“Even the dullest creatures in cages dream of freedom. Their desires stretch and flourish, like a tree growing clever branches along the bars of a fence.”

Ava Reid does it again. This is a loose retelling of The Play, extremely loose even. The themes of madness and the folly of man, however, still remain. Our protagonist, Roscille, finds herself backed into a corner at every turn. And so, as a trapped creature does the only thing it can, she bites.

Told her eyes can induce madness in men, she is wed to a fearsome warrior known as Macbeth, whose ambition is his downfall. As her husband prepares to take over the kingdom he thinks is his birthright, perhaps the lady has powers of her own to grow into after all.

“A wife is only as clever as her husband permits her to be.”

This story is not lighthearted. There is torture. There is gore. There is assault, although thankfully it is not worded in great detail.