If there is one thing I love, it is either re-imaginings or re-interpretations of classic stories. Ava's Lady Macbeth gives us a deeper look into Lady Macbeth as she brings light to the cunning and resiliency of the character in a dark story landscape. The story does a good job balancing the original tale while adding new life to the story to keep readers captivated. The atmosphere of the dark and dreary Scottish landscape lends itself to the story, making it all the more captivating.

5 stars | There is so much to say about this book, and let me tell you, I have just as much anxiety about saying something I'm not supposed to. This is my first arc, and when I tell you I'm genuinely worried that Netgalley is gonna get the FBI to show up at my door if I let anything slip-

But it would be so hard not to! This is a fantastic book, so let's get into it.

The Characters:
Our main character, Lady Macbeth, is sent to Scotland by her father to marry Lord Macbeth, who's something like 39 to her 17 years. Known for her madness-inciting stare, the Lady is a keen observer who uses her unique perspective to give herself power.

I cannot articulate how Reid's writing, especially regarding the creation of our protagonist, makes me feel. First off, I am an avid believer in Ava Reid supremacy, and if you read this book, you will too! Roscilla (Lady Macbeth) is such an interesting character. if you've read any of Reid's other books, you know that her female protagonists are absolutely unhinged, and you know what? They have a right to be. I think we've fallen into a really unfortunate trend where authors give their characters a tragic backstory/history of abuse simply so that they can appeal to a certain demographic while marketing their books. On the other hand, Reid's depiction of abuse and perseverance is genuine in just about everything, and I feel like that needs to be appreciated more.

The Writing

Everyone needs to read an Ava Reid book in their lifetime. I saw a one star review of this (which is wild, to say the least) where one of the main points of their criticism is that Reid can't write. I try not to judge other people's opinions and tastes because I realize that not everyone likes the same thing. But to say Ava Reid is a bad writer is the equivalent of saying the earth is flat; it's false, there's literally so much evidence against it, and to go on believing this is a sign of ignorance. Their voice is one of the most distinct, and beautiful, in the industry right now. If we ever reach a point where all authors write like Ava Reid, it'll be a sign that we have entered a utopian society.

The Message

I cannot say this enough: we need more writers like Ava Reid. Everyone gets to read their own stuff, cause that's no one's business but their own, but the publishing industry needs to stop pushing toxic relationships in their media. In this book, Macbeth is nearly fourty. Roscilla is 17. He is controlling and possessive, and views his wife as a tool and his property. Not ONCE is this romanticized. The fear that Roscilla experiences, especially around having to consummate their marriage and the uneven power dynamic, is real and it is palpable. Marriages where teenage girls are sold off in order to gain an alliance are not romantic. Please let that sink in. Huge props to Reid for acknowledging that and not falling into the trap of looking at a predatory relationship and calling it romance. Some authors really need to realize the harm that they do when they ignore this. Age gaps where one person is a teenager and the other is middle aged ARE NOT SEXY

Overall thoughts

I'm pretty sure the majority of this review is me talking about how much I love Ava Reid, and I'm ok with that. Once this gets published, I'll be sure to put up some highlights and quotes, but until then, get ready! I loved this book so much and I can't wait to see everyone else talk about it 💖 In the mean time, go preorder and add it! It's important that we continue to support authors. Have a great next read

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“Lady Macbeth” is pleasingly moody and atmospheric. I will admit it could be slow at moments and sometimes a bit repetitive, but ultimately I enjoyed reading it and would recommend to others. For fans of retellings, specifically if you also liked books like “Morgan Is My Name” or “A Dowry of Blood.”

Oh no this was one of my most anticipated reads, but it fell kind of flat for me 😩

I thought we would be getting a bad ass female villain in her element running circles around all the brutal men in her life. Unapologetically intelligent, assertive and full of rage (and rightfully so). Instead we get one woman barely surviving, every win gets away from her or lands her somewhere worse, leading her to lose confidence in her own schemes. The MC was a bit too cowed for my liking. I was expecting an MC like Carmilla from the show Castlevania, and this was more of an unsure young girl coming into her own. Also, there's no women in this story, I'm not sure if that's taken from the original Macbeth, but the only female companion this girl has goes missing in the first chapters, and is replaced later on with an older women. There's not really any female friendship development. I think the author was trying to make the MC isolated, but I think the story was already bleak enough. I did enjoy the romantic elements, but wasn't really expecting that kind of storyline in this book, so it was just a bonus. I would recommend this author's other book Juniper & Thorn instead.

—————-

Thoughts before reading:

I will read everything this queen writes, she got a chokehold on me.
Plus, this cover is giving 2006 Marie Antoinette movie poster vibes 🤌

Book Stats:
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5/5)
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️(2.5/5)
Tropes: Modern Take Retelling
Publisher: Random House Publishing
Review:
*Thank you to random house publishing for giving me a copy of this book for free in exchange for a honest review-It really means a lot to me that you trust little old me!*
What do you get when you when probably one of the greatest dark academia writers of our generation to write a retelling of one of the most controversial plays in history, you get a whirl wind of magic, love and fighting for what you truly believe in. When Roschella is sold off to Macbeth as a political gain, she isn't thinking much. She is the cursed bride-any man who looks into her eyes will go insane. But over time, she realizes how much power she truly has and starts to play her own game.

The diction in this book is amazing. Ava Reid with her words builds a world of renaissance chaos. I don't think I have ever had read a book with such good world-building. Seriously, It had me hooked on page one. I wasn't struggling trying to understand what was going on or anything. The whole think just had me wrapped in its claws. Also, THE MAGIC SYSTEM???? I generally wonder how some one comes up with the idea for something like that. It also didn't break my allusion at all. Typically with retellings I feel as though the magic system fits outside of the original time period(typically with Greek retellings), but the way the author set it up here was just perfect, and fit perfectly well with the medieval Scotland and the way the characters would think about such a thing.

`The Shakespeare references in this? Made both my theatre kid and my literate side of my heart very very happy.

There was such good character growth in this book. The MC you could see really had to change in order to make her situation change. She had to realize that she was powerful enough to do so(if that doesn't have you hooked to pick up this book, I don't know what will).

Yes, there is a romance sub-plot. It was written just perfect. Enough so I think the book stands perfectly by itself alone without it, but it certainty was a very nice touch that had me screaming and kicking my feet like the teenage girl that I am.

Honestly, If you just like powerful stories, this is one I highly recommend. Macbeth is such a interesting play and I think Ava Reid did a wonderful job with this retelling. This book really brought me back to that love of reading and literature that I haven't felt in a very, long time. This book made me want to get back into english class and discuss the true meaning of power. It's everything you could want in a book: drama, lots of magic, and a girl trying to find her own destiny-without it being assigned to her. Even if you hate Shakespeare(Like I know most teenagers do-thank you for that school!) I highly, highly recommend picking this one up! Read it like a fantasy novel!

‘Lady Macbeth’ is Ava Reid’s reimagining of Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, claiming to give her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her. This was one of my most anticipated reads for the year because, although I’ve had a very polarising experience with Ava Reid’s works so far, I did really enjoy ‘A Study in Drowning’, which is the one I finished most recently so it may have clouded my perception of my previous reads.

I think the major downfall of ‘Lady Macbeth’ is that there is an almost non-existent reference to the source material. It’s set in Scotland. There are three witches. There are characters that share names and little else with Shakespeare’s characters. In my opinion, other than a very loose structure that mimics the play, those are the extent of the similarities. I was expecting a more accurate retelling rather than an ‘inspired’ reimagining as this was marketed specifically as a retelling, so this is a root of a majority of the issues I have with this book.

This book joins the trend of feminist retellings of classic characters, but takes away all of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth’s defining qualities to do so. I’ve seen another Goodreads reviewer define it as ‘character assassination’, and I agree with that description fully. Reid’s reimagining turns our beloved ambitious middle-aged Scottish woman who gaslight gatekeep girlbosses her way to the top into a teenage French girl with no ambition who spends most of her time describing the Scottish men as violent and brutish in comparison to all other men, which I found to be a very jarring addition which was never challenged or developed in any way. Reid’s Lady Macbeth is watered down and turned into a ghost of her Shakespearean self. Where is the woman who bullied her husband for not wanting to commit murder? Where is the woman who is torn apart by the guilt of committing said murder herself? There’s not even a reference to the iconic “out damned spot” moment, which was a defining moment in me studying the play for my GCSE’s. There’s not a reference to many of the iconic moments from the play, which made me wonder what the purpose of this story was at many points. The book and the play follow the same beats, but the book has significantly less enthusiasm. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if all references were removed and it stood as an original work.

Reid’s Lady is defined only by the men in her life. There is one man in this book who the Lady sees in a positive light-even though he treats her as a prize to be taken every moment he is on the page-and he happens to be the only man who isn’t fully Scottish. He’s a love interest who she has no chemistry with, and I felt like removing their relationship from the plot would have a limited impact on the book as a whole. He can also turn into a dragon, something that only seems relevant when he needs to (not metaphorically) swoop in and save the day. I never thought I’d be a men defender, but we’re told by the Lady continuously that woman good man bad with very little on page to support this, mostly due to the sheer absence of female characters in this supposedly feminist retelling. Macbeth is described as someone who always objectifies women and doesn’t treat them like people, even though the Lady is constantly surprised by how much he listens to her and values her opinions on how he fights his battles. ‘Man bad’ is the Lady’s universal truth, but a majority of them are fine when she interacts with them, or they’re cartoonishly evil. Reid seems to be toeing the line between man hating and Scottish hating in this book, but that is a whole other point for me to delve into.

I am aware that the sexism and misogyny may be an accurate depiction of what was going on historically, but it’s not something in Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth’s story that suggests that these things represent her. Rather than being a feminist retelling or having the same amount of agency as the original Lady, this book seems to construct a significantly more sexist and patriarchal world for the sake of the Lady having the opportunity to break free. The lack of women in this book feels more and more noticeable with each description of a hulking Scottish man who laps up the blood of his enemies. There is a woman-the Lady’s handmaiden-who arrives to the castle with her in the first chapter and disappears a few paragraphs later, and there is a woman later on who the Lady ‘saves’ from being sent to a nunnery who becomes the new handmaiden and appears in a handful of scenes (which were potentially the most interesting ones, too). However, in comparison to our tiny delicate Lady, these women are constantly described by how ugly the Lady finds them and how wide their shoulders are (mentioned multiple times) rather than their personalities or any notable details about their lives. Other significant women include the witches who do little more than say “Hail Macbeth” and vague prophecies (which was to be expected, I guess), and the Lady’s father’s wife who is only really described as ‘mad’.

While I really enjoyed Reid’s writing in ‘A Study in Drowning’, it felt bland for me here, more passive than I’ve experienced in her previous works. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters, largely due to the lack of relatable emotions or believable intentions. The story was told, but there was no action: a majority of the intrigue takes place off page while the Lady sits in the castle, which is believable for the sake of the plot, but simply uninteresting to read for so many pages. The Lady is also self-described as good with faces and names and little details about people, yet doesn’t remember any names or faces or details by the end of the book, and it’s these little inconsistencies scattered throughout that really disrupted my reading experience. There’s a lot of moments where the Lady tells herself that she’s asking smart and subtle questions to learn more about Macbeth, then she immediately follows them up with incredibly un-smart and un-subtle questions that made me reevaluate everything I had been told about her. It’s hard to become invested in the protagonist when they don’t even seem to understand what they’re doing and why.

Overall, ‘retelling’ is not the word I would use to describe this book, and this is unfortunately not one of the ways I wish to reimagine such a powerful, iconic woman who made me care about Shakespeare’s works.

I think this book will appeal to those who enjoy seeing a classic tale re-imagined from a female perspective. I have never read Macbeth, so I cannot say how well it relates back to the source material or if it will appeal to lovers of Shakespeare, but I can say that the author gave Lady Macbeth a complete and satisfying story arc.

With that being said, this book was not for me. I wanted to love it because Ava Reid wrote it, and while the writing is as beautifully done as ever, I felt ambivalent about the story. The author did a wonderful job giving life and depth to the characters, but I could not make myself care about or invest in them. The book felt dark from beginning to end, and even the slivers of love and romance that peeked through were not enough to make it enjoyable to me.

If anyone else had written this book, I would not have read it, because I know the story wouldn't appeal to me. I tend to prefer books that have more light, hope, and romance woven into them, so I can confidently say that my disappointment is driven by my taste as a reader and not the quality of the book.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of this book for me to review.

Huge Shakespeare lover, so I was very excited about this. Especially since Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play! Lady Macbeth is such an interesting character, and it was fun to see her take on the story. Loved the way it was written. All about female driven stories.

Before I begin I want to say a huge thank you to Netgalley for letting me read and review this book early!
17 year old Roscille may seem to be nothing more than a foreign bride for the Scottish warrior, Macbeth, but she is so much more than that. In this feminine rage retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth Reid takes readers on a journey we didn’t know we needed. The world in which Roscille operates is one filled with magic, witches, curses and most importantly, prophecies. While Reid takes some creative liberties retelling this iconic story, the changes were necessary. With nods to other Shakespearian work, Reid clearly knew what she was doing while writing this novel. Roscille’s journey from Lady Roscille to the titular Lady Macbeth is a blood-soaked horror that I could not look away from. However, I felt like the beginning was a bit slow, and the end was a bit rushed. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy Shakespeare, retellings of classic stories, and fans of both fantasy and horror. Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid is compelling, terrifying, and truly fascinating.
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid comes out August 13th 2024!

Darkly compelling retelling of Shakespeare's story of Macbeth. A young girl who's eyes are said to bewitch men is sent to Scotland to marry the brutish Lord Macbeth who resides in a remote castle with dark secrets of his own. When she tasks Lord Macbeth with requirements before she will share the marriage bed she sets into motion a series of events that will forever change her fate.
I truly enjoyed this story though I had not read Shakespeare's Macbeth I was familiar with the story and I found that this version told from her point of view was compelling and definitely had me not wanting to put the book down. I think that the setting and characters were well developed and the writing style was accurate for the time frame in which the story takes place.
If you are a fan of historical fiction with some fantasy thrown in you will definitely enjoy this book.

Let’s look at mcbeth from lady Macbeth side of the story. This is written in an old world way which may be hard for you to stay engaged

I absolutely love that this is a fresh and new perspective from one of Shakespeare most beloved characters. This unconventional retelling is thrilling, enjoyable, and thought provoking. Who is the lady behind the curtain?
I fully enjoyed this modern retelling and will be thinking about it for a while.
On top of that, the artwork is stunning!
Thank you for the ARC on this book! I am delighted!!!

I very much enjoy feminist retellings of classic stories from the perspective of misunderstood and much maligned women from myth, folklore, and history (as in Madeline Miller's Circe or Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel). I have also read and enjoyed A Study in Drowning and the Wolf and the. Woodsman by Ava Reid, so I had very. high expectations or this book. In the end I was greatly disappointed. The source material (Shakespeare's Macbeth) uses the themes of "subverting the natural order" and you would think that would tee up this author to give us a story that shows the power of Lady Macbeth, her cunning, her ambition, the machinations she uses to propel her husband to regicide and into paranoid tyranny. One might expect that the author could compel us to see Lady Macbeth in a sympathetic light. She plans alongside her husband (or is she smart enough to have set these schemes in motion all on her own) and in the end does feel tremendous guilt over what the plans they have devised and carried out, in fact she holds onto her sanity longer than her husband which could be construed as her having. greater fortitude, and a way for. the author to say "Wait just a moment, women can be just as intelligent, crafty and politically skilled as men." But this Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a weak foreign child-bride who attempts a few wily maneuvers but is mainly intimidated and completely controlled by her husband. She is so far-removed from the plot that she doesn't feel any guilt, beyond being a little sad that she killed the father of her love interest (weird if you are still trying to anchor the reader in framework of Macbeth) In fact, Reid's adaptation jettisons the source material entirely, changing the names of main characters (confusingly using character's names from different Shakespeare plays) and even adding in dragons?

In the end I was so disappointed and confused. I feel this reimagining could have done more and been so much better. I will add one star to my review because Reid's craft is undeniable. She was able to incorporate famous turns of phrase from the source material in a beautiful way but in the end that is where it stopped being her guide, which was incredibly frustrating to me as a reader.

I really appreciate NetGalley for allowing me access to an ARC and the opportunity to share my review.

4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for approving me for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I have been anticipating this book since I'd read Juniper and Thorn last year. I haven't yet read Shakespeare's Macbeth, so I was truly coming into this story with no clue of what would take place. I was immediately protective of our protagonist, Roscille and rooting for her success. She is so sharp, perceptive, and cunning. Watching how she thinks and strategizes in order to survive Glammis was so interesting and compelling. I absolutely hated Macbeth with my entire heart. I managed to despise him more and more as the book went on. That being said, seeing Roscille's interactions with him, especially in the first half of the book, was very interesting. They are both more than what they make themselves out to be and it was fascinating seeing them slowly realize that about the other. It felt like watching two people play chess or cards, trying not to show their next move. In addition, Ava Reid does a beautiful job painting the landscape of this cold, dark, and eerie kingdom. It constantly felt ominious and vacant, despite the fact that there are constantly people present, even if Roscille can't see them. Unsurprisingly, Reid's prose continues to be very lush and gorgeous.

In this story, where there are very few women (purposely so), I found the moments of connection between them so captivating and moving. Roscille's relationship with her handmaiden, Hawise, greatly informs her relationship with a character introduced later in the book. I also found the witches so interesting and wish that we got even more moments of them. It was interesting the way these women saw each other, compared to them men around them. While there weren't many scenes between Roscille and the other women of the story, every scene felt impactful and important. I also enjoyed seeing the ways that they would try and protect each other as well.

Something that I noticed reading this, as well as J&T, is how Reid depicts agency and how their characters choose to claim it, even in small ways. Despite Roscille being unable to change much about her circumstances, she finds moments of freedom through her relationship with her love interest. While I wasn't expecting any romance, I actually really appreciated the reprieve that their scenes provided, given that there are so few moments of peace and safety that Roscille experiences. I will say I wish there was a little more development for both the love interest and the romance, but I still thoroughly enjoyed their scenes.

I continue to become a bigger fan of Ava Reid with each book of theirs that I read. I think that they are such a strong writer, with a talent for folklore and a deep compassion towards complex characters. Reading this made me even more excited to get to ASID and see what they write in the future.

I really loved the premise for this. Cover is gorgeous too! But the writing is so dense it's a bit hard to escape into.

Thanks to Del Rey for the copy of this book!

“All your life you have been muzzled. So as not to disturb the architecture of the world. But a muzzled dog thinks only of its misery and its shackles. They may rob your body of its power, but they cannot take your mind.”

Welp, this was a dark one - and basically horror for the last 25% of the book. As far as a MACBETH retelling goes, this one veered from the path in an attempt at being on the more feminist side. While I understood what Ava was trying to do, it ended up being a lot of Roscille (Lady Macbeth) being in horrible positions and trying to understand her power as a witch and gain her own autonomy. So, I did like that her position was reversed a little in this retelling, but I can't say I like the way that other characters were changed in order to accomplish the ultimate mission here. It waned in and out of holding my attention, so was more of an okay read for me.

Continuing my Auto-Buy Author Series with Ava Reid

I guess I should probably say Auto-Read because I really only own one of her books and the rest I borrowed from the library

I was so excited to receive an ARC for her next book from @netgalley though. Lady MacBeth is just a good read! It doesn’t come out for a couple of months but I’m so excited for you all to be able to get your hands on it. I highly recommend! I love a “good for her” story and this 100000% delivers. Also.. let me just say… the MMC… 👀🐉

I will literally read anything Miss Ava Reid puts out, she could write a manual on how to properly install drywall and I would consume it. I’m also absolutely desperate for a sequel to A Study in Drowning in Preston’s POV after reading his bonus chapter (@avasreid I hope you see this and see how much the people NEED it)

#astudyindrowning #astudyindrowningbyavareid #avareid #autobuyauthor #ladymacbethavareid

ava reid eats and leaves no crumbs. this was so good, i couldn't fathom putting it down. cannot wait for the official publishing of this book so i can snag a copy for my bookshelf and make all my friends read it with me.

does not require you to read the original work by shakespeare - honestly, i feel like it would be so much more fun if you go in without any prior knowledge and just sit back for the ride.

I have read all of Ava Reid's books and this one was such a disappointment for me. I think they had such fantastic source material, and Reid has done such a great job in the past writing about pain and anger, that I had such high expectations. I am thinking I would have enjoyed this more had I not had such expectations, but it's hard to say that when the source material is one so well known.

Reid is a fantastic writer. I am not one to save quotes from books, but this one had me taking screen shots repeatedly. However, I got somewhat bored. Both the source material and the UK cover had me thinking this book was going to feature a huge amount of women's rage and it... really didn't. The book was slow in its character growth, and the main character's early weakness got repetitive and boring. Further, the little I did remember from Macbeth (which I read about 15 years ago at this point) was not there, which was frustrating. There was a single reference to the blood on her hands, if I recall correctly, but that was about it. I was really confused about why Reid chose to make this book based on Shakespeare's work rather than just create an entirely new story in a similar world.

I'm sad about this one, to say the least. At least I have Juniper and Thorn to go back to.

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

So this was a bit disappointing... Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the author's books. Suffice it to say, I had high expectations going into Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth was a pretty short, quick read. (But it sure took me quite a while to finish it.) I didn't like any of the characters and I found the book overall to be forgettable.

I might write a more thorough review in the future but right now I'm just relieved I can finally cross this one off my currently reading list.