This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024. I wanted to love this, but this just did not work for me. This felt half formed. I did not understand Roscille’s immediate disdain for one character until she makes it so, and her immediate love for another which never gets a real payoff. Her thinking of herself as the most clever quickly became tiring because of how constant it was. Overall, I think this wanted to be more than it was and unfortunately it just wasn’t great. Also, justice for Scotland… it was written as horrible, cold and grey and full of brutish villains. Not a single redeeming quality to be found. Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey/Random House Publishing for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review which has already been published to Goodreads.

I really enjoyed this quiet, subtle reimagining of Macbeth from Lady Macbeth’s point of view. While you do get the main beats of the original, this isn’t an action packed adventure but a view of the events through the eyes of a scared, anxious 17 year old girl. Roscille is far from home, wedded to a stranger, and scrabbling to survive however she can in a world that gives women no power and no voice. It’s not always pleasant to be in her head, but this story isn’t meant to be pleasant. Combined with some magical elements and re-interpretations of the play’s final act, LADY MACBETH is both a delightful and bittersweet read.

Ava Reid is already a well-loved author on my bookshelf so when I saw Lady Macbeth announced I knew to expect a good time. Those expectations were met and far exceeded.

What I loved
1. As a standalone and a reimaging this story allows me to dive into a world I already sort of know and make myself at home in a story that I know will be wrapped up by the final page.
2. Centering the Story on Lady Macbeth allows the author and thus the reader to take a lens to the inherently sexist tropes and and actions
What Didn't work as well for me?
1. This plot was a bit of a slower-moving one which was difficult for me coming off of some of my more recent fast-paced young adult reads.
Who I would recommend this title for
2. The showing of accents in writing dialogue while interesting gave me serious flashbacks to trying to read Mark Twain back in high school.

Who Would I recommend the Title for

Lady Macbeth is Going to be a wonderful addition to the shelves of existing fans as well as an excellent entry point to the author's work for fans of gothic style YA.

I have not read Macbeth so I can't compare the two, but I really enjoyed this! The storytelling was beautiful, and its dark, gothic vibes make it a perfect Autumn read.

This was a hauntingly beautiful re imagining that was artful in its depiction of the deeply misogynistic society the main character existed in. The beginning of the plot was slow, but the authors beautiful writing kept me going.

Honestly, I’m grateful to get an advance reader copy from NetGalley, but I DNF this book at 40% because the plot was lacking and Lady Macbeth was severely boring, whiny, and so afraid to do anything at all. She’s 17 years old, just shipped off to a foreign land, married to this lord, and is afraid to do anything. She speaks of being “witch touched” with great beauty, but doesn’t use her looks to try and get away with anything she wants. She knows she’s a pawn but would rather sit in the corner and hide, yet she is the one pushing her husband to do this, this, and that to help appease her before they consummate the marriage. However, the whole time, she’s afraid of everything.

The book is marketed as a female empowerment novel, but to me, it doesn’t read like it at all.

I've noticed I have a tendency to be drawn to retellings only to realize I should have refamiliarized myself with the source material first. Even still, I found myself struggling to maintain interest as I found so much of the novel dry or fleetingly interesting at best. Having previously read Juniper and Thorn I was very excited for this one, but unfortunately it fell flat for me

I have not read Shakespeare Macbeth but have always been interested in picking it up so I have nothing to go on in comparison to origin story so going into this I only know that this is a reimagining and what the synopsis tells me.
If you are looking for a dark and gothic type story then this might be for you.
Overall I really liked the story and and liked Roscille’s character, but she is also only 17. But during the time periods in which this takes place that really isn’t surprising to me. I liked how she captured Scotland and the how detailed she got. All in all I really love Ava Reids writing and find it very additive as I flew through the book in about 4 hours.
I feel that I need to come back and reread this again after I go and read Macbeth for the first time. So I can compare and contrast this retelling from the original source material and I really can’t wait to do so!

Lady Macbeth is a masterful reimagining of Lady Macbeth and her story. I couldn’t put it down!

(Please note if you are a Shakespeare purist that doesn’t like seeing characters or plots changed, this might not be for you.)

Lady Macbeth is a teenage girl, wedded against her will to Macbeth and thrust into his strange world. She also must keep herself veiled at all times as she had rumored witch powers that will drive a man to madness. After she sends Macbeth on a quest that unravels into a bloodbath, she must not only survive, but learn about the darker parts of her own self.

I loved the gothic, atmospheric and lyrical writing of Ava Reid. Her feminist themes are always so poignant and gripping. The romance and fantasy in this book were subtle but powerful. I enjoyed the story and the ways she gave Lady Macbeth a new story and new purpose.

This is definitely a recommend! Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

TikTok review: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTNUePDK8/

This book was...an experience? And definitely not what I was expecting it to be. LADY MACBETH by Ava Reid is a retelling of Macbeth from the Lady's perspective. It was definitely dark and gothic, and would make the perfect seasonal read in the fall/winter. However, it had a magical element that wasn't dug into enough and came across as very odd, and other parts of the plot seemed to drag and felt repetitive in the descriptions. I appreciated how the author wanted to hold true to the spelling of names as they would have been in the time period/country - that was neat! Overall, would not widely recommend this book, but I do think it would make for a fascinating book club discussion with Shakespeare scholars (and have already pinged a friend who is one, letting her know I want to discuss!)

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for a ARC copy of LADY MACBETH by Ava Reid, which is out August 13, 2024. All opinions are my own

Not sure how I feel about this one. I loved the storytelling but in changing a strong female character from a very well known story into a young and seemingless helpless lady didn't really work for me. I think of this was it's own story, unrelated to Shakespeare, I world be rating this higher. Still 3 stars as the writing is fantastic

This was exactly what I hoped it would be and will be a book I reread a million times over. Ava Reid continues to astound and cultivate an incredible writing ability that improves with every subsequent title.

I loved this so much! Ava Reid has a brilliant way with words. This reimagining of Macbeth was so interesting! The pacing was excellent to keep me intrigued the entire time. I loved the dark gothic vibes. I will be recommending to all my followers since you don't need to read the original Macbeth to understand this.

A masterful retelling of Macbeth through the most interesting POV missing from the original play: Lady Macbeth. Reid weaves history, folklore and Shakespeare together in a surreal fairytale like retelling that gives greater insight into Lady Macbeth and who she is outside of Macbeth's wife. Add a much appreciate dose of monster love and you've got a splendid tale that will haunt you for weeks after you finish reading it.

Do I even need to say this was amazing!? Ava Reid can do no wrong in my opinion and doing a book about Lady Macbeth? I mean what more could you ask for! This book was exactly what I wanted and more. It was beautiful and lyrical and eerie. I felt the ghost moving through this book. The anger and betrayal was palpable! This book was simply everything!

This novel was a little weird. I didn't hate it but I also didn't love it. Solid three stars. I also read the play back in high school though I did read the sparknotes before starting just to get a little familiar with the source material.

Lady Macbeth is narrated in close third person though we mostly follow Lady Macbeth aka Roscelle. Roscelle is a French teenager with madness inducing eyes and must wear a veil at all times lest she use her powers unexpectedly. She is sent to Scotland to marry Macbeth and is immediately isolated from any other women and the narration takes a decidedly sinister air. The novel mostly follows the plot of the play though the characterization of certain characters is changed through Roscelle's eyes. The major changes though are spoilers so I won't mention them here.

The novel reminded me a lot of The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell especially in the writing style. I would probably recommend this book to readers that enjoyed that novel.

Overall this book was fine, some parts were better than others, some parts dragged. Roscelle was an interesting character as long as the reader remembers she's a seventeen year old with little life experience.

I was provided a free copy of this book through NetGalley.

Unfortunately, I DNF’d this about 20% through, which really sucks because the author’s writing intrigues me. But this just felt very… bland. Boring. I haven’t felt excited to pick it up at all.

I am one of those reviewers that is NOT familiar with the source material and went in as if it was just a brand new original story I still didn't really like this. I also don't think you need to be familiar with Macbeth to read or even enjoy this either. I think no matter what background I was coming from this was going to fall flat for me when I was originally so excited to read this.

My primary issues are with the characterizations of the Scots. Her internal monologue is pretty immature and I never felt that it was truly challenged. Her forced marriage and then husband is so one dimensional but all in the FMC's head because to the reader he really isn't even that bad at first?? I kept waiting for the brutishness she claimed to come through but he was respectful just in a bigger body than the actual MMC/love interest. Yes he eventually does change but just like with a lot of characters in this story they are suddenly forced to switch to (what seems like to me) fit the author's narrative.

My favorite Ava Reid book, Juniper & Thorn, starts off similarly with a young woman with very little agency. Then we get to see the development and explosion of feminine rage and eventual control. I am still chasing that high. I would have loved to see the same with Lady Macbeth which honestly this seemed like it was building up to that, a perceived to be vulnerable woman trying to figure out how she can manipulate men for her own gain but I don't feel I got that.

The driving motivation for at least 65% of this is for her to delay consummating her marriage. This is of course extremely valid and holds such cultural significance for women throughout history. I wanted more for her though or more of this topic explored. I wanted her to get out of the defense and not necessarily "fight back" as that would be victim blaming of me and she does have her own tactics but have more of an exploration as to what she truly wants and what it would mean to be forced and what it means for other women in this same time period. This is such a narrow view story of the FMC pretty much being the only woman around. I just really feel like there was a different way to go about this topic and other reviewers are more articulate than I. CW there is SA in this and it is primarily off page and not gratuitous so I do appreciate that.

This was unfortunately so contradictory. In the same page she would inner monologue about her attempts to placate her husband by being meek and quiet because that's what he would want and then a few sentences later say her husband in particular wanted/wants witches for wives and women with teeth aka not docile women. So which is it?? Ava's prose and fairytale kind of writing is what I usually love but moments like this kept taking me out of the flow of it.

I am very grateful to Del Rey for the eARC. I'll still keep reading Ava's books this just was a miss for me.

I was wary of starting this ARC just because the reviews are so mixed. I think I was definitely at an advantage since i’m not very familiar with the source material and so for me, a lot of others biggest gripes were not an issue for me. That being said, I wasn’t 100% sold on this.
Ava Reid’s writing is so lyrical and the prose are so amazing and that’s definitely what got me through this one. I found the story kind of dull and anticlimactic almost and I also think that may be due to the prose. This wasn’t a book I was thinking about all the time when I wasn’t reading it, but I flew through it when I was reading it in those moments.
There wasn’t really much there that drew me in like I was with A Study in Drowning. I felt Roscilles inner monologue was extremely repetitive at times and that did wear on me a bit. Ava Reid will forever be an auto buy author for me, this one just didn’t hit the way other works have.
3.5 Rounded up for NetGalley ◡̈

In 𝙇𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙈𝙖𝙘𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙝, author Ava Reid takes one of Shakespeare’s most iconic female characters and crafts a fantastical reimagining of her story. In Reid’s version, a young woman, aged 17 — comes into her own power after being married off to a stranger in a new, barbaric {her perspective} land.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅:
💀 𝗹𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹, 𝗵𝗮𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗲: This was my first time reading Reid’s writing, and I’m all in. She expertly weaves together beautiful storytelling and builds a strong narrative for her characters.
💞 𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: This story is dark, brutal, and even gory at times. This atmosphere paired with Reid’s use of language really worked for me.
💀 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: I loved Reid’s choice to include new elements to push this story even further into the fantastical.

It did take me a bit to get into this book. The writing does take a little time to adjust, but I devoured the last half. This story is unconventional — Shakespeare purists may take issue. If you haven’t read Macbeth, I highly recommend diving right into Reid’s reimagined version, especially if you enjoy chivalric romances, gothic stories, feminine rage with extreme vengeance, and a bit of weird.
𝘔𝘺 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨: 4.5⭐️

Thank you @netgalley @delreybooks for the free eARC! Opinions are my own.