thank you NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

ava reid’s ethereal writing style + layered worldbuilding + fascinating, brilliant, and, fine, *somewhat* unhinged women never misses

Thank you to NetGalley, Ballantine/Del Rey, and Ava Reid for an e-arc of Lady Macbeth in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This fell a bit short for me. I usually love Reid’s work, but I couldn’t really get into this one and almost quit reading part way through. I don’t know if it is because I’m not very familiar with Macbeth, or if it's something else that I can’t quite put my finger on. Lady Macbeth as a character was a little flat and didn’t seem anything like the character from the play and I think that put me off the most. None of the characters are really likable and it was hard to find anyone to root for.

I’m not giving up on Reid or her writing. I will definitely still be checking out her future works.

This book totally fit the bill. First of all, the cover is captivating, am I right? The image is so haunting, and Lady Macbeth's eyes are obviously totally going to see through to your soul. This is a retelling of "Macbeth," and let me tell you, it delivered! First of all, this book has atmosphere in spades. It was all about atmosphere. The ancient Scottish words and place names made the story feel ancient and wild. The castle was creepy, and the peripheral characters (at which point I'm going to be very vague about this to save you the exciting surprises!) are nightmare-inducing, as one might hope.

I think the strongest thing about this book really is the atmosphere. Reid does an excellent job of creating a wild and brutish feel to a very ancient time period. Macbeth himself is such a large character, both physically in the story as well as a personality and brute force that he himself creates an atmosphere that is haunting and wild and frankly, unhinged at times.

This story is told from the point of view of Lady Macbeth, and I enjoyed that viewpoint. We don't often get to see what the world would have been like in ancient history from a woman's viewpoint, and I think Reid did a good job of creating a character that felt believably intelligent and cunning but also constrained by her place in society not only as a woman but as the wife of a king.

I adored Reid's grasp on crafting an immersive reading experience. Her delicious and atmospheric writing style kept me engaged in the story. However, I was left longing for the classic character's complex nature, which felt as though it was cast aside or watered down in this retelling, leaving a Lady Macbeth lacking in agency. I was left unfulfilled with the fantastical turn this retelling took.

Men hate when you use the patriarchy against them 😔

I actually liked this! I was a bit scared by the mixed reviews, I’ve seen people saying that Lady Macbeth is not as cunning as she’s made it out to be and I think that’s the point. She’s 17 and basically sold to a scary man, but despite her naïveté she tries to protect herself. Obviously she gets ensnared in her plot, but ultimately comes into her power. The ending was a bit rushed imo but I also understand not giving a man so much attention in this version of the story. So happy that I was actually able to finish the arc before seeing Ava tomorrow 🤭

Thank you Net Galley for this e-arc.
TW: sexism, rape, violence, war, suicide
Lady Macbeth is an enchanting feminist retelling of Macbeth. In Ava Reid's rendition, the reader is in the mind of Lady Macbeth as she comes into power and finds out her true calling. This story has an incredible gothic atmosphere to it. Our Lady Macbeth in my opinion is a true anti-hero. This book is for people who support women's rights and wrongs. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't remember the original Macbeth so my experience of the book isn't reliant on it if that makes sense. Only one male character is halfway decent and fleshed out which IMO helps the story focus on Lady Macbeth and the trials women face take that as you will.
Please do yourself a favor and listen to If I Can't Have Love, Wantnt Power by Halsey while reading this book

dnf at 70% (will consider it as read)

this was painful to read, i was excited i'm not gonna lie, lady macbeth is one of my favorite characters and this was sold as a retelling, but this was everything but.
the character was not even a little bit of what lady macbeth was, only who she married, and that was not the important part of her, i'm disappointed but i'm not gonna force myself to finish something i'm clearly not enjoying at all.

This was my first Ava Reid book! I've heard amazing things about her work and as a Macbeth enjoyer in high school, I was excited for this one. I'm not sure if it was because I had such high hopes for this, but I found myself a touch underwhelmed throughout.

There were elements I really enjoyed; the reveal of the true identities of the three witches was kind of iconic, the inclusion and explanation of all the different names for people and places as a reflection of the complicated nature of medieval Western-European politial turmoil, the prince, the village woman she became friends with. The whole book had a really tense atmosphere and I think the dread and fear came across REALLY well on-page. I think the last 20% or so of the book was the strongest and that's when I finally felt like I couldn't put it down.

Ultimately, I just sort of feel like I wanted Roscille to do more?? I just felt like every one of her machinations had me so excited while I was reading, thinking "This is it! This is the time it works and she thwarts all these weirdos and WINS!" and then her plans kept getting foiled with such ease. It became frustrating to read because I just wanted her to outsmart all of them and make her escape. Separately, I also really wanted to know more about what happened with the prince in the final scenes????? I feel like not enough attention was paid to that transformation and frankly THAT'S the story I came away really wanting to have read.

This definitely won't deter me from reading more of her work in the future though! I feel like her other books are far more my typical vibe and have been on my TBR for quite a while.

Honestly a huge letdown for me.

After enjoying A Study in Drowning, I was impressed with Reid's ability to build a haunted, menacing atmosphere, as well as creating a world wholecloth that nonetheless felt real and familiar. This left me excited for her feminist take on Lady Macbeth, one of Shakespeare's most iconic and interesting villainesses, from my favorite of the Bard's tragedies.

Ava Reid's Lady Macbeth bears almost no relation to the play, aside from being (ostensibly) set in Scotland, a trio of witches, and a few of the characters sharing names. Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth is a driving force of the play; it is she who convinces Macbeth to forsake his oath of loyalty to King Duncan and commit the regicide that places him on the throne--and is herself later overcome by guilt for her culpability in the act. She is cunning, ambitious, driven, and conflicted.

Reid's Lady Macbeth shares almost no qualities in common with Shakespeare's. She is timid, fearful, and constantly at the mercy of the brutish men who surround her (contrast against the play, wherein Macbeth and Lady M have what is arguably one of the most equal marriages in Shakespeare's canon). Ava Reid reducing this iconic and complicated character to a helpless child bride with no agency of her own is not the feminist take Reid seems to think it is; it is a disservice to both the character and the reader who wastes their time on this atmospheric but ultimately hollow story, one that does not deserve the title it steals from the original character.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

3.5/5 stars

This was dark, sexy, and so atmospheric - excellent for spooky/fall season and wonderful for any Shakespeare lovers.

That said, I was hooked for most of the story....but I felt more and more disappointed toward the end. I felt like there was a lot of great build up and I was super interested in how she was going to get out of it and what would happen....and it felt very anti-climatic the last 10% or so.

I love Ava Reid's writing - it's beautiful and luscious and sucks you in, almost in an obsessive way. But I can't say this one felt as fulfilling as I had hoped with all the build up and it felt flat as a result. I felt like we could have added maybe 50 pages and the pacing and climax would have benefited.

But overall, I did really enjoy it and I think folks will love this as a quick, easy, spooky read!

As much as I enjoy Ava Reid's writing, this book was not for me. It has been quite some time since I have read Macbeth by Shakespeare but the fact that these characters were based on those from the original story, I had a difficult time enjoying it. Although during the time period, young brides were normal, I thought having the main character be 17 was not right. I also did not like the fact that she slept with her husband and then went to sleep with another man less than 24 hours later (who is a dragon by the way). The only reason I rated this 3 Stars is because I enjoy her writing style as she is great at writing Gothic novels.

This one wasn't for me. I found what was an intriguing character in the original Shakespear to be boring in this book. I know others are loving it, but even after buying the audiobook to give it another try, I just didn't connect with the characters or story.

This book has fantastic atmosphere and worldbuilding, but I found the characters hard to root for. That being said, I would recommend this as an entertaining option for the gloomy, dark fall season.

Lady McBeth is a gothic reimagining based on the Shakespeare play. A story told by the leading villianess herself. Not everything is as it seems.

First we are introduced to Roscille. Multilingual, great memory, and clever.
She was seen as a witch or as witch-cursed due to her unnatural beauty.
It's said her eyes could give her power over men.

In this quick read in the older style there are many feelings of eeriness, masterful planning attempts, twisted moments, and darkness. It's dramatic. Tragic.

I love all of the supernatural elements included within the tale. It truly takes a dark turn that will have you fascinated.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, The topic definitely was appealing but it really came down to the writing style and just not engaging me enough to keep me going.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read an advanced copy. It did take me a while to get around to reading this one but I'm glad I did. Reid's writing flows so nicely. I'm not a huge Shakespeare buff so please keep that in mind, but I love the twist to this story from Lady Macbeth's POV. After I read it I did see some negative reviews about the level of xenophobia and there could be a point to that. Reid changed Lady Macbeth to a French teen who doesn't have anything nice to say about the Scottish. During the reading I felt more that this Lady Macbeth was actually just very young and sheltered and finding out what the larger world is really like compared to her naive musings. Discovering the Scottish aren't "just brutes" and that being a woman, no matter your station, is in many ways a great burden. But upon reflecting on the 1 star reviews I read, I do think the same message could have been accomplished without the xenophobia element so I reduced by a star.

I really enjoyed this story, although I expected Lady Macbeth to have a little more power than she actually did. I felt that at times, her entire world was still defined by the men in her life, when I thought this reimagining would give her more agency. That being said it was an enjoyable read!

Just not for me! There were things I did enjoy about it, mainly the writing style. I will definitely be checking out some of this author’s other works based on that alone. The way she writes makes me feel so immersed in the… I don’t want to say “vibes”, but that’s what fits. I could really put myself in Roscille’s place. Something was missing for me though, I just wasn’t that emotionally invested in the characters.

I applaud Ava Reid for thinking out of the box, a retelling of a classic must be incredibly tricky.

I honestly never thought I’d love a straightforward Shakespeare retelling, but when I saw Ava Reed releasing one I was thrilled. A feminist retelling with the language of the time, along with her lyrical style - not losing the love of the story, but understanding it & loving it more.

This book shows that people are only the monsters you’ve made them to (either in their actions or just in your head).

No one is doing gothic, atmospheric fantasy like Ava Reid. Yet again, they've knocked it out of the park.

I'll prime this by saying that I was a bit wary going into this book, despite Ava Reid being one of my favorite authors, because I don't know nearly anything about Macbeth. Never read it. Watched one of the movies once. In fact, I had meant to re-watch the movie before reading this book and I knew I wanted to watch 'the kenneth branagh one' and it took me more than a week to realize I was thinking of Hamlet, not Macbeth. All of which is to say that if you're looking for a review to tell you how this holds up alongside the source material, I can't help you; but, if you're curious to know if you can read Lady Macbeth without knowing the source material, that I can maybe help with.

I won't tease it, the answer is yes. I have a layman's vague memory of Macbeth and nothing more, but it didn't negatively impact my experience at all. While I can reasonably assume that there are certainly references and homages to the source material that would deepen my understanding of this text, I never felt that while I was reading Lady Macbeth. This book stands on its merits as a strong narrative in its own right.

Ava Reid is back at it again with lush, gothic prose and you'll find a lot of what Reid has shown to be her signature themes in this story: a girl trying to survive in a world determined to stamp her out, the ways in which women are villified for the desires of men, a truly flawed main character, the hope and light that love can bring and the strength in continuing to seek it in a bleak world, among others.

Lady Macbeth grabbed me from the very beginning and didn't let go. I spent an entire Saturday doing nothing but reading this book cover to cover. I never should have doubted for a moment that Reid would keep me glued to my seat for every page.