It was…alright. It is supposed to be a retelling of Macbeth but the characters bear little resemblance to the play. And the protagonist is not nearly as wily or clever enough to give you that feeling Lady Macbeth has. As a historical fantasy it is interesting but nothing special, Not a patch on a study in drowning,

I've loved the original Macbeth by Shakespeare ever since I read it at school. This made me a little cautious going into this retelling.

What if a retelling from Lady Macbeth's perspective ruined my love of the story?

What if Lady Macbeth got pushed out from being my favourite character in the original story by this reimagined version of her character?

Turns out these concerns were completely unnecessary because:

Ava Reid was born to write this retelling!

Within this version of Macbeth's story, we get an atmospheric and claustrophobic feeling of women being trapped within the confines of men. We get a deeply descriptive prose that makes each feeling the character expresses pour out of the page onto the reader. We have a version of Lady Macbeth that conforms to all the wise and cunning personality from the original, but with a delicacy and fragility that completely humanises her, endearing her towards the reader.

I love Reid's version of Lady Macbeth: the voice she has been given, a personality more befitting to her name, a character arc that left me enthralled more and more as I turned each page. And an ending more true to what she deserved.

This is a Lady Macbeth story truly befitting of a queen.

DNF. I think this book is largely mis-marketed, because you might - like me - think that it's about Lady Macbeth. And to a degree it is, but to a further degree, it's really not. I found the language and how the writing was used to tell the story incredibly off-putting and difficult to follow. I knew I was sunk when I saw a glossary at the very beginning of the book. I don't want to be constantly referring back and forth to work out what you're trying to say as you tell this story. You can still achieve the same level of atmosphere without completely confusing the reader throughout. I've never read Ava Reid before and I have seen reviewers mention that this is very different to the style of her other books, so I might have a better shot there. Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me.

📚 review 📚
lady macbeth - ava reid

this is one of the darkest, gorgeously written gothic stories i’ve read for a long time but it isn’t for everyone.
firstly this is a very different lady macbeth to the one we know and love. while shakespeare’s lady macbeth is the ultimate hbic this one is young, naive and definitely not subtle in her machinations. while i enjoy ava reid’s writing and this one is just as rich as her other books, there are a few things i didn’t enjoy - there seems to be a little bit of an anti scottish feeling which is odd when this is a retelling of one of the most famous scottish stories in the world.
my other criticism would be that this is marketed as being a feminist retelling - and though we do have elements of this a lot of the action is dependent on the men in the story, which does over shadow the feminism that we were promised.
overall though i thought it was a fairly enjoyable take on a shakespearean classic, full of iconic characters that we get to see in a new way.

thank you @netgalley for the early copy

Really disappointed with this one as my last Ava Reid was 5 stars!

I'll start off with the positives - the prose is good. I love Ava Reid's writing, and she creates a really gothic, gloomy atmosphere and sense of suspense. It was what kept me reading even though I wasn't enjoying much else about it!

I would say the choice to characterise Lady Macbeth in this way is a strange one. She's very meek and powerless for the majority of the book, and I was hoping she'd have a powerful character arc that brought her closer to the OG Lady Macbeth, but she felt almost exactly the same at the end of the book as she did at the beginning.
We're constantly told she's wily and clever but I saw no evidence for this - I couldn't tell you one time where she was scheming effectively and it influenced the plot. The plot and her character are both pulled along by men - and there's so many men. There's 2 other women in the whole book (besides the witches), but they appear very briefly. Are you saying the whole castle is run by men? Why is that? I can't think of a practical reason they wouldn't employ women as servants, the only reason I can think of is that it's serving to isolate Roscille more than she is already.
The fantasy elements felt wishy washy as well. There were so many times when I'd be reading like hello?? don't you have magical eyes??? whip your veil off!! Or when she got given a key to the basement with the witches and didn't even think to utilise them while she was left on her own to run the castle???
I think the another issue I had is that I still don't know Roscille's goals other than to escape(?) and even then I'm not sure. She doesn't seem to want anything throughout the book, and is only driven by what she does not want. It's a choice, but I think it makes for a very weak character, especially a Lady Macbeth.
Finally my biggest issue - what in the xenophobia?? I understand the temptation to create an atmospheric gothic environment by writing Scotland like that but the other characters made me really uncomfortable and offended. Lady Macbeth, aka Roscille is French and has Never Done Anything Wrong In Her Whole Life. EVERY Scottish man she interacts with is a violent brute, ready to rape and murder. The only semi-decent man she interacts with is half English. I know that the play itself is full of violent people and it's set in a very different time, but also this is a fantasy book. Are you telling me all your other characters only have 1 setting? It's not even just because it's through the lens and judgement of the French main character (although this is part of the reason), it's just that they're Like That. I really hated it, and would have loved to see some more variation.

This was a DNF for me at 32%. As this is my first time reading anything by Ava Reid, I was really excited to jump into the retelling. Unfortunately it fell quite short for me and did not live up to expectations I had for it. The storytelling was brilliant but I just couldn’t get my head around it and I think I spoilt myself by reading other reviews first to get a feel for the book.

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.