Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
To round up, or to not round up? That is the question.
The first thing that sticks out in my mind about this book is that it took me 20-days to read, which it shouldn’t have. It’s fairly short, but every single time I picked it up, I would fall asleep after like 10-pages.
Reid’s writing is beautiful, but it failed to ever truly grip me. I was hoping for a more sinister plot, and a more overtly cunning representation of Lady Macbeth as well.
However, I did enjoy the level of inspiration from the original story, and felt the setting and atmosphere were very well done. I felt the cold and dark in my bones.
I’m getting a little ahead of myself though, so let’s start at the beginning. As you would expect, Lady Macbeth is Ava Reid’s reimagining of one of the best villains, IMHO, of all time, Lady Macbeth. We love her.
Lady Macbeth, as a character, has always fascinated me and I do tend to enjoy new fiction that reimagines her role, or persona. One of my favorites, for example, would be Foul Is Fair, which is indeed very modern, while this story is true to the original in time.
In fact, the setting and characters all feel fairly true to the original source material, and I think any fan of that work could enjoy checking this one out.
I did enjoying following Roscille, who becomes Lady Macbeth, as she first arrives at Macbeth’s castle and meets her husband-to-be for the first time, as well as her introduction to other inhabitants of the castle and their ways, which are all very mysterious to her.
I also did feel Roscille was cunning and smart. That she was strategizing all along the best ways to get by in her new life.
With this being said though, I was disappointed not to get more development in her relationship with her husband. I felt that was very surface level and I would have wanted much more to feel satisfied.
By this I don’t mean romantically. I wanted more strategizing between them, and honestly, I wanted to see more manipulation on her part. I know it was there, but it just felt weak compared to what I was hoping for.
I wanted her to be using Macbeth’s alleged brutish nature more to her advantage. It felt more like the reverse, that he was still in control. I know that’s not exactly true, especially by the end, but I wanted her power to be more unconcealed.
Personally, it felt too subtle for me. It was like those punching points I wanted were a bit bogged down by the beauty of the writing. Although there’s nothing wrong with pretty writing, it just wasn’t quite to my tastes.
The first half of the book was definitely more successful for me. At that point, there was still hope and the possibility that Lady Macbeth would live up to her full, sinister potential. Unfortunately, that just never really followed through to the extent that I wanted.
With this being said, I did still enjoy this. It is a good story and I’m so happy to have tried Ava Reid’s work for the very first time. I would be interested in reading more from Reid.
I would also recommend this to anyone who is interested in the character of Lady Macbeth. I think there are some great scenes in this that lots are Readers will enjoy. It’s also atmospheric and easy to follow: plus, plus.
Thank you to the publisher, Del Rey, for providing me for a copy to read and review.
While I wanted a bit more blatancy to Roscille’s cunning and strategy, I still appreciate this for what it is and feel like the author did a great job reinterpreting this classic tale!