I want to preface this by saying that this simply wasn't the book for me, which is the reason for the 3 stars (3.5 really). I neither loved, nor hated this book - it just isn't the type of story or storytelling for me.
A very interesting concept and unique storytelling. I love re-tellings with every fiber of my being, getting a different view or take on a much loved classic is always interesting, especially with the creative direction that this particular story took. Like i said before, it was just hard to get into, and didn't grab my attention fully.

As with all of Ava Reid's books, the storytelling was exceptionally lyrical, descriptive, atmospheric and compelling. As enjoyable as this can all be to read, i think that it was a little bit overdone this time, making everything a little more complicated and confusing to read,
Like i said before i think the concept was really intriguing, but i might have interpreted it wrong. I thought that there would have been a lot more magic/witchcraft in the more literal sense, but it just fell a little short.
Lady Macbeth/Roscilla as a character was also incredibly frustrating. She was simply not a likable character and i found myself frustrated every time she was making decisions and commenting on the 'scots' and women. A lot of the things she said just didn't sit right with me. The most frustrating part was she didn't really seem like she had a goal for her life other than getting out of the marriage she didn't want in the first place. I also mean that it seemed like she didn't really have any goals/aspirations or anything of the sort before she was shipped away to marry someone of her fathers choosing. Simply, in my opinion, she was just lacking substance that would have made her a better character.

Taking away the fact that i didn't like her as a character (its a me problem) this book is full of a child like yearning for a simpler life - one where she isnt hurt at the hands of men, and can instead go about her life the way she wants. It is ultimately about a terrified girl of only 17 years old taking back control of her life from the hands of men who would otherwise manipulate, violate, hurt and sell her off for their own gain. Quite the accurate reflection on the period of time that this book is set in.

This is a brutal haunting take on the classic, so i would read with cation. I would also try not to associate it too heavily with the original (of you've already read it) as there are a lot of differences and deviations that might otherwise leave you feeling confused and frustrated with this rather artistic retelling.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the chance to read this!

An interesting concept, but I found it hard to get into. The story just didn't grab me unfortunately.

2.5 Stars

Ava Reid is an auto-buy author for me. I have enjoyed all her books and have been excited to delve into this one.

Reid always manages to create a fantastic atmosphere in her books and this one is no exception. It is gothic, grey and I could feel how cold it was with her descriptions.

However I really did not connect Ava's Lady Macbeth with the Lady Macbeth I studied previously. Maybe that is a me problem, and maybe this is only meant to be a loose retelling of Lady Macbeth, but this meant I struggled to root for her in this novel at all. She has no agency and spends 50% hating the Scots and Scotland, and the other 50% making rude remarks about women? She is also described to be smart in the book but makes no smart decisions ever and is always caught or found out? This was just frustrating. I also didn't really ever understand what she wanted, what the best outcome she was seeking would be other than not having to consummate the marriage.

I also found chunks of this book to be incredibly boring and had to drag myself though it. Essentially there was a lot going on, but nothing really happened.

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

Published 13 August 2024. Sadly this re-imagining of Lady Macbeth did not work for me. Having read Ava Reid before, I was anticipating this but I think that having spent 15 years discussing the Shakespeare play with students, of picking apart the character of Lady Macbeth, all of that spoilt the book for me. I went into this expecting to see facets of the Lady Macbeth I knew and I didn't find them. This Lady M, Roscilla, is 17 and sent by her French father to be Macbeth's bride. Touched by a witch's curse, the rumour is that if a man gazes into her eyes, he is doomed and so Roscilla is always veiled. The court/castle that she enters is full of men, brutal men. Her handmaid is immediately sent away. Who does all the work - who knows? but Roscilla seems to be the only woman in the castle. She is terrified of the marriage bed and spins a yarn to avoid it as long as possible. So our Lady M, rather than being the strong, manipulative woman of the play is a 17 year old virgin plunged into a castle full of dangerous men who see her as a threat, a danger. It is a violent time and she suffers violence, she loses power and at one point is blindfolded so she loses her sight as well. But ultimately, I suppose, this is a story about her taking back ownership of her life. If I could have read the book as that - of a woman overcoming dangers to take back control of her life - I would have enjoyed it more than I did, but I kept looking for the Shakespeare references and finding them either missing or changed. Several times, I shook my head in puzzlement when something happened in the plot in a totally different way to the way that the event had occurred in the play. Ava Reid is a super writer and I will pick her up again as I thoroughly enjoyed A Study in Drowning. But sorry, this was one that was not for me.

A beautiful, haunting story. As always I'm in awe of Ava Reid's ability to transport me into a different time and place with a few pages. I might be one of the few who went into this without any preconceptions, as I've never read Macbeth nor seen any adaptation. So while I cannot comment on how it compares to Shakespeare's Macbeth, I can say that I did enjoy this exploration of a Roscilla's fight to survive in the world of men, which is something every women can relate to even today. The story was well paced and I was captured by Roscilla's plight and the way she gradually reclaim her life.

Special thanks to Random House UK and Netgalley for providing me an advance copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 STARS. A dark, gothic, haunting, beautiful tale. Ava Reid does not disappoint. A scathing look at women's roles in this era. GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS.

A promising premise, but didn’t deliver. For a story that is so rooted in Scottish history, the author makes some very odd choices, and doesn’t seem to actually like Scots very much. Read Macbeth instead.

Lady Macbeth, Ava Reid

A re imagination of the life of Shakespeare’s best known fallen woman. Not as a villain, but as a woman with power and pain.

This is a stunning gothic exploration of a woman fighting to survive in the world of men. Rewriting the story that was written for her. I was seduced by this dark and mesmerising read.

I've loved Ava Reid's previous books, although this is very different to what she's written before.
Didn't enjoy this much as I thought I would (when comparing to her previous books).
Still beautifully written, and enjoyable.

I didn’t love this book as much as I thought I would, what I struggled with is just how far it strayed from the original play and how Lady Macbeth had been turned into a poor, helpless girl. I also thought the ‘happy’ ending was very unlike a Shakespearean story. Killing off Macduff was, I thought, a mistake and the dragon storyline was very random.

One thing I did love was how the witches helped her and gave her their strength when they so easily could’ve turned on her and wanted her to suffer the same way they did

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC!

Lady Macbeth’s main plot focuses on Roscille, a beautiful girl presumed bastard and also cursed with her presumed witchy powers. The story opens with her being sent to Glammis where to Macbeth’s castle in a carriage to attend on her own wedding ceremony with him. For years she became a woman what her father defined her to be: a girl cursed by witch who can be used by his own politic maneuvers like he’s Dr. Frankenstein who just created his own monster but as soon as she steps in Glammis, she starts her own path destined for her by demanding her place in a world conquered and reigned by powerful men. Could she find her way among them, manipulating her own husband not to consummate their marriage by misdirecting him with other missions he may lead even though Macbeth thinks he is in the control by using his own wife as secret weapon for enacting his schemes.

Reid's macbeth retelling is dark, gothic, haunting, and even more brutal than its source material. while the scottish play examines lady macbeth in tandem with her husband, taking on (what was then seen as) masculine traits so they may succeed, this lady macbeth leans in to her strategy, her careful tactician in hopes of staying ahead of her husband.

Lady Macbeth, a gothic reimagining of Shakespeare’s famous villainess, was my most anticipated read of the year and it did not disappoint! The story follows our main character Roscilla, a presumed witch, as she is sent to Scotland by her father to marry the brute Macbeth in order to secure an alliance. This reimagining deviates from the source material by adding in more fantastical elements, and changing the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from one of a loving couple to a connection rooted in fear and a power imbalance. Reid succeeds in creating a haunting atmosphere within an brutal setting, as she expertly conveys the fears of Roscilla as a young woman alone in a hostile court, surrounded by men who see her as unnatural and a threat. The strong point of this novel is the examination of the role of women during perilous times in both their duties and their suffering. The transactional nature of women’s lives is highlighted, seen most with how Roscilla is used as a pawn by both her father and Macbeth, and the powerlessness she feels as a result. As the story continues we see strongly the growth in Roscilla as she slowly reclaims her strength and ownership of both her body and her mind. An interesting feature I appreciated was how Reid stayed true to the fluidity of language of the time and its everchanging nature, adding to the atmosphere and helping the book remain fast-paced. I only wish this story was twice as long as I will happily read anything Ava Reid writes.

Ava Reid the icon you are !! Stunning gorgeous amazing I loveddddd it. I want to delete it from my brain just to be able to read it for the first time again.

I'll be the first to admit it's been over a decade since I read Macbeth, so my memory of the play is perhaps not the most reliable. However for myself I'm not too fussed about it, at this rate Ava could just write out a list of random words and it would still be one of the best things I've ever read.
Lady Macbeth traditionally narrated alongside the story of her husband, takes a new direction under Reid's pen. Showing her leaning in to a more 'feminine' way of plotting and separating her narrative from Macbeths. Using her cunning and her sheer will to survive Roscille navigates the treacherous Scots in any way she can. Haunting, gothic and darker than the source material, this retelling did not disappoint. Although Lady Macbeth departs from the source material, especially in Macbeth's case- I think Reid observes the time period well and illuminates the unfortunate reality of many women in the period.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley.

This was an absolutely fascinating retelling of Macbeth. The author has taken a very different tack to other female led Macbeth retellings I’ve seen recently, giving this a fresh perspective.

We follow Roscille, who is sent to Alba to marry Macbeth by her father. She realises she has no choice and is doing her best to survive in a world where men have vast amounts of control over her life. She is frequently called a witch and has to where a veil because she’s so beautiful that men consider her gaze bewitching. Even though this comes from men’s own desire, it’s seen as entirely her fault and she’s treated with suspicion. Male fear of women is explored in depth throughout this novel and there’s some uncomfortable content around men trying to control women, often with violence.

Macbeth is more of a villain in this than in other retellings. He’s not his wife’s great love and instead someone she must endure. He’s appears far more brutish in this and it’s his pride and narcissism driving his actions rather than the insidious murmurings of his wife. He is obsessed with his own legacy and convinced of his greatness. Roscille is trying to survive him using flattery and obedience but her actions are driven by a desire to survive, not a desire for power.

This really leans more into the witch elements of Macbeth than other retellings. Roscille herself has power of persuasion and can bewitch (some not all) men. We encounter other witches too, in line with the three who prophecy Macbeth’s fate. We also have curses and supernatural creatures. All adding a really unique and fascinating layer to this book.

This was another excellent book by Ava Reid and well worth a read. Fascinating, dark and a unique perspective. A lovely blend of historical and fantasy.

Well, this was a disappointment. Imagine having the most iconic, evil Scottish power couple at your disposal but instead writing about a xenophobic French teenager and a half-English twink. The character of Lady Macbeth was almost unrecognisable with little regard for the source material. Scotland was described like it's the ninth circle of hell and the MC's xenophobia was so overt it would have been funny had the author not doubled down on all of the character's prejudices. All Scottish men are evil brutes in this, apart from the half-English love interest (lmao), and there are only two women apart from the MC, who are unimportant overall. Just a lot of weird choices made, overall. 1/5 stars.

Unfortunately, I have had issues with my netgalley which has meant that two books, including this one could not be downloaded on to my shelf. I have contacted customer support and will update this review if I can read this book.

I’ve never read anything by Ava Reid before but I love Lady Macbeth as a character so I thought this would be a good place to start.

TLDR; I didn’t really like it, it’s not my cup of tea and I didn’t like the direction it went in but I will still read more from this author before I decide whether or not this author is for me.

Firstly, I knew I was taking a chance with this, as retellings are very hit and miss for me (and usually miss). The main thing is that the stories are something you’re very familiar with, so you know exactly where it’s going. Even if you don’t, you can easily guess where it’s going. It’s not impossible to write a story that’s interesting when you know exactly what will happen, but, unfortunately, I wasn’t interested here (although I do appreciate that Reid didn’t over explain events that were occurring, she trusted us to already know, which I did like).

The second thing about retellings is that we already have some sort of connection with the characters, and those characters can mean a lot to a lot of people, so it can be hard to navigate that and create your own interpretation while still appreciating the original texts. I don’t think this did that, in my opinion, but just because this particular version of Lady Macbeth wasn’t for me, I don’t think she’d be universally disliked. I can see why some people would really like this. I love that Lady Macbeth is so cunning, manipulative and intelligent but this version of Lady Macbeth is the complete opposite. We are told she’s intelligent but I didn’t see evidence of this. She was only defined by the men in her life, and that’s it.

I did really like the ending though. roughly the last 10% of the book, but I wish we had that for the rest of the book as well.

I also don’t like how feminism was dealt with here. It did a very shallow interpretation of it, in my opinion. Feminism is much more than “women are always good and men are always bad”. There was so much that could have been done there, such as showing Lady Macbeth as both the manipulated and the manipulator.

Saying all that, I didn’t hate it. I don’t think this is a bad book. It just wasn’t for me, a lot of it didn’t work for me, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work for other people. I can see why this would be loved, I especially think the dark exploration of a “behind the scenes” to Macbeth will be especially interesting to a lot of people.

Thank you to Netgalley & publishers for the review copy!

[ARC provided by NetGalley and Del Rey. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Lady Macbeth.]

Rating: 4/5

First of all, if you’re planning to pick this up because Macbeth is one of your favourite Shakespeare plays then it is important to keep in mind that this is a reimagining, and that many elements of the plot are altered to fit into a new narrative led by the Lady herself. A lot of the major plot points remain but characters are driven by different emotions here and although I thoroughly enjoyed this story fuelled by feminine rage and the downside of unchecked ambition, there’s some alterations that I couldn’t completely get behind.

Also just want to make a side note that there’s a lot of sensitive content in this book and I’d urge you to check out the trigger warnings before going into it. There’s nothing particularly graphic but we all have different limits so better to be safe before jumping in.

Going into this, my memory of Macbeth was patchy at best, but if you’re not familiar with the play and are still keen to check this out then I’m confident that you don’t need any prior Shakespeare knowledge to enjoy the story. I could go into more detail about how this differs from the source material, but I won’t focus too much on that here because I think you will enjoy this a lot more if you view it as its own story – all I’ll say in that regard is that it was interesting to find out more about the infamous villainess. Lady Macbeth is such a fascinating character and I enjoyed seeing a new side to the cunning and calculating wife of Macbeth.

One issue I had, and I may be focussing on this more as I’m Scottish, was that the brutish behaviour exhibited by the Scots was never challenged. It made the people of Scotland lack depth and come across as almost cartoonish, and it’s a frustrating stereotype to read about, even in feminist retellings. I also hoped that the Lady would be a little more unhinged and that she might hold her own against Macbeth better, but considering she’s a young, sheltered woman in this story then I can understand why that wasn’t the case here. We still see a strategic side to her character, but I would have loved to see more. If you’re expecting her to have more agency in this story, I’m not sure it fully delivers.

I still enjoyed this retelling but I’m not a die hard Macbeth fan so maybe I’d feel differently if I loved the play more. However, regardless of how you think Lady Macbeth should be portrayed, I think this story provides an interesting new insight to her character.

Drawing inspiration from the play "Macbeth," this dark historical fantasy recounts the tale of a young girl betrothed to a violent, ambitious lord in 11th-century Scotland. While Shakespearean purists may not favor this retelling, this version of Lady Macbeth seems more like a fresh character. It encapsulates the original play's superstition, darkness, and savagery, with parts of the writing being strikingly beautiful.
This was my initial encounter with Ava Reid's literature, and I believe it won't be the last.

My gratitude goes to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC.