“𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔦𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔤𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔰𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔪𝔢𝔫’𝔰 𝔞𝔰𝔭𝔦𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔰, 𝔱𝔬—𝔴𝔥𝔢𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥 𝔩𝔬𝔳𝔢 𝔬𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥 𝔳𝔦𝔬𝔩𝔢𝔫𝔠𝔢—𝔡𝔯𝔞𝔴 𝔰𝔠𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔪𝔰 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 𝔴𝔬𝔪𝔢𝔫’𝔰 𝔪𝔬𝔲𝔱𝔥𝔰.”

Published: 13/08/24

Genre: Fantasy, retelling 

Page count: 320

Format read: 📱

Other books read by this author: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐥𝐟 & 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐧 

A gothic retelling of 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐡, from the point of view of Macbeth’s new bride. The eponymous Lady Macbeth was definitely not what I expected; instead of the cunning, ambitious middle-aged woman of the original we get Roscille, a seventeen year old French girl traded to Macbeth by her father as part of a political alliance. Though Roscille initially sees herself as a master manipulator with the skills she learnt in her father’s court, she soon realises she is out of her depth when it comes to her brutish, bloodthirsty husband. 

I loved the character of Roscille, the idea of her being ‘witch-marked’ with eyes that drive men to madness, & the way she grew throughout the book. I loved the nods to the original play, whilst Reid also incorporated plenty of original elements. I loved the beautiful, gothic writing style, the setting (though not entirely historically & geographically accurate) & the juxtaposition of the fragility of Roscille & the violence of Macbeth (with Scots coming off as fairly uncivilised on the whole). 

Another beautiful novel from Ava Reid.