Ava Reid has proven herself time and time again to write exquisitely crafted books, and Lady Macbeth is no different. Taking a different approach to the bard’s tale and focusing on the elusive and enigmatic Lady Macbeth, it’s a story of manipulation, fear, longing and discovery set in the claustrophobic and changeable atmosphere of medieval Scotland.

Despite not being anything close to a Shakespeare scholar, I really enjoyed the fresh take on the classic play and loved looking at it from a different perspective. Ava took a character commonly seen as bloodthirsty and sly and built her as a young woman far from home, with plans and powers she is just starting to understand. I loved the atmosphere above all else and could write this whole review on the beauty of Ava’s prose alone. The vibes, as they say, were immaculate. I truly felt like I was right there alongside Roscille in the frigid, damp confines of that Scottish castle. Although I can see this being a divisive book, as the best books are, I truly adored this Shakespeare homage and turned it into a delicately wrought quest for vengeance and belonging. Absolutely loved it!

Review based on vibes alone. I was pretty much predestined to like this based on the rough gothic setting and “historical” time period. I liked the detached, almost passive style of storytelling implemented here as well as the more formal language.

As a loose retelling of Macbeth, I can’t say whether this hit the mark. It has been so long since I read the original. I did like the wheeling and dealings of Lady Macbeth but she really frustrated me a lot of the time. As far as plot and characterization goes, I didn’t feel like this was super in depth, but the vibes honestly carried me through to the end feeling quite satisfied.

I’m sorry. I was not into this at all. A Macbeth retelling from Lady Macbeth’s POV. It tries to present a more feminist approach, but I could not get over the lack of characterization and development beyond a handful of their defining traits.

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

Lady Macbeth is author Ava Reid's reimagining of Macbeth- but from a woman's perspective. Reid's writing made this a super fun read, albeit dark. Roscille is sent away by her father to be married to Lord Macbeth, in a completely different country with a different language, customs, without the support of her handmaiden. We get a glimpse into Roscille's secret, which the reader knows more and more about as the book goes on.

The best part of this book is Roscille's intelligence, masked (no pun intended) behind her position as a mere Lady. Ava Reid's A Study in Drowning was one of my favorite reads of last year, and the writing style does not disappoint in Lady Macbeth. I really enjoyed her reimagining of the classic, and this book contained the perfect touch of fantasy.

Parts of the plot are a bit muddy, but this could be due to Ava's writing style (which I enjoy regardless of the content). Others may say that her writing is pretentious and too flowery, but her take on this Shakespeare classic will definitely wow her fans!

Thank you to Del Rey for an e-arc of this book.

I have always been hit and miss with Ava Reid’s books. The Wolf and the Woodsman was fine, Juniper & Thorn was…not. I ADORED A Study in Drowning.

I had such high expectations for Lady Macbeth, and maybe that made the book underwhelming. I’m going to start with the good:

- the prose. Ava Reid is supremely talented at writing. Her writing is absolutely stunning.
- The gothic atmosphere was so well done. I loved the feeling of the book.
- The overall idea of the book

Unfortunately, this is where the book started to lose me. I was bored — I barely remember Macbeth, but this Lady Macbeth was nothing like I remembered? I don’t think this was a retelling as much as it was a reimagining.

Within the context of the story good points are brought up such as violence against women and other aspects, but one of the issues is that there seemed to be a lot of hated towards Scotland and it’s people?

It was weird, how like these two ideas were so opposite? I found the Lady Macbeth absolutely unlikable, like — to an extreme. And the romance — why? What was that?

Anyways, I really wanted to love this book, but it didn’t end up working for me.

Ava Reid is quickly becoming a top author for me. Her remaining of a classic story truly stole my breath away. Reid has a nice way with words and her storytelling to be able to give you everything you need and want while wrapping it up in a pretty standalone bow!

I will admit to finding the plot to be rather boring and the characters not half as interesting as they themselves claim to be. I appreciated that Roscille thrashed against the bounds of womanhood, but it honestly felt more than a bit heavy-handed - particularly since she interacts with so few other characters (most of this book is bound inside her skull rather than in her interactions with other people, which I personally would have preferred)

However, Reid writes beautifully, weaving the archaic style befitting the setting with enough detail to appeal to a modern audience. There simply wasn’t enough movement for my tastes.

Sadly, i could not get into this book. No worries, didn’t books satisfy different people! That’s the beauty of reading.

Thank you so much to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy of Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid. Ever since I first read Ava's work I've absolutely loved how she writes such haunting tales yet not too much so that you are disgusted. Her words create the perfect combination of eerie yet alluring. Lady Macbeth is, once again, a perfect example of this. The only way I could describe it as a stunning magical retelling of Macbeth, one of Shakespeare most controversial plays, displaying feminine rage and a descent into madness forced by a word catering to men. As you sit in Roscille's head, you begin to question... What is real? What is not? And this is exactly as the author intends it to be. The prose and stunning. This will absolutely go down as a favorite for 2024.

I DNFed early on, because the writing here was so painful. It was trying hard to emulate “Old” English, and the multiple variants of names frustrated me.

Thanks so much for providing me with a review copy of this book but unfortunately it was a DNF for me.

I found it lacked atmosphere and I was incredibly bored while reading. Lady Macbeth is such an interesting character but she felt so watered down here it was painful to read. It’s possible it got better but it felt like too much of a chore to keep picking this one up.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read Macbeth, but I know this is loose interpretation by the author of Lady Macbeth’s story. I’m not mad at it. She’s a scared girl who was raised cruelty and then sold off.
I do wish that it was a constant build of her boldness and badassness. Overall a good story Is definitely recommend.

What an odd retelling. I finished this book in a single day and was extremely invested in the story. Having never read Macbeth, I felt like I wish I had while reading this retelling of it because of how the fantastical elements were involved. Was definitely an uncomfortable read due to the male heavy cast, with only three female characters (minus the witches), two of which are barely in the book. The misogyny is so apparent that I became slightly turned off towards the end of the novel. Lots of repetition, particularly about how she was born and her relationship with her father, which became annoying towards the end, but I still read this whole thing in one sitting, which I haven't done in years. Would definitely recommend for fans of retellings and of strong female characters.

Thank you so much to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for access to this eARC in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are my own.

As many reviews have expressed already, I think your experience of this book will greatly depend on your expectations and how much you remember about the original play.

I started this book ready to love it! Unfortunately, I don’t think it was for me. Note that I went into this hoping for an immersive dark gothic fantasy & without reading the synopsis.

There were parts I enjoyed — namely descriptions like the initial imagery of the witches, the scream in the last chapter, the multiple names for characters and their titles, etc. However, even many of these lost their impact through their constant repetition. For instance, the word serpent appeared WAY too many times back to back, and every time Lisander popped up we got several sentences mentioning his green eyes. I think it’s important to trust readers to be perceptive and pay attention; repetition like this takes away some of the mystery/magic and desire to pay close attention to the language and symbolism as you read. Furthermore, I think this repetition of character descriptions and thoughts caused me to feel like nothing was really happening as the story was unfolding.

Reading the last chapter, I couldn’t help think about how much potential this story had in its plot, magic, and characters — mixing Macbeth, Bluebeard, the Scottish cliffside landscape, legends & magic, power struggles, and warrior customs.

Sadly, it felt as though the scenes and chapters meant to humanize characters, build layers/depth to the plot, establish interpersonal dynamics, and fill all other narrative crevices were left out of the story. Scenes crucial to the characters and their relationships are missing. As a result, nothing felt real or multidimensional. Characters don’t act like human people would act (especially not adult human people), and their thoughts and actions are inconsistent with what we’re told about them. I’ll admit, I struggle a lot with plot points & character thoughts that don’t make sense; I can’t usually look past them because they rly mess with my ability to buy into the story. Details redacted for now due to spoilers. Essentially, the characters felt faceless or like puppets--no agency, just following the script. Roscille was a bit more fleshed out, but her thoughts and actions often didn’t make any sense. I did enjoy the way we saw how her upbringing shaped her throughout her narration in terms of her religion and clear disdain for Scotland, its customs, and its people. :/

We are also told over and over and over again of her cleverness and skills — but we’re never really shown her identity in action. Once again, it felt like the important parts that would work to prove her qualities to us were omitted. In the case of Roscille and her cleverness specifically, this also means that when we see her struggle or make mistakes, we don’t take it in conjunction with her known skills as nuance — what we’ve been told does not hold the weight of what we’ve been shown, so I really struggled to reconcile her thoughts & actions with what we’ve been initially & continuously told about her intelligence and education.

There are a lot of general statements about men and what they do and what they think; I don’t think readers would necessarily disagree with most of Roscille’s thoughts, but the constant repetition and telling again in such a short book was frustrating. There were constant mentions of this and yet somehow not really a thorough exploration. The same applies for the themes of womanhood, madness, vengeance, and fear imo. There could have been so much there, but because the characters didn’t feel solid, their motives and actions and themes of the story didn’t either.

Finally, I’m not convinced this should be categorized as a fantasy or a romance. There aren’t enough moments to convince us [redacted bc spoilers] is a real person, much less to establish him as a believable love interest. The instalove is JARRING, and it’s not really backed up by much afterwards. The fantasy of this world is largely unestablished — even Roscille seems kind of unbothered about discovering anything about her powers or the magic of the world around her, which didn’t make much sense given her position and how terrified and clever she kept telling us she was.

Essentially — I can see so much potential in this story, and I had such a desire to love it; it just didn’t feel like it was fully written to be what it could have been or what it seemed to want to be. If this book had been longer, the characters and setting/world-building a bit more fleshed out, and the plot a bit more layered and meticulously planned, I think this could have been a really solid read for me. Even if this Lady Macbeth wasn’t the interpretation I had been expecting/hoping for, there are so many great ideas, themes, and characters in here — I think I would have been won over pretty quickly.

4 stars

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC of this title!

This book is a very entertaining one. It is a story of powerful women, the men who fear or use them, and the lengths they will go to break free of their chains. That being said, it is very loosely based on the original text, so those looking for a faithful adaptation should look elsewhere.

In this version, Roscille (Lady Macbeth) is a 17 year old foreign bride promised to the Thane of Glammis. Her stare induces madness in men so she must always wear a veil to hide her eyes. Terrified of going to the marriage bed with this stranger, she asks for a wedding gift before they lie together. The web of deceit and intrigue spawned by this event goes on to roughly recreate the events of the play, though with several key differences.

When I started reading this book, I thought it was going to adhere more closely to the original text. Within about 50 pages however, I realized this is only a retelling in the loosest sense. Roscille is far from the Lady Macbeth of the play, mostly using her deception in self-defense rather than in pursuit of power. Macbeth is a very brutish man from the start, and while we do see his descent into madness he is a pretty one-dimensional character. Other characters such as Fleance and Lisander play a much larger role in the book than they do in the play. If you're hoping for this to be a character study of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, you will be disappointed.

That being said, I still enjoyed the book. It's clear Reid has done their research and weaves the language, folklore, and politics of the time together artfully. The glossary at the front with all the character and place names was a nice touch. While not the Lady Macbeth of the original, Roscille was a compelling protagonist. Anyone who has been the victim of circumstances beyond their control, particularly in regards to their sex, will likely empathize with her situation.
The plot combines intrigue, fantasy, and even a little romance in a way that kept me interested.

If youre looking for a faithful retelling of Macbeth, keep searching. But if you're looking for a historical fantasy with a focus on a female protagonist, this is the book for you.

3 stars

More than for most books, readers' incoming expectations and knowledge base will dramatically impact how they feel about this novel. For me, unfortunately, both led to a variety of disappointments.

Whether folks consider themselves novices, casual readers, or literary critics, they've likely had access to Shakespeare, and that may even be through more modern references than the source material itself. The average person may not know the nuances of _Macbeth_, but many are likely to know about Lady Macbeth's iconic villainy. And if those folks were expecting this version of Lady Macbeth to assume her rightful villainous role like Law Roach on _Legendary_, well, they simply will not be saying, "You did what needed to be done."

Roscille is young, completely defined by men, and hateful without the fun of well-planned recourse. An originally layered and complex character becomes, even with more information, somewhat dull. This version does not live up to her point of origin.

The characterization should be the most important part of this novel, as the title and incoming expectations suggest, and while that falls flat, the plotting is only just okay. This is an interesting enough read, but it's not impactful in this anticipated way either.

While I obviously wanted something a bit different here, I still enjoyed another view of this character, and those who come to the novel for that purpose will have a guaranteed win.

The Shadowhunter Chronicles meets Chinese diaspora folklore in Darker by Four, the first in an epic contemporary fantasy duology from Jade Fire Gold author June Tan.

I love Ava Reid, but this isn’t my favorite of hers. There was a lot of creative liberty that went into this reimagining of Lady Macbeth, but I’m not sure they were necessarily for the best. Overall the story was well written and well paced, I’m just not sure I liked where Ava ran with it,

For Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind nearly all of her husband’s ambition. For Reid, she remains the impetus for all the action to come, but rather than longing to be “unsexed,” she schemes to protect herself from the cruelty of the men around her. From the moment she asks her husband for a necklace and he launches his attack on Cawdor, all of their fates are sealed. This version of Lady Macbeth is not innocent, her hands are not clean, and she still has visions of blood dripping from her fingers.

The majority of the main story beats remain intact, however the journey to get there is often quite different. The story will be a surprise, even for those who are intimately familiar with the source material.

Overall, an adaptation that honors the original, while still managing to be distinct.

Ava Reid never disappoints! From the very first page, Reid's poetic writing style made this one of my favorite reads of the year. I liked how Reid explored a background for Lady Macbeth and humanized her. I'm vaguely familiar with Shakespeare's play, enough that I knew how the story was going to go, but Reid added so much detail and worldbuilding that this felt like an original novel. I don't think that knowledge of the play is necessarily needed to read this book.