would recommend this book rating it 3/3.5 stars. I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Disappointed to say the least. I DNF’d at 30%. I think Ava Reid’s writing is just not for me. Her prose is beautiful, its the structure that’s lacking.

The issues I had are similar to the issues I had with A Study in Drowning. There were some weird false starts that left me confused. I also felt like the writing was a bit lazy and repetitive at times.

My main issue is, this book is A Study in Drowning but Shakespearian. Reid took Shakespeare’s strongest female character and made her into Effie, a scared frail girl. What’s worse is the consequence of Lady Macbeth making the same claims about men as Effie (though without the backup or proof as to why) is deadly for others. There’s also absolutely no winning with Reid’s female characters. There is a scene where Lady Macbeth makes a request of Macbeth: when he pauses, she thinks ‘he’s not going to let me have this because he’s arrogant’ and then when he says yes, she’s like ‘see he’s so arrogant’. She says he would be violent toward her with absolutely no evidence of the such, and allows her judgements to fuel decisions that end up being catastrophic toward others. In this book, Lady Macbeth should have a gold Olympic medal for the mental gymnastics she does to make these judgements.

I honestly think this book would have been better if it wasn’t a character study or interpretation of Lady Macbeth. Firstly, it would just be A Study in Drowning if that were the case. Secondly, calling this character Lady Macbeth is such a stretch. I understand writing an interpretation, but taking a strong female character who was one of the few Shakespearian females to be as strong and powerful as a man and turning her into a scared, oblivious, and weak girl feels like such an insult. Maybe it’s just me, but I am so sick of the weak female stereotype, so seeing Lady Macbeth reduced in this way was rage-inducing.