We all know the bloody, ambitious, ruthless Macbeth's from Shakespeare's story, but in Queen Macbeth, Val McDermid shows us a more human side to them. Choosing to focus more on history than the more famous version of the Scottish King and Queen, Queen Macbeth is told in dual timeline --- the present, where Grouch (Queen Macbeth) is mourning the death of her beloved husband and in hiding to avoid the clutches of power hungry Malcolm, and the past where she recounts her marriage to Gille Coemgáin and how she met and fell in love with Macbeth.

I really enjoyed the the dual timelines. Both timelines were interesting and had their own sense of danger and foreboding that keep you wanting to read more. I found this form of storytelling to be very compelling, and a great way to pack a lot of information into a novella without it feeling overwhelming, especially as the sections in the past almost felt like diary or journal entries. Sometimes the writing felt a bit simple and some parts, for me, didn't flow as well as others, but that didn't deter my enjoyment of the story, nor did it stop me from reading at any point.

I was so invested in Macbeth and Grouch's relationship. Their meeting was so sweet and I really did feel the chemistry between the two. I found them easy to root for, and wanted to see how they would find a way to be together when she was already married to his cousin. I particularly loved the way they communicated via flowers when they weren't together, and thought that this was a nice nod to Shakespeare as Shakespeare used flowers/floral motifs in lots of his work. It also felt very sweet and romantic. The characters in this book were very likeable, and I loved the bond that Grouch had with her ladies Eithne, Aife and Ligach. I also loved Angus and the dynamic between the four of them.

As this is a 130 some-odd page novella, I don't want to go into too much detail because I don't want to spoil it, but I definitely enjoyed this more historically accurate version of the tale of Grouch and Macbeth. While I will always prefer Shakespeare's dark and bloody version, it was nice to read about a version of the Macbeth's who were less blood thirsty, but still compelling and ambitious all the same.

Take what you've learned about this titular lady (and her husband) and leave it at the door when you pick up Queen Macbeth.
The tales you've been told of a power hungry couple are not what this book is. In the Author's Note before the book starts, McDermid calls out the differences and deficiencies in the tale we've grown up with (Macbeth by Shakespeare); first by acknowledging his name was Macbethad, and also using the Queen's real name, Grouch. In her novel, McDermid brings more/different historical facts, borrows some stand out lines from Shakespeare's telling ("But screw your courage to its sticking place and we'll not fail." -1.vii), while creating a world of her own. The Three Witches (or sisters) are Grouch's ladies in waiting, the four of them bonded since childhood, each with her own special gift. We learn about the baby, Lulach, who is only mentioned in passing in the play. ('I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that nursed me." -1.vii)

Told by Grouch herself, we alternate timelines of current day; after Macbeth has been killed in battle, as well as a look back to how these two lovers met and we follow their journey to create and rule over Scotland.

As a theatre major who's circumstances had me studying the play, but not the actual history, it took me about 25 pages to clear my brain of what I know, and open up to the story being told to me in this moment. I stopped a few times to look things up to be sure I was on the right wave length as the author. At under 150 pages, this is a quick read.
A tale told by a woman, full of secrets and yearning, signifying love.

Thank you, NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC of this book.
Pub Day: 24.Sept.2024

Retellings, particularly with a strongly feminist focus are particularly popular at present and with so many options available, not all can live upto my (admittedly super high) expectations.
However, after being disappointed by my previous reads, the great Val McDermid has come to the rescue with her, "Queen MacBeth" , a dark retelling that mixes to great effect fact, fiction and possibilities..
Shakespeare 's version of MacBeth and Gruoch is one that tells of a driven, power-hungry king but is manipulated by his even more hungry wife, resulting in homicides and wars a plenty.
Shakespeare's MacBeth is based on the sources available to him, but seems more of a regicidal madman, than the king of historical records.
McDermid's take on the ever-popular story focuses on our beloved, villainous queen and her story.
Our story is told with two timelines,
- the present when Gruoch and her ladies Ligach, Either and Aife are fleeing for their lives after MacBeth's death (again, a change from Shakespeare where her death is a given after his)
- and the earlier story of how Gruoch and MacBeth first met.
This earlier timeline is printed in italics making it easier for the reader to quickly distinguish between the two.
A particularly useful technique as the story progresses rapidly and we meet a host of familiar names.
I loved how in McDermid's take, they are not "three witches" but rather intelligent and wise women - prehaps a reflection on how woman, who are outspoken, or intelligent have been treated through the centuries.
We can easily draw comparisons between recent social media "witch hunts" and the hatred that grew for Gruoch - she receives the blame, she is the villain. I love how McDermid is offering a different story, one of love and loss and choices.
We learn from Gruoch, Lady MacBeth herself, the exiled Queen of Scotland about meeting MacBeth for the first time, their relationship and subsequent marriage (after the death of her first husband).
Switching between the past and present timelines, allows for a rapid building up of tension, with some foreshadowing aswell of upcoming events.
Although a short novel (130 pages if I recall correctly), McDermid had taken the time to portray a more sympathetic version of Lady MacBeth and how she boths draws strength from her team (followers) and gives them strength in the same manner.
This book is not marketed as non-fiction, or a piece of historical research, as McDermid has recreated the story & character of such a new known "villain" & in doing so, she has provided a very refreshing and exciting take on
this controversial character.

Though Val McDermid’s Queen Macbeth is not the only tale about the notorious Scottish queen to come out this year, but for my money, it is by far the best.

The story opens with Queen Macbeth fleeing her enemies with her three friends- a healer, a weaver, and a seer- by her side. As the pursuit grows ever closer the queen, a real historic woman named Gruoch, thinks back to the dramatic events and the passions of her life that have brought her to this pass.

Though eleventh-century Scottish history can be lacking in details, we still have a surprising amount of information about the real Macbeth and the events that led to his kingship and eventual downfall. It’s a far different story from what Shakespeare told in his great play, but the stories share some similar elements, such as the main couple’s ambition and willingness to do just about anything to gain power. Whether it's history, fiction, or Shakespeare, the Lord and Lady Macbeth are a power couple for the ages. Any author who overlooks that basic fact does so at their own peril– it means their story will be lesser for it. Thankfully, McDermid knows a thing or two about writing interesting characters with questionable motives.

Thanks to her long experience as a writer of mystery thrillers, McDermid is skilled at developing a tight narrative that provides a lot of detail with a few, well-crafted sentences. Though Queen Macbeth is just 122 pages, it packs a lot of history, atmosphere, and humanity in those pages.

Though I am quite familiar with both Shakespeare’s play and the real history of Macbeth, McDermid managed to surprise me more than once. She also created a cast of characters I cared about almost immediately. I’m always looking for compelling historical fiction that shows a deep love and respect for the time and subject, and that sort of care shines through in virtually every detail of Queen Macbeth.

Whether you are a fan of history, Shakespeare, or both, Queen Macbeth is a story well worth picking up.



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Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a man. An old, white one.

I'm sorry to disappoint those who now expect me to whine about "ruining Shakespeare" and "making up feminism ahistorically" and suchlike nonsense, but I myownself think this novella is telling not only a cracking good story, but bringing a long-ignored reality to light. Women, modern, medieval, or ancient, were and are not passive, pointless victims or tiresome termagants. They are, were, and always have been people with agency, possessed of skills and ideas that motivate and support changing their world.

Every story that supports this reality, presents it without a dingy scum of patriarchal judgment of those women for exercising their power, gets my enthusiastic support. Queen Macbeth is no exception.

Riffing on the great stories of history and mythology is currently very much à la mode. The trend picked up steam most recently after The Song of Achilles appeared early in the teens. It was never exactly ignored, after all...John Erskine wrote Arthurian retelling Tristan and Isolde: Restoring Palamede in 1932; Thorne Smith wrote modern satires with horny, drunken Greek Gods until his death in 1934; Tolkien remixed Anglo-Saxon epic poetry to some modest success in the 1950s. The urge to put one's own stamp onto the greatest stories of the culture is never absent. Imagine all the lost Iliads wrought by bards before writing was reinvented! (Side note: why has Jodi Taylor not sent the disaster magnets back to record some of those?) The great plays of Athens's Golden Age retold the myths, too, and that was six hundred years before the common era is reckoned to have begun.

So a Scottish crime writer revisiting Lady Macbeth's truly awful characterization at Shakespeare's hands is unsurprising. Make that Scot an outspoken feminist lesbian and, well, go figure that she would find this retelling irresistible. I wish I'd loved it instead of simply, and inevitably, admiring it. Using her widely lauded storytelling chops to re-center the Bechdel-test failing character as a powerful ruler in her own right is delightful; the way she contextualizes her choice in her Author's note made me almost giddy with anticipation.

Then came reality swinging her mace of office.

Choosing to use Scottish words...well, okay, you're Scottish, the story's Scottish, but the huge majority of the world's readers have never seen, and don't care to see, those words. Climbing the hill with a Glossary is fine; putting said glossary at the end of an ebook is a worse idea than in a tree book. In the ebook, a hyperlink to the entry with that word is possible; links that take you there and back are possible; neither was made. I did not use the glossary once during the read and lost not only fine nuance but faith that I was being considered as a guest in this world. It feels very much like the divisive, arrogant attitude regrettably common...in every sense of the word...in internet discourse about cultural identity: "I don't owe you an explanation of my culture/language/art/thing under discussion!"

Then you do nor care if I, or any "outsider," understand you? Okay. Then you'll mostly get ignored.

Author McDermid and/or publisher(s) just put a hard limit on how many people will slug it out with unhelpfully untranslated Scottishness. The tree book might be a better choice than an ebook for those who can't or won't simply skip past wotds they don't know.

Pity, that; Gruoch as reimagined is a kickass character. Her struggles matter.

I enjoyed this novella! I hadn’t realized that Macbeth was based on real people, but with events heavily changed, so it was fun to read this and sort of compare a more accurate version to the play. I did need to consult Wikipedia a bit to refresh myself on the plot of the play, but I really enjoyed seeing everything from Gruoch’s eyes and getting to know her ladies-in-waiting as well. It was a very brief tale, but quite interesting!

An interesting retelling of Shakespeare’s play from a woman’s perspective. Queen Macbeth uses history to debunk Shakespeare’s depiction of the Macbeth’s as a bloodthirsty, power hungry couple who destroyed the best and the brightest of Scotland for their own purposes. In reality, Macbeth’s reign was one of the most peaceful in Scotland. A short, well-written history of medieval Scotland, and the lives of medieval women in particular, for fans of the Bard.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary advanced copy of this book.

A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD TALE.
In this immersive yet quick read, we get to see this tale through a new lens. It is quite different than Shakespeare's version. We get a front seat to a true, yet scandalous love story of Gruoch (Lady Macbeth) and Macbeth; the political unrest between their son, Lulach, and Malcolm, who is currently on the throne; and the dynamic roles of the three handmaidens who become Lady Macbeth's most treasured confidants.

Drawing on the historical record, McDermid claims to tell the counter narrative of Queen Macbeth and how she became the first queen of Scotland. Before Scotland was, there were smaller kingdoms: Moray, Alba, Dál Riata and Fife. Queen Macbeth, Gruoch, is on the run with her three dearest companions. She is being hunted because she is the only one who stands between these hunters and their ambition. Told in a non-linear timeline, the reader is taken on a journey of love, intense heartbreak, war, and survival.


In the author's note at the very beginning of this book, McDermid states ,"Macbeth and his lady were not the power-hungry bloody tyrants that Shakespeare wrote in his Scottish play. For a start, Macbeth wasn't even his name - it was Macbethad. His wife wasn't Lady Macbeth - she was Gruoch. If he couldn't get their names right, how can we trust anything else he tells us? I've left him as Macbeth, but I'm admitting up front that's for the sake of convenience." I will let you decipher that as you may. I for one was completely put off by this pretentious statement before I even read the story. And yet, I have to hand it to her. She's bold. She's gutsy. And this version is very captivating. Still, She claims to be "setting Shakespeare straight." I just have one thing to add in the most firm voice I can muster through a computer keyboard: SHAKESPEARE'S MACBETH IS NOT A HISTORY PLAY. HE NEVER CLAIMED HISTORICAL ACCURACY. He was using his imagination just as much as Val McDermid. She's a brilliant writer, but that author's note paints her as ignorant. Okay. I'm done.

Thank you to NetGalley, Val McDermid, and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Macbeth has always been one of my favourites so I enjoyed reading this side of the story and it was very enlightening

I'm a huge fan of Val Mcdermid, this means I had high expectations even if I didn't know what to expect.
Gruoch, the so called Lady Macbeth, is famous for being of the most dangerous femme fatale in Western literature. Ms McDermid give us back the real woman with her complex story and the role she played in an age not nice to women.
I loved the storytelling and the fleshed out characters. An excellent read.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Val McDermid is one of my very favorite authors. She is so versatile, writing the Tony Hill-Carol Jordan series, the novels that feature Karen Pirie, the historical series beginning with 1979, and her earlier Kate Brannigan and Lindsay Gordon stories. In addition, she has had several free standing novels like The Vanishing Point and A Place of Execution, to name just two.

So…is there still room for her to do something new? Indeed there is. Here, McDermid takes a new look at one of the best known characters in Shakespeare. It is a story of Lady Macbeth that is not the tale as he wrote in that drama. It is an excellent read.

Here, for example, the three witches are redefined as is the marriage to Macbeth and the nature of the conflicts. Readers become immersed in medieval Scotland.

Fans of historical fiction and McDermid will want to take a look at this short (122 page) title.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great reimagining of the tale of Lady Macbeth. This was a great novel.

I love MacBeth, and I was excited to read a new twist on the story, especially from Queen MacBeth. I enjoyed the time jumps. It helped give more information to the story. There was a good twist that I didn't see coming. I was starting to get excited about where this story was going when it ended.

I really enjoyed McDermid's foray into historical fiction! I love her Karen Pirie books so I was excited to see how she tackled this retelling. I read it with my eyes and not my ears so I was unsure how to pronounce many of the names, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of this book. I love when retellings help to reframe much-maligned women and this book definitely does that. While I love Shakespeare's Macbeth and his love-to-hate-her wife, this is a Gruoch (she has a name in this one!) who does her best in the world she finds herself in. She is more motivated by passion than ruthless ambition. Her supporting cast is also great.

Thank yo to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for this advance copy for review.

I was pleased to receive a copy of Queen Macbeth for review, but sadly I found it disappointing.
It reads more like a précis of a longer novel, and seems very superficial. It has no character description, far less development, and is completely emotionless. I got no sense of Gruoch and her three women at all. Deaths are glossed over in a matter-of-fact manner, no grief or regret is expressed.
The two timelines appear to bear no relation to each other, and the ending is a big surprise, but not in a good way. It gives the sense that the author ran out of steam, or ideas, or interest, and just cobbled it together.
It’s like wading through treacle at some points ,then suddenly changes pace and gallops along for a while.
Not for me, I’m sorry to say.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my advance copy of this book.

When I first requested this DRC, I mistakenly thought that I would be receiving "Lady Macbeth"... I didn't read closely enough! However, I did attempt to give "Queen Macbeth" a try. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get into the writing style, and about a fourth of the way through I had to give up. I rarely DNF books, so this was disappointing for me. While I admire the author's intentions, as well as the intense research that must have gone into bringing medieval Scotland to life, everything felt very surface-level to me. Perhaps if I had stuck it out, I might have found more depth and meaning—but alas.

I received a complimentary ARC copy of Queen Macbeth, A Novel by Val McDermid from Net Galley and Grove Atlantic | Atlantic Monthly Press

...a captivating and interesting read with strong, intelligent female characters, beautiful friendships, drama, and heartbreak...

In this retelling of Macbeth author, Val McDermid gives us another take on Shakespeare’s perhaps most famous work. McDermid sets out to offer the reader a more accurate picture of who Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were. From Queen Gruoch’s point of view we meet a strong courageous woman, not a villainess as portrayed. We then jump back and forth in time from her first meetings with Macbeth when she was already married to his cousin and self-proclaimed king, Gille Coemgáin. We then flash to several years later when she hears that King Macbeth has been killed at the battle of Lumphanan. In exile Gruoch and her dearest friends, not witches, Eithne, Aife and Ligath are on the run finding refuge in a monastery by Loch Leven. When they get news that her son Lulach has been killed and King Malcolm's men are closing in they must flee for their lives.
I haven’t revisited Shakespeare for a while but really looked forward to this interpretation from an author I admire and I wasn't disappointed.
I also appreciated the glossary with Scottish words that I otherwise might have struggled with.

Overall, I really found this to be a captivating and interesting read with strong, intelligent female characters, beautiful friendships, drama, and heartbreak. My only complaints would be the pacing, which felt a bit slow at first and I wish it was longer. All in all, I really did enjoy the book and would highly recommend it.

This was a fantastic novella that not only goes into the idea of what if Lady Macbeth didn’t kill herself and also what if the play Shakespeare wrote was completely false? 🗡️

We follow the grief stricken Gruoch as she lies hides away with her beloved four ladies in waiting and most-trusted guard. I just loved this portrayal of this woman. She’s not only a someone who has withstood tragedy and hardships, but she’s a person who is always looking out for those that she loves. Her tenacity and the relationships that she’s built with her women were well fleshed out and you can see the love they have for each other. I especially loved the addition of a wise woman and how even women who were gifted in different aspects were often looked upon with suspicion. 🌿

Her love with Macbeth is instantaneous, and yet it feels like you see the natural progression of their relationship. Even when they finally come together, there’s no power struggle between the two, and Macbeth seems to even love that she’s calculating and someone who he can turn to for advice. 💭

I really enjoyed the simultaneous recounting of both her current situation and the past, but I can see how this might be an issue for some people. And as much as I loved the length of this novella, I do feel like the ending came on a bit abruptly. I would have loved if this was a full on novel because I just loved the way McDermid wrote this world of 10th century Scotland and its people. The people are definitely more believable than a different Lady Macbeth retelling I read earlier. 😒

Big thank you goes to Polygon/Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this in exchange for an honest review, and to the author, McDermid, for writing a stellar Lady Macbeth novella. ❤️

Publication date: September 24!

Overall: 4.75/5 ⭐️

The writing style is not for me and I kind of got confused reading it. I typically love the story of MacBeth and Val McDermid's writing but this book was not a hit for me.

A well written historical retelling with just the perfect amount of intrigue and suspence. The characters were well written and this is a perfect example of a how a strong female character is to be written.