2.5 stars. Love Ava Reid, but I did not enjoy this. I generally don’t like this sort of fantasy, but I gave it a try for Ava. I’ve found with her last two books that it’s hard to stay entertained. She has a fairly slow writing style. Neither of her recent books have matched up to Juniper and Thorn, which I really enjoyed. I frankly didn’t really like this book. I don’t know the story of lady macbeth, but from what I’ve heard this also just doesn’t seem like a great representation of that character. I’m hoping her next book is great because it’s been marketed as a sapphic hunger gamesy thing. :///

As someone who absolutely loves “Macbeth,” I wanted to love this book, but it just feel flat in so many ways for me. If you haven’t read/seen “Macbeth,” this book would probably be much more enjoyable for you. Unfortunately, too many liberties are taken regarding the source material, so much so that this book barely resembles it.
A lot of things were too vague and needed more explanation, specifically the witches. Their origins and their powers are glossed over and never truly explained. The constant prejudice toward Scots got excessive and repetitive. Roscille came off as a pampered, prejudiced little girl rather than the cunning mastermind that Shakespeare created. Her characterization is all over the place—in one scene she acts terrified, and in the next she is determined and unafraid and all of her internal struggles are seemingly forgotten.
Then there’s the completely unnecessary romantic plot. This relationship really didn’t add anything to the plot whatsoever and I think I would’ve enjoyed the book much more without it. Even him being a dragon shifter couldn’t make his character any less dull.
The last 15-20% of the book was the best part for me because things finally started to happen. The first 75% of the book was slower and was a slog to get through at times. Despite all of my issues with the book itself, the ending worked well within the context of the narrative Reid created. It was an interesting twist on “no man of woman born.” I can’t say I didn’t see it coming, but it was still just as satisfying.
I do think Ava Reid is a good writer—her prose can be beautiful and she captured the gloomy atmosphere she was trying to create very well. However, in terms of a “Macbeth” retelling this just was not successful for me. This book would be best enjoyed by those who have no prior knowledge of the source material.

Beautiful, gothic- this book made me an Ava Reid fan of through and through. It doesn’t fall into the trap of retellings of the same old story. It’s genuine and new.

As someone who has not read Shakespeare's Macbeth, I still enjoyed this book. I was worried I would be confused with all the different characters and settings especially from looking at the glossary at the beginning, but it was pretty manageable.

The author's writing perfectly fits with this genre and is enjoyable to read. However, I was a bit disappointed in Roscille's character. She was pretty timid and I expected her to grow as a character and become more feministic, but she let her husband push her around. I was expecting more feminine rage at the end and so it wasn't very satisfying of a conclusion.

Holy wow! I am continually so impressed with Ava Reid and I love her writing style. This captivated me from the start and I couldnt put it down!

I was really excited for this book, but ended up DNFing it about 10-15% through because I was confused, and it honestly just didn't hold my interest. I've read, or tried to read, a couple of Reid's other books, and her style must just be hit-or-miss for me. If you love her other works, definitely give this a go, but if you've struggled to get into her books before, this may be a bust for you, too.

#BookReview: 𝙇𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙈𝙖𝙘𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙝 𝙗𝙮 𝘼𝙫𝙖 𝙍𝙚𝙞𝙙
Thank you @delreybooks and @randomhouse for the @NetGalley ARC!

Review: ★ ★ ★ ★
𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙞𝙩’𝙨 𝙖 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣.
 
I would venture to say that most of us are familiar with Shakespeare’s portrayal of the fearsome and wretched Lady Macbeth. Ava Reid challenges this perception: what if she is simply the consequence of the circumstances that men have forced her to exist in? What if she is, in fact, a dynamic and multifaceted woman who must fight to overcome the most traumatic of circumstances?
 
We meet Gruoch (Lady Macbeth) as a young, shy, overwhelmed girl as she is delivered to Lord Macbeth. Her forced marriage is the result of her father’s political strategy, and savagery runs through her new husband’s veins. We watch as she is thrown into the deep end, struggling to keep her head above water. But her story quickly develops into one of resilience and strength. Her vulnerabilities turn into weapons, and, unlike Shakespeare’s portrayal, is a result of self-assertion and survival – NOT petty manipulation and cruelty.
 
If you take one look at my bookstagram, you’re probably wondering what the hell I’m doing with a book like this. I generally don’t enjoy fantasy, romance, or historical fiction, but I’m happy to say that this is an exception. The character development and feminist undertones were incredible, and I can confidently recommend you Lady Macbeth.

1.5 stars, rounded down.

After reading A Study In Drowning last year and reading the rest of Ava Reid's novels this year, I was so excited to read anything by them. Unfortunately this one missed the mark.

The characters were very one dimensional. It felt like none of them really had any motivations, they were dolls being used to hit plot points. Even the titular Lady Macbeth didn't seem to have any reason for her actions. It was bizarre.

I know there's a lot of issues around how Scotland and Scottish people are portrayed and plenty of Scottish reviewers have shared there opinions. I'm surprised this was set in the real world and not a real world-inspired fictional setting like all of Ava Reid's other books. If it was, the liberties taken with history and fact would have gone down easier.

The half a star is for the writing. Even when I was frustrated while reading, the writing kept me from throwing my Kindle.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

I was thrilled when I received an arc for this as it was one of my most anticipated reads for 2024–I adore Ava Reid and how she seamlessly weaves folklore into her stories, and I particularly love how she writes female characters who find strength in being soft. A Study in Drowning was one of my favorite reads from last year so I had high hopes for Lady Macbeth.
I read this back in April and I was quite surprised that it’s a quick read, however, it unfortunately didn’t meet my expectations and in the end, was a bit disappointing ☹️ I think for me this stemmed from the way in which Lady Macbeth’s character was written. I guess I was hoping that she would be more ferocious, but I didn’t find that she came off as cunning (and mildly crazy) as I would’ve thought. This really affected the book for me more than I anticipated. Though I loved the strength in softness in ASID, it didn’t work for me here. Even though this is a feminist reimagining, I was still hoping we’d see the more cunning side of Roscille but that didn’t really come through for me. I feel like this book was often very weird, so I was kind of shocked that I wasn’t really shocked by Roscille’s character? I also didn’t find the prose as strong as ASID, which is what I loved about that book.
The reason this is still a 3 star read for me is because it is a retelling/reimagining, so I can’t be that angry that my expectations didn’t align. It just wasn’t for me! I also heard her speak about the book on pub day at The Strand and I really appreciated hearing her research behind this book, including Marie de France’s lais and Shakespeare’s original source, Holinshed’s Chronicles. I think her writing process is insanely interesting to hear about and despite not loving this book, I really can respect the writing process behind it. I don’t think I’d really recommend this one but I’m looking forward to Reid’s next publication!!

I generally enjoy retellings which is why I was initially drawn to this book, however, nothing about this one worked for me. I did not finish this book in its entirety but I am rating based on what I read. Other than it being dark, I didn’t enjoy anything about it regarding plot and characters.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Ava Reid always kills it with gothic, atmospheric fantasy. Their writing is always absolutely beautiful and I will always read whatever they publish.

There were times I just wanted more from Lady Macbeth. We were told that she is very cunning and smart and there were times where it would have been a good idea to show it but it wasn't. That is my main issue with the book and the reason why its a 4 star and not a 5 star.

Lady Macbeth was a beautiful, gloomy retelling of the Shakespearian leading lady. It maintained its grimdark tone and moody setting while establishing a fierce and intense protagonist. We support women's wrongs!

Lady Macbeth is a feminist retelling of the eponymous character from Shakespeare. The book blends history, folklore, Shakespeare, and fantasy to reimagine the story through the eyes of the woman who is usually portrayed as the villain in the play Macbeth. This the second feminist retelling of Lady Macbeth that I have read this year and I wasn't a huge fan of the first one, so I went into this one fairly nervous. But I loved A Study in Drowning, also by Ava Reid, and had faith that this book would successfully combine the different genres into a satisfying novel.

And... it still didn't work for me. First off, this book is very violent with vivid depictions of sexual assault and physical violence. Not my favorite things to read. And boy, there is a lot of it. If you are at all sensitive to these topics, skip this book. Roscille, our Lady Macbeth, is supposed to be a smart, cunning, and conniving character. I didn't see that with her at all. She was constantly found out and challenged at every turn. It didn't make me feel like this was a character who was several steps ahead of anyone else.

This book also unfortunately had two of my pet peeves. First, BIG, HUGE MAN and tiny, delicate woman. In this case, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. And it's mentioned pretty much every time these characters are together. And they're together a lot. I get it, he's a huge brute and she's a delicate flower. Cool cool cool. The second is the female character being "cursed" with such beauty that it ruins her. Roscille is so beautiful that her father started the rumor that she can't look at a man directly without causing madness, so she wears a veil. Cool, I guess? But boy do we get objectified throughout the whole book! Being beautiful is literally the only quality that I can identify about Roscille now that I have reached the end. Unbelievably beautiful woman is also present in A Study in Drowning and I didn't love it there, and I don't love it here, but I felt like it had more nuance in the other book. Here it just made me feel some type of way. I think there are more interesting stories to tell than really focusing on the physical aspects of people.

MINOR SPOILERS but one guy is also a dragon. That's something I don't remember from Shakespeare! I wish I could say that he adds to the story but he unfortunately does not.

Overall, this book was pretty disappointing to me, even when I'm often a fan of feminist retellings of classic characters. If you're okay with everything I mentioned and love (supposedly) morally gray characters, I'd say give this a try. 2.5 stars from me rounded down to 2. Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC of this book, my thoughts are my own!

CW: Sexual assault, physical assault, descriptions of death and dying, blood, cruelty to animals, death of animals

I would say I Love Ava, but i think its more apt to say I am obsessed with Ava, so this hurts.
I think if you change the title of this book and change the characters name its exactly what I love from her. Gothic and Angsty with female protagonists taking back their agency while strange things are at play and there is a monster or two. However, this being marketed as a lady macbeth reimagining made it harder to stomach since it shifted so dramatically. I will say I am pretty sure the intent was for this to sort of take place after the lady macbeth we know who is now one of the witches but some of the major events are shifted to this part, but I am not sure if that was actually the intent and that could be part of the problem since it wasnt clear and for anyone who has a smaller Macbeth understanding a first name of one of the witches isn't enough to give them all of that. I will say when we found out the witches name I yelped with joy cause it was suddenly all making sense, but then we didnt really delve into that idea any further which is why I almost think I imagined it.

~thank you so much to netgalley & the publisher for gifting me an arc~

I have such mixed feelings about this book.

There’s no denying the Ava reid is a very talented writer, and this book definitely proof of that. they have such a way with words and can create the most beautiful imagery and gloomy ambiance.

this book follow roscille, a 17 year old dukes daughter, as she’s about to marry the infamous Macbeth. Roscille is witch kissed or “cursed” and has gleaming white hair and other interesting abilities. As Macbeth tries to overtake and compete for the crown, roscille is thrown into the chaos and tries to make her own way.

I’ve personally never read Macbeth or seen the play so I have no idea how accurate or inaccurate this book is to the play.

It just seemed like this book moved really fast, I wish we had an extra 50 pages. I had to keep backing up and re-listening to parts of read because it moved from scene to scene quickly.

I think this book is very average. there’s definitely flaws with it and parts that I also really enjoyed but overall I don’t feel any strong emotion and it just feels mid. I know a lot of people are very excited for this one after a study in drowning and I think a lot of people are going to be slightly disappointed. It’s just different than I think we all were hoping for. The cover is so insanely gorgeous though and that’s probably my favorite part of this book

Thanks again to the publisher and netgalley

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid is a well-written and evocative re-imagining of the story of Lady Macbeth. I'm not sure that I'm a member of the target audience for this book, as I'm not a huge fantasy reader nor someone as familiar with Shakespeare as I would like to be, but I can vouch that the story is well-told. I'll likely recommend it to lovers of Shakespeare reimaginings or those who are drawn to fantasy of this type.

I think this is a good book but unfortunately it was not the book for me. The premise of it fascinated me but I just couldn’t get into it and I struggled a bit with the writing. I think I just haven’t had luck with this author but maybe in the future if I come back to this book I’ll like it.

Reid’s prose is both lyrical and incisive, capturing the tense atmosphere of the Scottish Highlands and the political machinations of the time. The novel excels in its vivid descriptions and the psychological nuance with which it examines its protagonist. The interplay of historical detail and emotional depth makes Lady Macbeth a riveting read, offering new insights into a character who has long fascinated readers and scholars alike.

Overall, Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid is a powerful and thought-provoking exploration of one of literature’s most intriguing characters. It is a must-read for fans of Shakespearean adaptations and those interested in complex, character-driven narratives.

I was intrigued by the premise of this story, but ultimately I wasn't a huge fan. I will also say that this didn't really feel like it needed to be tied to Macbeth, I would have probably enjoyed this as its own thing. There was a lot of stereotyping, and a lot of.....boring (for lack of a better word) descriptions of people and places. I don't know, this just wasn't....what I was hoping for, I really do think that if this was edited a bit, to cut out the boring, and marketed as its own thing it probably would do a lot better. The cover is really cool, though, I will give it that.

There are entirely too many Shakespeare reimaginings out there in the world, but every once in a while you get one that feels fresh and interesting. Lady MacBeth is an intriguing retelling of MacBeth with some added magical elements and from the perspective of the titular character.

The book gives her an interesting backstory, some magical abilities, and a far greater hand in her husband’s poisonous ambition and tragic downfall.

She isn’t an especially sympathetic character here, though she is more sympathetic than in the original play and she’s certainly more likable than her brutish husband, who’s more bully here than Shakespeare’s version.

If I had a gripe with this version of the story it’s that change to MacBeth’s character, which feels a bit of a hard-fisted attempt to make him the villain, along with the romance with Lysander, which also feels like a goofy attempt to introduce a romantic subplot to a story which didn’t have one and didn’t need one.