4.25
Ava Reid is one of my favorite authors, so this was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024. That being said, I think this is my least favorite of their books, although that could change with time as I think about it more or if I decide to reread it. Definitely not a bad book though, I just have complicated feelings about it that I will try to articulate.

From the very beginning, Ava Reid's prose had me in a chokehold. There is something about her prose, both lyrical and concise, that captivates me and I truly think they are one of the best writers currently publishing novels. While sometimes the metaphors in this book got a bit overused (particularly with the ermine), I loved the writing style and was constantly underlining things in my eARC. That said, I struggled to read this for long periods of time because this book deals with some very heavy topics.

When Roscille is forced by her father to marry MacBeth, she is both terrified of getting trapped in the cycle of breeding and birthing that is the burden of married ladies and determined to do whatever it takes to escape that fate. She has found that her gaze can entrance me and she uses this to bend them to her will. Roscille is a fascinating heroine because she is both tragic and terrifying. Some readers will probably find her incredibly unlikable in her ruthlessness, and yet, I could not help but root for her in the end. Ava Reid has really turned this classic tale on its head and I cannot wait to devour whatever they write next!

I was so excited to get this ARC having loved other books by Ava Reid.
Unfortunately, this one was not for me.
It’s written wonderfully but I just couldn’t connect with the story.
I think this will appeal to many, so I would still recommend it.

Highly disappointed in this one. I was expecting Juniper and Thorn level of writing which would have complemented a retelling if Macbeth so well! The writing didn't flow well as there were many cringe bits of dialogue and moments that could have been edited out. I'm only disappointed because either had high expectations after loving Juniper and ASID by Reid. This unfortunately might not be a reread as opposed to the prior mentioned books I loved from Reid.

I did have some difficulty at first in retaining interest. I did however decide to push through and did end up enjoying the novel.

I fell in love with Ava Reid's writing after picking up A Study in Drowning. I love that there are layers to her stories. While I have not read the actual Macbeth, I know the gist of the story. With that being said, I enjoyed Lady Macbeth. I was worried the writing WOULD be Shakespearean and potentially out of my depth, but the format was easy to understand and was hooked from the beginning. The setting of Scotland is a dark and isolated place, and the description of the ocean, accompanying the sounds of the waves that our protagonist Lady Macbeth is not used to, you truly feel like you're there with her. The overall story is fantastically told and I highly recommend reading. Special thanks to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Del Rey Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This reimagining of Lady Macbeth is a story of sacrifices women must make for the means of survival. I am not familiar with the original play, however I love that this was done from the perspective of the villain who is forced to become resilient and cunning, and is a victim of the men in her life.

“I am nothing but the dagger in my husband’s hand.”

Ava Reid is a master of writing the realities of what it means to be a woman. She weaves gut wrenching lines into her books so seamlessly that you don’t even realize until it hits you. Until the simplest line catches up with all the words that came before it, and you realize how important every page is. This was one of my favorite parts of A Study in Drowning, the blatant misogyny ingrained in society and how that affects women in everyday life. Lady Macbeth is about a 17 year old girl being married off to a Lord over double her age and has to come up with a plan to not only thwart her new husband at every turn, but also survive.

“All because she could not bear to submit herself to him like all the world’s women have before.”

Many times, Roscille downplays the brutal circumstances she’s in, like the way she does in the quote above. It’s the harsh reality of women who are stuck in toxic, abusive situations with no way out but to accept it.

Lady Macbeth deals with suicidal ideations in a believable and thoughtful way, as someone who has had them in the past. These instant, sudden thoughts, that when you’re in a tough spot it could be solved if you weren’t here.

This wouldn’t be an Ava Reid book without a love interest that has you on your knees, begging for someone like him. I love Lisander so much, he truly just wanted to protect her from the moment he met her.

I truly loved this gothic, dark fantasy set in Scotland. Witches, curses, powers, romance, and dragons. What more could I ask for in a fantasy book?

I recommend checking trigger warnings before reading.

I love a good Shakespeare retelling. This is an awesome adaptation of lady Macbeth. Would definitely recommend

2.5⭐️’s I loved Juniper and Thorn and A Study in Drowning, so I was so excited to receive an ARC of this. It pains me to say this, but this was a pretty disappointing read.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read Macbeth, so I can’t really say much on the retelling, but this was painfully boring.

Full disclosure, I know nothing of the original Shakespearean play Macbeth. So my views have NOTHING to do with comparing the two.

Ava Reid wrote a dark feminist retelling of the villainous Lady Macbeth. And though a lot of it was difficult to read, I was enthralled with what would happen next. Reid’s writing is stellar and imaginative and I overall liked it!! And there’s a dragon - which I wasn’t expecting. 😂

What a strange, beautifully written, unnecessary retelling of Lady Macbeth's story this is. As a fan of the play, I was thrilled to see Reid write a woman who wasn't a passive waif like many of her typical heroines - and don't misunderstand me, for I've adored several of those passive waifs. Unfortunately, Lady Macbeth (or Roscille, as she is known in this book) is eerily beautiful, very intelligent, and... also quite passive. Alas. This story might have had legs had it been marketed as literally any other thing but a Macbeth retelling; there is nothing of "screw your courage to the sticking place" here. It's an interesting experiment, for sure - Reid is capable of writing a beautiful story - but the disappointment rendered the whole thing the opposite of compelling to me.

I have loved everything that Ava has written so far and I was stoked to see her next book was a retelling of Lady Macbeth, one of my favorite characters from Shakespeare. However, I didn't read the book because I expected a perfect retelling. I wanted the dark flair that Ava's previous books demonstrate.... but this book was not that. There was so much gender essentialism that was repeated endlessly, like someone just diving into the world of gender studies. Because they are men, they act this way.... and because we are women, this is what happens to us. Obviously, a lot of misogyny and sexism were present in this world but it felt like she needed to remind us every couple of paragraphs. Lady Macbeth just seems like a naive teenager and doesn't seem to have a ton of growth by the end of this book. She is not the woman who would pluck her nipple off the boneless gums of her babe and then dashed their brains out. That's the Lady Macbeth I thought I was going to read about. The one that reminds me of so many characters in Ava's past books that I fell in love with. The Lady Macbeth in this books feels hollow and one-dimensional.

Macbeth's character lacked so much depth and it's hard to imagine him as the same person in Shakespeare's story. I hated the insta-love situation with Lady Macbeth and her lover.... It did not make any sense to me!!! I also was confused throughout the entire book of whether or not she's a witch??? This Lady Macbeth is not the heroine I'm used to in Ava's stories at all. I just felt a whole lot of nothing toward the main characters and confused the entire way about the motivations behind their actions. The best parts of this books is when Ava steps away from the confines of the source material and just writes like herself. I wonder what this book could've been if it weren't a Lady Macbeth retelling but the story of a woman trying to make a better situation for herself than the one she was placed in. I miss Ava's writing so much and hope to see the writing I fell in love with in Juniper and the Wolfsman come back. The writing in this one is just all over the place and it still felt like a lot more improvements could've been made on the structure. Everything about the plot was confusing and anti-climactic. If another author had written this I wouldn't have finished the book.

Oh the cover art is pretty sick so I added a star for that!

"Lady Macbeth" by Ava Reid fails to capture the essence and power of Shakespeare's iconic character. Instead, it's a confusing and disappointing reimagining that struggles to find its purpose and make an impact.

The novel follows Roscille, a French teenager who marries Lord Macbeth in a Scottish castle. However, the portrayal of Scotland and its people is filled with xenophobia and sexism, painting all Scottish men as brutish savages and reducing women to nonexistent or powerless roles.

Roscille lacks the assertiveness and intelligence of Lady Macbeth, instead appearing as a weak and timid character. Her attempts at scheming feel contrived, and her character development is inconsistent and lacking.

The inclusion of a dragon and the focus on Roscille's beauty further detract from the story's coherence. Seriously, WHY was there a dragon!? The writing style is lackluster and has some major pacing issues.

Overall, Lady Macbeth feels disconnected from its source material and fails to offer a compelling alternative narrative. It raises more questions than answers, leaving readers wondering about its purpose and significance. I'd recommend steering clear of this book and wouldn't recommend it.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an early ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Was really hard to get into this book and I struggled to finish it. It was dull and drawn out. It wasn't a very good spin or reimagining of Shakespeare's work in my opinion

This book was amazing! It was a tad slow to start, but once it got going, it was going! I empathized with Lady M, and appreciated that this story seemed historically accurate in the way that women were treated at that time. The narration had a similar feel and cadence to Shakespeare, and I love how the characters and plot were reimagined for this book! I was rooting for Lady M the whole time. I wish that Lady M's powers were fleshed out more during the entire book so that the moments where she used them weren't so surprising and the ending made more sense and felt more gratifying instead of feeling like, "Oh! Ok, I guess that kind of makes sense." Especially since most of the book I thought her powers were just made up man fancy because she was so beautiful and her features were rare.

A slow build, but worth it! I have been a fan of Ava Reid before this book, and will continue to seek her out!

I have truly mixed feelings about this book. Lady Macbeth is described as a feminist retelling of the classic Shakespeare play Macbeth, which is supposed to give the infamous Lady Macbeth more of a purpose in the tragic tale. I so wanted to like this book, I enjoyed A Study in Drowning and the premise of this novel sounded so fascinating. Lady Macbeth is meant to be this powerful bewitching figure, and instead, she just feels like a confused seventeen-year-old who may or may not have magical abilities. Some parts of this story had such beautiful writing and descriptions that I felt like I was out on the Scottish highlands. Unfortunately, the overall plot and characters all felt a bit off and forced. All the characters felt very one-dimensional, including Lady Macbeth herself, and the plot felt very stretched out and forced to encompass more chapters than necessary. I think this would have been better as a novella or a short story. Every chapter felt like a repeat of the last, If you are looking for a retelling of Macbeth that sticks close to the original play, then this is not the book for you. This is far more of a reinterpretation that only loosely touches on its source material. Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers are a early copy of the book!

Imagine you just started senior year of high school, probably got your license, met new friends over summer or just ready for the year to be over already before it even began.

You go over your syllabus in English and it says "Macbeth" on it. At this point, you already read a few of his works the previous years and everyone talks of Macbeth as a scary thing to read (which it was). You start to popcorn read it in class, taking it home to read on your own for homework and finally watch the movie. Yet, your brain can't help but wonder, "What if Lady Macbeth wasn't this co-conspirator but yet a young girl still learning the world around here, but still played a bigger role than you could imagine."

I devoured this book in a day, I loved how it was in the five acts just like the original work. Once I finished a act, I had to keep going, I needed to know what the next act would bring. I love the writing, the way the author played with Lady Macbeth's emotions, and the how the magic was subtle yet amazing!

Only complaint? My brain was working over time in the first act to place characters together since there is a lot of them. But, once I got it together in my brain and able to think aloud with our librarians about it, it quickly become so much more to me.

I highly recommend this book to anyone up to the challenge, and I will be talking about it/reread to anyone who will listen

Dark, Disturbing, & Delicious.

Ava Reid breathes new life into the tragic tale of Macbeth. Through the eyes of Lady Macbeth, the tale of their demise deepens into the harsh sting of a blade. Reid's style is poetic and brutal. Devastating and delightful. The story unravels in Lady Macbeth's desire to survive the marriage bed to her foreign husband, saving herself a perceived pain; she accidentally sentences others to a grisly fate.

"Madness, of all things, is the most unforgivable in a woman."

Ava Reid's "Lady Macbeth" is a haunting and inventive retelling of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, infused with dark gothic elements and lyrical prose. The story follows the Lady, a bride wed to the Scottish warrior known for his brutality. As she navigates the treacherous court and her husband's occult secrets, the Lady discovers her own formidable powers and the perilous consequences they bring.

Reid's narrative mastery shines through in the atmospheric setting and vivid characterization. The Lady's journey from a pawn in a political game to a wielder of potent magic is captivating, blending elements of horror and suspense with lyrical storytelling. What really sets "Lady Macbeth" apart is Reid's creativity in reimagining this iconic tale, exploring themes of power, ambition, and the supernatural.

Despite occasional pacing issues, Reid's retelling is a standout achievement, offering a fresh perspective on a familiar story. I highly recommend!

I have read all of Ava Reid's books, and if there's one thing Reid knows how to do, it's tell a wonderfully dark and gothic story. Lady Macbeth is no exception. I know there have been some criticisms about Reid changing things or introducing things that were not in Shakespeare's Macbeth, but this book is marketed as a reimagining rather than a retelling. I personally love all of the additions and changes.

The character of Lady Macbeth, Roscille, was beautifully crafted and really embodies the feelings women have had for eons and will probably continue to have (unfortunately). Every worry and concern she had was realistic for women everywhere. Lord Macbeth was a wonderfully crafted villain from the start, knowing what needed to be done to bend Roscille to his will. Banquho and Fleance were great characters, and I really enjoyed the changes made to the witches, as well as the addition of dragons.

The first chapter was the only thing I disliked about this book. It felt like it dragged and took me days to get through just that first chapter. Now, I won't say that it's Reid's fault, as I am very much a mood reader, and I picked this book up after finishing a delightful series, so it could simply be because I wasn't in the mood for "Lady Macbeth."

Overall Rating: 5/5 stars, I would definitely recommend this book to my friends.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ava Reid, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey for an ARC of "Lady Macbeth" in exchange for an honest and fair review.