unlikelyplaces's reviews
263 reviews

🍂 Lady Macbeth - Ava Reid 🍂 

🎧 

⭐ - 1.5 (maybe 2) 

Ok, this is going to be a bit of a rant but this book was so frustrating! This was one of those books that I just liked less and less as it went on. 

I will preface this by saying that Macbeth is probably my favourite Shakespeare play, just so you’re aware of my biases. 

I’ll start with the positive, I thought the writing was nice and I’d be willing to try another book by this author. I think if you tend to like feminist retellings and you know literally nothing at all about the play Macbeth including any knowledge of the main events then you might like this. 

This was not a Macbeth retelling. This was it’s own completely separate fantasy story with Macbeth-themed set dressing. I don’t know why Reid decided to link this to Macbeth at all because she clearly just wanted to do her own thing. However, by tying this to Shakespeare, Reid has opened herself up to comparison with the original work and therein lies my biggest problem with this book. 

This was the most egregious example of an issue that I often have with feminist retellings where, in trying to make the main character more sympathetic, the author takes away any sense of agency or independence that the original character has. Because obviously all women in history are just sad little girls who are completely subject to their cruel husband’s will. All of the characters in this book were just one-dimensional caricatures that I’ve seen over and over again in historical feminist fiction. 

I wanted a story of the mature, ambitious, clever, woman who does everything she can to win power in the time she lives in. I’m not claiming that Shakespeare writes women perfectly but there are ways you can update it that remain true to the original character and are more nuanced and interesting than this. 

I’m just so confused by all of the choices that were made in this book and it made me so mad because it could have been so good. I even went back and rewatched the whole play just in case I’d wildly misremembered it (I hadn’t). 

If you want a retelling that covers similar themes to this and has a similar vibe, I would highly recommend Rosie Hewlett’s “Medea” (or “The Witch of Colchis” in the US) it’s honestly so much better. 

‼️Content warnings: Domestic abu$e and SA are big themes in this, v!olence, self h@rm, su!c!de, ableism