⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
🩸🗡️ “𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙."🗡️🩸

if there's one thing to know about me, it's that im going to absolutely devour anything miss reid writes. her writing never fails to be captivating and just so poetic, and that works especially well with a lady macbeth retelling (though it's more like a complete reinvention).

𝙄𝙛 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙛𝙚𝙩𝙮, 𝙞𝙛 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚, 𝙖𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨. 𝙑𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚.

i need to reread macbeth asap and i might come back here to say more things no one cares about after i do tbh. but let me just say, i fucking LOVE retellings where the story focuses on a woman who had been previously sidelined (ophelia 2018 im looking at you). even if you don't like/know nothing about shakespeare or macbeth you can still read this novel and fully enjoy it! if you like historical fiction (specifically in scotland), a bit of fantasy/mythological elements, enchanting writing, and powerful female characters, this is a wonderful retelling regardless of prior shakespearean knowledge.

𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝘽𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙯𝙝, 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙚, 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙚, 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖. 𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙇𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙈𝙖𝙘𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙝.

I love shakespeare and i go crazy for analyzing his female characters, so this shit was made for me. such a gorgeous and tragic retelling. the ending, however, fell a little flat for me. It just seemed a bit rushed and like it could have had more to it. I do feel like a few key "Macbeth" details were ditched which was questionable (i.e. Lady Macbeth was convinced by Macbeth to do the killing rather than the other way around) and it had some odd parts with the way Reid wanted to portray the "barbarous" Scots/Macbeth and the beauty of Lady Macbeth. And this might have bothered me more if I had read Macbeth recently, but I haven't... so I ended up enjoying the story regardless. (with complete honesty, my rating might go down a bit after I revisit the original text.)

but yeah, the imagery, the symbolism, the tragedy that is macbeth, the three witches, the evolution of lady macbeth?! yeah, the book went hard in that regard.

"𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙚𝙩 𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙤𝙩, 𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙣-𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙡.”
“𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙢𝙚.”

I thought the cover was ugly at first, but now im kinda obsessed?! Like i cannot wait to own a physical copy (as long as it’s not glossy!!! Like wtf was that about with a study in drowning??? 😡) PLS IM BEGGING FOR A SPEICAL EDITION VERSION!! I already know the sprayed edges would be insane.

𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙨 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙖𝙣𝙙, 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧, 𝙇𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙈𝙖𝙘𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙝 𝙨𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙨 𝙞𝙣.

“Lady Macbeth” is a gothic masterpiece revealing the ingenuity of a woman’s cunning mind to survive the life circumstances bestowed upon her. I believe Shakespeare himself would be gripping the edges of his seat while reading this engrossing tale.

Reid’s story-telling and writing style draw the audience into the story of Roscille, the foreign bride, as she becomes the Lady Macbeth.

I am so grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Shakespeare’s great female character, Lady Macbeth, is a powerhouse of a woman. Bold and audacious, she looks her warrior husband in the eye and, when he fears to reach out and grasp the destiny laid before him, she tells him to ‘screw his courage to the sticking place’ and commit the murder they both feel must be done to gain the throne the Three Witches have told Macbeth will be his. Usually cast as a middle-aged or older woman, she has been portrayed by such luminaries of stage and screen as Frances McDormand and Dame Judi Dench.

It’s a shame such a woman doesn’t appear in Ava Reid’s latest novel, a semi-historical fantasy novel curiously named Lady Macbeth. Though the historical Lady Macbeth has a name- Gruoch Ingen Boite- Reid saw fit to make her Lady anew. Instead of a strong Scottish woman of noble birth, Reid’s Lady is Roscille, an illegitimate daughter of a French lord. She is all of seventeen years old and is altogether too beautiful for words. She can also drive men mad with the power of her eyes, and is just too, too clever for her sex, because obviously women were never allowed to speak their minds in the medieval era.

I can imagine that such women as Æthelflæd Lady of Mercia, Judith of Flanders, Gunnhildr Gormsdóttir, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Joan of Arc, or any of the outspoken women of Shakespeare’s time, up to and including Elizabeth I herself, would take issue with the idea that they had to keep their mouths shut because “that’s just what women did”.

But that’s neither here nor there. Instead of a mature woman unafraid to speak her mind, we get a seventeen-year-old girl sent into the primitive land known as Scotland, where all the men are brutal, barbaric brutes who do little but fight over bits of barren land. The constant xenophobia directed against Scottish people is utterly baffling- especially when the only man who isn’t a savage barbarian with features like broken rocks is a half-Englishman. What, pray tell, in the text of Shakespeare’s Macbeth gives the impression of endless violence being done by every Scottish man?

Also baffling is the lack of women in the book. Apparently, between bouts of violence, these Scottish men do all the spinning, weaving, sewing, and child-rearing that would normally have been done by women, because there are no women in this castle and hardly any in the story. We’re told that the Scottish noblewomen are allowed no servants and must do everything themselves, and it’s not the done thing in Scotland to even have women in the castle. This is because of… reasons. Story reasons. Because if little Roscille wasn’t all by her lonesome, an older woman might come along and tell her to buck up and show her that a woman’s power isn’t made solely of flirtation and “womanly wiles”. Shakespeare’s Lady continually urges Macbeth to reach for power, to set aside his guilt, and become the king he is prophesied to be. She does this on page and on stage without faltering. Roscille makes one suggestion to her Macbeth, and another suggestion to another man, and though we’re told she speaks up at council meetings, it’s never on page. So often, she’s shivering in a corner or getting her arms tangled up in her gowns. More than once she needs to be rescued by a man. Too often, she is afraid to speak up, use her witchy ways, or otherwise take the power she could have if she would only take action. Any kind of action not prompted by the men around her.

In the end, Lady Macbeth feels less like Shakespeare’s Macbeth retold, and more like a Bluebeard story. If that were the case, Roscille’s lack of agency might more sense. Macbeth’s brutality might sense. The isolation in the castle might make more sense. As a Bluebeard story, this would be more successful.

Alas, this is meant to be a tale of Macbeth, for through this lens, the story fails. Roscille is a pale shadow of the Ladies Macbeth who have come before. The historical inaccuracies compound upon one another until the hodgepodge of historical figures plucked from random centuries blended with blatant inaccuracies becomes irritating, and one cannot escape the feeling that the “research materials” for this book consisted of Mel Gibson’s Braveheart and a few episodes of Outlander.

There are a lot of questions I have for this book. Why is the lady seventeen? Why does she have so little agency? Why are there no other women? Why are the witches where they are? Why is there a dragon? Why does the author hate Scottish men? But mostly I wonder, what was the point of this? At the end of it, all we have is, as Shakespeare might say, a tale “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”



Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the eARC. Receipt of the free ARC did not affect my opinion of this book.

4.5 stars! I haven’t read Macbeth since probably my second year of college. I remember enjoying it a lot, even though my recollection of the play is murky now. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this feminist retelling. I was worried since this is more historical fantasy that it would take me awhile to get into and finish. However, Ava Reid’s writing sucked me in right away. Her writing is beautifully rich with metaphor. The descriptions of Scotland were so very captivating. I loved the liberties she took with the source material. The undertones of female rage were phenomenal. Lady Macbeth’s character development throughout the course of the book is amazing to witness. We watch her go from a frail dove to roaring phoenix.

*WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILERS*
I did love this book, but it never quite hit the 5 star mark for me. I couldn’t exactly tell you why. If I had to nitpick, it would be that some elements just didn’t work for me. I loved the slight romantic subplot but found it odd/out of place that the love interest was cursed to be a sort of shapeshifter. Also the fact that his name is from another Shakespeare play was a little confusing.

Review will be posted to Goodreads & Storygraph!

if you are looking for an interesting and engaging interpretation of Shakespeare’s MacBeth or even a novel with a strong female lead character, this novel is not it. Although, I have to applaud Ava Reid for attempting to infuse new life into the legend of MacBeth. Upon finishing this novel, I was found to be wanting much more than what was written. There were many missed opportunities that could have catapulted this novel from a mediocre retelling to that of a stellar and ground breaking treatise on one of the greatest characters ever portrayed on stage, screen, or print.

The author paints Lady Roscille, the titular character, as weak. Lady MacBeth is quite possibly the strongest of all of Shakespeare’s theatrical/literary creations. Even at the height of her “power”, Roscille as a character was boring. I was hoping to enjoy this updated characterization of Lady MacBeth, but instead I was rooting for everyone, but her..

The novel begins right before the events portrayed in the play and within the legend. By rushing the story, there was no chemistry/history between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They are meant to be the ultimate “power couple” with bonds that cannot be broken. It would have been more compelling for the author to develop this relationship more thoroughly so that we can believe that Roscille would feel the need to commit the murders in her husband’s name. Roscille’s relationship with Fleancé is established more so than that between the titular wife and husband.

Apart from the character names, setting, and a very “loose” reinterpretation of the legend of MacBeth, “Lady MacBeth” reads more as a novel about teenage angst. The author missed many an opportunity to craft a new take on a thousand year old legend and four hundred year old play.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ava Reid’s Lady Macbeth may be one of the best novels to release this year and I have no qualms saying that as early as January. A masterful feminist retelling of a woman often talked about in academic circles but rarely understood, Reid captures the fear, hopes, anger, and wants of the women of the past, present, and future.

Lady Macbeth has always been a character so wrapped in my imagination. A blade in the hand of her husband, an innocent flower or the serpent underneath it, or something more than that - a fully realized woman. For the dark academia, horror adjacent, feminist lens readers this gets a 5/5 stars from me.

This is a masterpiece. My first 5-star read of the year. A fresh, engaging, and thought-provoking take on the classic tale of Macbeth through the eyes of Lady Macbeth. Fantasy elements are included but not at all distracting from the lessons of the story. Why did Macbeth choose Lady Roscille, who whispers say has eyes that induce madness in men? They say she is witch marked and yet Macbeth does not seem afraid. Follow Roscille as she acclimates to her new home in Scotland, a hostile and suspicious court. She engages in a game of strategy, using the wiles her father's court taught her. But the Lady does not know her husband has secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy shields him as armor. And she does not know that her magic will threaten the order of the world. But when faced with a Prince who shares his monstrous curse openly with her, will she be able to go back to one who is more monster than man by choice?

This tale mentions and alludes to other famous literary tales. It is haunting, clever, intelligent, and spooky. Reid's prowess is on full display, crafting a tale out of a famous story that not only entertains but educates its readers. Roscille is the product of her surroundings, she is shaped by the men around her. Molded by her continual drive for survival, she learns brutal lessons and evolves into an unmovable force. Make no mistake this book is ruthlessly immersive. My heart raced, my stomach churned, I swooned and I wanted to throw my kindle against the wall. You can't help but feel Reid's words. And they don't leave you quickly after you've put the book down. Lady Macbeth isn't any old retelling; it's an intentional reinvention of Shakespeare's tragedy into an empowering tale of a woman taking back power and reclaiming her future. This classic becomes something fierce and emotionally resonant to be enjoyed by generations new and old. I cannot recommend this enough.

Wow.

I am not a Shakespeare fan, but I am an Ava Reid fan. I love how she gives women a voice, a story, and strength that is not conditional upon a man or what value men place on them.

"A wife is only as clever as her husband permits her to be."

This gothic tale is steeped in metaphors, deeply atmospheric, and written with a powerful prose.

"Ill omens are writ on her skin like runes."

The story is dark, raw, emotional, and haunting. It will make you feel disquiet in both the best and worst ways. The oppressive setting of Roscille's new home sucked me in right along with her.

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

This is what happens when men try and mold a woman into whatever she needs to be to fit their purpose for her. They tried to strip away her identity and her humanity, and her husband tried to to drag her down into the depths of madness along with him.

"There is no mercy that a sheep can show a wolf."

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing/Del Ray for the digital ARC!

"I see the wounds on you, Lady. I see the fury in your silence. I see the protest in your pain."

Roscille, our intelligent and strangely bewitching lead, is an, "unearthly beauty that Wrybeard's court call death-touched. Poison-eyed. Witch-kissed."

White hair, like moonlight. Her skin, said to be bloodless beneath the porcelain white. A veil that hides her eyes. Those eyes, an arresting sight that is said to bring men to madness.

All shadows and smoke and lightning; ash falling from the onslaught. A little girl asks innocently, "why did the witch curse me?"

Her only friend, Hawise, her Nose handmaiden; her only company. The only comfort, lending her her words in an unforgiving place by the sea. "You will survive this, too."

Handsome Reity, her new husband-to-be. Lady Wife & Lord Husband. New titles for a new land.

Lady Macbeth. Queen Hereafter. Roscille, the dagger of King Reity's hand. A visit of Lisander -- and then following, a downed king. Love affairs and blood and deceit.

This novel engaged me from page one. The history is so well done, the setting, the characters, all of it is pristine. I feel as though I am unraveling a dark fairytale from true history.

"We can never truly be apart then; if we are each other's ghosts."

Creatures, dark animalistic aberrations that are named witch, devil, wrong. The twist is a most exciting one I was not expecting! This very well may be my favorite novel of the year. The most compelling dark romance, no reader should pass this one up. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 stars!

This story was told beautifully and was strongly written. It was just not the story made for me. I love the modern concept of Macbeth and was interested in reading it, but the book did not call to me like I hoped. Beautiful story-just not for me.

i’m frothing at the mouth at how spectacular this was. i mean these bangers on top of bangers from ava reid need to be a subject of research because she’s unreal.

im a shakespeare junkie, and as someone having read the original macbeth, i was hesitant to consume any other creative takes that may have discrepancies which don’t cater to my taste of who i deem macbeth is and what her story entails. but now i want to say that creativity from whoever’s eyes is art. and that’s exactly what reid did with her interpretation. she crafted this very fleshed out world warped with fantastical elements, gothic witches, dragons, AND gave macbeth feminine rage— i mean that is the selling point right there.

this was soulful, lyrical, enchanting, and achingly romantic— the latter of which left me devastated. t’s a very mature story, in tune with juniper and thorn i would say, but still remains wildly distinctive.

it’s a quiet, sort of twisty and yet lustrous world that to be quite honest left be unsettled but bewitched. there’s no other ways to describe the feeling i was left after closing the book. you will not be comforted by this story, so don’t expect rainbows and unicorns. it will gnaw at you and untether your understanding of everything, all coated in gore, manipulation and deception. i loved her other works, but this has cemented ava reid as an auto-buy author in my books.

a huge thanks to netgalley and the publishing team at Random House for approving my arc request!! all comments and opinions are my own :))

*This book is a historical fiction piece, with fantasy elements. More precisely, it’s a retelling of Macbeth. It is intended for adult readers, preferably 16-18+.
This review is posted on Goodreads! The link is attached below.*

Words cannot adequately describe how in love I am with this book. Like I am floored. Jaw on the ground. Eyes twitching. Flies buzzing over me. Ava Reid's Lady Macbeth is THAT good.

Gothic. Unexpected. Thrilling. From the naming of places and characters to the stunning recreation of the infamous Lady Macbeth, Reid does such an interesting reimagining of Macbeth here, and the ending will linger in my mind. Just as Shakespeare's Macbeth haunts me, this will too, forever.

To end my short & sweet review, I want to say thank you to Ava Reid for such a haunting, soul-stirring read, and thank you to Del Rey Books and NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Reader's Copy. Never in a million years would I have imagined myself getting an arc of this book, and I am utterly grateful.

I read through this book quickly and it managed to keep me interested for a large portion, but I had some issues with the novel that kept me from enjoying it fully.

There were some things I did enjoy, mainly the witches. I loved their part in the plot, although by the end I was confused on if any of them had power and what power they did have.

I started off this book thinking it was going to be one thing, then got a few chapters in thinking it was going to be another, and it ended up being something completely different.

My biggest issue with the novel was Roscille's lack of agency. I believe these choices were intentional and to create a different sort of agency, but I don't think Reid managed to pull it off. It never felt like Roscille could believe in herself through her own power, but always through what someone else believed. This may have been intentional, but that requires a certain sort of character and plot that was not fully present here.

Some of Roscille's internal dialogue was strange as well. I think it may have been to show that even she believed the thoughts of men because they were so forced, but she was still believing so much of it until the end. This would've been fine too had Reid made her a certain sort of character, but Roscille sometimes felt like an attempt to make two completely different characters one. If the purpose of the internal dialogue was to cast her as some sort of morally gray character, that did not work either.

I had an issue with the romance as well. While sweet, I don't believe it added anything to the story. Rather, I believe it took away from it. I came into this novel thinking there would be no romance and I wish I had been right. She shouldn't have needed the Lisander to save her so many times, not when this was seemingly supposed to be a take on Lady Macbeth having some control over the narrative.

I think this was an interesting story, but it felt like Reid could not decide if she wanted Roscille to be a victim taking back her agency or a witty character forced to doubt herself and slowly lose her power. The romance and some interactions with men only made this more confusing.

Please note that this is my own opinion, and my own feelings, while reading this book and others will feel differently.

I wanted to love this book. I enjoyed A Study in Drowning and I was captivated by the description. What I read and thought I was going to be reading were two very different things. I was constantly asking my why and what? Why is Roscille doing any of this? What is the point here? Why are we being told how smart and quick witted she is only to then have that be character element dropped and her cower away. I did not feel myself cheering her on. I was cheering on to finish the read so I could move on. I really contemplated and grappled with the idea of just not finishing it. The writing was extremely slow paced and when it felt like the story was going somewhere and there seemed like there was some sort of semblance of a character development, it was quickly taken away. I felt myself wanting to yell and shake some sense in Roscille. And then there was the constant complaining and saying what she would do only to not do any of it.
I wanted more. More of the witches and more of Roscille and what she could do. For all the talk about her being cursed and being a witch, it was used other than with the killing of King Duncane and even then it was very poorly done. The only character that actually used his cursed for a moment was Lisander and his dragon form and even that fell flat.
I wanted to see true power come from Roscille, her show true strength and her quick mind to overtake and come out triumphant. She was a young woman, put into a situation that was not of her own choosing, where was the killer instinct and have no mercy.
Everything was so slow and drawn out and then extremely rushed to get to an ending that did not feel truly belonged to Roscille. It was all circumstantial, and just felt like she did not do anything for herself in the manner of saving herself.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC, and be able to give my honest opinion, and please again remember that it is my own opinion, and I hope that others will feel differently.

I’m still unsure about how I feel about this book. It was masterfully written and Ava Reid’s story craft was top-notch. I definitely would like to read more of her books in the future. I was entranced by the story and it was very hard to put the book down once I picked it up. The reason I am unsure how I feel is because of how dark the story was. I have never seen the original Macbeth, so maybe if I had I would have been more prepared, but I was taken aback multiple times throughout the story. I think I might like it more if I read it through a second time, but the first time was a lot for me to process. Again, this is a well written book and I wanted to love it, but it was just too dark for me.

Ava Reid once again knocks it out of the park with her beautifully written prose. This gothic fantasy retelling of Lady Macbeth is full of cunning political maneuvers and feminine rage.
It had been a long time since I read Macbeth, but I don't think you necessarily have to know the original story to enjoy this. It is entirely it's own story. While I did love seeing the parallels between this and the original, not knowing it will not lessen your experience.

"Vengeance is not a wooden cup that empties. It is a jewel chalice which endlessly spills over."

"If she cannot have safety, if she cannot have love, at least she can have this. Vengeance."

Ava Reid's done it again.
Not only is the writing in this one absolutely stunning (as always), but Reid wonderfully renders a well known play into something completely their own. Lady Macbeth's heart shines throughout the novel and while she's a touch different than I thought she would be, I adored reading her story and seeing her move through her new Scottish home. Lisander was her perfect balance and the revelations surrounding him took me completely by surprise in a way that I loved. This play takes the women in Macbeth and hoists them up where they belong, at center stage, and I'm beyond happy I got to read this one early.

“It is an unearthly beauty that some in Wrybeard’s court call death-touched. Poison-eyed. Witch-kissed.”
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC! What a beautifully dark and gripping read. Roscilla starts as a timid and dutiful character, trying to hide herself and her powers behind a literal veil. As the story progresses, she really grows into such a strong character. With fantasy elements, a dark castled atmosphere, this gothic tale will keep readers bewitched.

“And then the veil. Always the veil…”

This book is only for the women that burn with a fire within them. Those who have yet to unleash a window shattering scream. You know the story of Macbeth- or maybe you don’t, look it up- I had to (and yes I’ll admit that honestly. 🤭) but what you don’t know is the story of Roscille.

A very strange thing I can compare this to is a white rabbit. It’s sweet and innocent, and you may have a desire to hold it. Until you notice it’s blood red eyes. Alluring and alarming. Sickeningly gorgeous. Delicately vicious. This book was haunting in the best way possible. I know without a doubt this will need to fall into the right hands of readers, and when it does, your veil will fall down. Now shhh. Do you hear that? She’s coming. 🤫

CW: ⚠️ Torture, animal cruelty, rape, murder, barbaric practices

There are enough hypes surrounding around this book and Reid as a writer that I'm confident Lady Macbeth will find its readership. Not to mention, That Cover.

I will begin by apologizing for finding yet another Del Rey book so... uninspiring. This one is entirely on me for knowing Reid's favoured theme and yet still requested this book, thinking it would somehow be different. I'm tired of reading about the pretty white upperclass girl who Suffers, the singular (1) good man amongst, this time, the Scottish brutes, and the women who are... also present. There's something to say about the uncomfortable treatment of Scotland in this book; the sophitiscated petite lady who Suffers under the large uncouth foreign warrior man is not great for the imagination, and, what a coincidence, all Scottish men are like this! There's also something to say about about how, maybe, just maybe, Reid didn't need to rely on the Bard's play to tell this story. But I suppose we all need a fresh backdrop, from time to time.

At least the writing is still beautiful.