Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for an advanced copy of this book. I was happy to read the historical facts of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Val McDermid did an excellent job researching medieval Scotland and bringing to life the harsh reality of that time. As well as it was researched, it did at times feel sluggish.

This is a very clever retelling of one of Shakespeare’s most famous works.
Putting females at the forefront, this novella was engaging and entertaining.

A retelling of Macbeth from the lady's point of view, this fast=paced quick read will delight those who love Shakespeare, Scotland, and witchy undertones. Val McDermid's research in the political and social settings shows through in the development of her plot and characters. This rewrite of the Bard's version of the story will delight those looking for an exciting and atmospheric read!

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

(This review contains spoilers for the book!)

An atmospheric and more historically-inclined take on the story of Macbeth with a strong beginning and middle, but which, unfortunately, didn't manage to stick the landing.

One of the things that Queen Macbeth really succeds at, is how McDermid manages to create a strong sense of the cultural and political landscape of feudal Scotland and how these affect the characters and the plot. It's clear that McDermid has done a ton of research into medieval Scottish history, because it really shines through the majority of the book.

Now, note that I say "majority". And that I chose the words "historically-inclined" rather than "historically accurate". I really loved everything about the book, and how much closer it stuck to the probable historical events, until I hit around the 75% mark. Suddenly, the captured Gruoch and her ladies are saved by the dead Macbeth, who is apparently not dead at all and has somehow managed to stay in hiding for years. And who somehow manages to spirit away Gruoch to safety among the Viking settlers in Ireland, before they together quit the British Isles completely to retire as deposed monarchs in Rome. Colour me surprised and confused. Also, the flashbacks were generally my favourite parts of the story, but the final flashback was some kind of weird, long-ass recital of all the events throughout Macbeth and Gruoch's 17-year-long reign, and it was so boring and very out of place. It read as if the author had run out steam at that point and simply no longer cared to weave those parts of the history seamlessly into the rest of the story. It was quite jarring, frankly.

Maybe it's just me, but one of my favourite things about the story of Macbeth is just how tragic it is, so I find myself extremely let down by McDermid's chosen ending. It felt to me very hollow and undeserved, to the point that it ruined my whole reading experience to such a degree that I have to bump my rating down from a full 5 stars to a mere 3.5 stars.

Queen Macbeth is a big departure from Val McDermid’s normal choice of genre. In this novella, McDermid seeks to tell the truth about the first queen of Scotland. Using a dual timeline, the story tells us of Gruoch after Macbeth’s and her son Lulach’s deaths when she is forced to go on the run with her three companions, along with her memories of first meeting Macbeth through his final battle with Malcolm.
Writing using the vernacular of the day, at times this was a slow slog to understand. (There is a glossary in the rear which would be better placed in the beginning.) But McDermid paints a detailed portrait of medieval Scotland, especially its patriarchal society.
The book was ok, but I can’t say it really grabbed me. It’s interest to me was purely in learning the true story. I hadn’t realized that Shakespeare’s play was not historically accurate.
My thanks to netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an advance copy of this book.

3.5 stars

Val McDermid tells us Shakespeare had it all wrong and in her new novella, she tries to set the historical record straight. When Macbeth was killed in battle, Queen Gruoch and her three closest companions sought sanctuary among the monks. Upon learning her son Lulach has been killed and Malcolm's men are hunting for her, they flee for their lives.

The present action is interspersed with Gruoch's memories of how she and Macbeth met while she was married to his cousin Gille Coemgáin and what he did to claim her as his own and proclaim himself King of Scotland. Very interesting and well told!

Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of her novella. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

An unusual portrayal. I hated reading Macbeth in high school. I found it boring, but this was a great read. I think they should offer this as an alternative ead your junior year!

Loved it.

Recommend.

This was a great retelling of Lady Macbeth! I loved the protagonist's internal struggles and her relationships with all the other characters, in particular Aife and with Macbeth himself. I honestly wished there was more here, because I loved the author's take on such an infamous character.

Everyone who ever read Shakespeare knows Lady Macbeth was a pushy wife who goaded her husband to kill his rivals or was she? In a novel by Val McDermind Queen Macbeth is portrayed as a misunderstood woman married to a cruel man she doesn't love, then she meets and falls in love with Macbeth. They have a torrid affair behind her husband's back which produces a son. When Macbeth decides he wants to rule Scotland, he drugs the opposing war counciland their leader, locks them in a cottage and sets it afire - all with Queen Macbeth's knowledge. So you decide is she or isn't she? I'm not convinced she is the innocent portrayed in this book.

Queen Macbeth is the second novel I've read this summer about my favorite Shakespearean character, Lady Macbeth. THIS one does her justice, depicting her as a strong woman who can rise to overcome many trials. Not a pretty story...a woman's life in medieval Scotland was often harsh...but Queen Macbeth fleshes out the outlines Shakespeare provided and shows she was not a villain. Many thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for the opportunity to read this eArc.

Thank you NetGalley + The Publishers for gifting me this , E-ARC !

Macbeth is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays , and was so happy I got to read this ! It is a shirt retelling of the classic !
It is a fictional version that is more historically accurate, and it had me so intrigued !

While it was a quick read , certain parts made me feel like I was reading forever ! But .. I didn’t mind that too much ! There was times where I felt like nothing was happening and then BOOM , key points just start !
I felt like I could have used more descriptions on certain moments so I could feel immersed into those times ! The timelines just jumped around a bit .

Overall this was a good re-telling , and was very beautifully written that I enjoyed !

I was excited to read this book, but was let down. This was lacking character development, felt chaotic that like huge pieces of a story were missing to have it all come together or make sense.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this e-ARC.

Seeing as it's probably not acceptable to review a book simply with the eyeroll emoji, I'll lay out what exactly irked me about this book.
First, there was barely any substance to this book, even for a novella. It is severely lacking in plot. I have no idea what this book was even about because the author gave absolutely no context to what was happening at any time. All we know is that Macbeth is more than likely dead, and the other characters are on the run. From what? Who knows! Who cares, either, apparently; certainly not the author, or she would have given us a little more detail.
Characterization was also a major issue. So many characters felt interchangeable, while most were completely blank slates. Even Gruoch (Lady/Queen Macbeth) felt rather blank and completely passive, and we never saw Macbeth himself beyond a few lacklustre conversations and a sex scene. I'm not sure how the author expects her readers to root for, or even care about, these characters if we know next to nothing about them.
The way McDermid writes women and men kind of icked me out, because every woman was beautiful and highly feminine (as all women apparently are in this world...), while all men are tyrants who are divided into honorable masculine men and weak men whose lives and deaths don't matter. It felt very TERFy, and knowing that McDermid identifies as a RadFem, I feel like there might be a reason for that...
The book also is distinctly lacking in any kind of emotion. Many characters die throughout the course of this story, but their deaths came and went, and even though the narrator said she was devastated, I just felt kind of bored or disappointed when I read these scenes. Similarly, I was not invested at all in Macbeth and Gruoch's romance because the writing didn't give me anything to hang onto or even begin to understand why she was interested in him, other than that he was her cousin (ah, royalty...) and it was prophesied that he would give her a son.
The dual timelines also make absolutely no sense because there is absolutely no connection from one section to the next, as there should be when writing stories this way. Whether or not the characters can see the parallels or not, the reader definitely should be able to see them, but there were none to be seen. Just random jumping back and forth between Macbeth fucking Gruoch, to Gruoch and her women (and Angus) hiding out in the wilderness, back to Gruoch who is now pregnant, and then to Angus changing in the tall grass so none of the women can see his dick. It felt completely random and pointless, but I suppose if McDermid had told the story chronologically, it would have been more obvious that there was no plot.
McDermid has a few interesting ideas, I suppose, and the general outline of what could be a good retelling of the Macbeth story, but she doesn't deliver on any of these ideas, and she doesn't achieve the goals she lays out in her opening author's note.
If I could unread this book, I would.

Queen Macbeth is the fifth novel of the Darkland Tales series, novellas which reimagine events central to Scottish history. In this riveting story, MacDermid tells the story of Gruoch, the woman who married Macbeth and became the first queen of Scotland. The story is very different than Shakespeare’s version, (which scholars in any case agree is historically inaccurate). The author’s note at the beginning explains her decision to use Gruoch’s name rather than her title, and further explains that although much of her history is known, there is also room for imagination in the details.

The story begins with Grouch and her three ladies making a dramatic escape from the small island monastery where they have lived since Macbeth’s death four years earlier. The story alternates with Gruoch’s memories of meeting and falling in love with Macbeth, which provides a nice backdrop to current events.

I have Scottish ancestry and so have eagerly devoured much information about Scottish history and culture. This short book was fun to read and gave me a new perspective on Macbeth’s story. I admit I was disappointed that it was so short. The story was well told and the characters interesting. Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for offering me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Queen Macbeth is a captivating story filled with adversity, adventure, laughter, love, and defiance. This gripping tale took me on a journey through the trials and triumphs of a powerful queen.

I was looking forward to reading this book and had a very high expectations. Sorry to say, I was dissapointed with this book.
Such a story needed to be told in depth, however here it felt rushed and surficelevel. We had 4 strong women, however we don't know almost anything about them. I couldn't even tell how they looked, what colour their hair was, what they liked or disliked. We even don't know basics about them. Feels like some four randoms names were just throun in to a book.
Talking about the story itself, it was like you were reading from a middle of a book. We have no idea what is happening, why people are chased, who are enemies ang who are allies. Once again people are mentioned at random, without any backstory.
It wasn't a story, more of a summary of a story that could have been.

This is a delightful historical retelling of the lives of Macbeth and Gruoch his queen. I generally find that folks love to learn about the true stories of Shakespearean characters. I received this as a Netgalley ARC, but I cannot wait to listen to it in Scottish dialect for their were enough words to warrant a glossary. McDermid's work is so fabulous read aloud. I heartily recommend all her books in audio; she has a gift for the lyrical as well as the slang of the Scots. I only wish this had been longer. I think the 3 "sisters" character development was brilliant and only wished to know more.

Val McDermid did a great job reimagining the story of Lady Macbeth. He prefaces that little is known about the couple, and historians have discovered that Shakespeare's version needs to be revised. The author did his research. The storyline challenges historical narratives by presenting a counternarrative that amplifies the resilience of its female protagonist and how the fight for power is treacherous. The novella is a fresh perspective on a woman who defied expectations.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Grove Atlantic.

Val McDermid takes on the story of Queen MacBeth, starting with history and mixing in her own truth. Full of love and treachery, friendship and betrayal, I found it a fascinating read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this DRC.
#QueenMacbeth#NetGalley

An interesting retelling/adaptation of a classic Shakespearean work. The style of the prose was a bit anachronistic for me, as I expected more of a blend of classic writing within the modern text. Nevertheless, the characters were compelling and relatable and the overall plot was engaging and moved at a good pace.