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A review by kaulhilo
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
2.0
oou so many books to review.
ava reid is a very hesitant author for me, because she tends to veer towards horror in her fiction and i am a very cowardly person. i requested this because the cover was insane(!!) (the us cover, anyway) and the premise was too intriguing for me to ignore. the book itself starts a little confusing, in that the writing style took some getting used to. but once you get into it, i don't think this is a story that'll let you leave quite as easily. it's definitely an interesting book, with a very strong, and perhaps solitary, focus on women trying to survive in what's essentially a men's playing field; and while nothing about this book is quite so extraordinary, it does deliver on an engaging main character trying to anticipate and control the puppet strings of a play that's preemptively designed against her. it's sad, to see the struggle and damage that women have to go through just to be able to stand, the powerlessness and the scapegoating, the bitter truth and the sore acceptance - especially in times such as the one explored, with ripples that last to this day. the writing and the worldbuilding add to this, building up an atmosphere of nerve-wracking dread, a backdrop to the story the fmc discovers at newer, more insidious levels in every passing page. it is pretty solid storytelling in that sense alone, but it's not a perfect book, much less a loyal retelling. i wasn't a fan of how almost every other character seemed incredibly two-dimensional with no real depth to any of them besides what the fmc pre-perceived. another issue, and this one slightly more irksome, was how this book could've been so, so much more, especially for a reiteration that had just so much to absorb and deliver from its source material. i understand the author's vision, and how the fmc here couldn't be an exact reflection of lady macbeth (the original) because of her age and general naivety, but i just felt like there could've been so much more done, in terms of plot at least - if not characters.
*and there's also some weird maybe(?) scottish xenophobia going on here, so um. fair warning.
thank you to del rey for the arc. 2.5/5
ava reid is a very hesitant author for me, because she tends to veer towards horror in her fiction and i am a very cowardly person. i requested this because the cover was insane(!!) (the us cover, anyway) and the premise was too intriguing for me to ignore. the book itself starts a little confusing, in that the writing style took some getting used to. but once you get into it, i don't think this is a story that'll let you leave quite as easily. it's definitely an interesting book, with a very strong, and perhaps solitary, focus on women trying to survive in what's essentially a men's playing field; and while nothing about this book is quite so extraordinary, it does deliver on an engaging main character trying to anticipate and control the puppet strings of a play that's preemptively designed against her. it's sad, to see the struggle and damage that women have to go through just to be able to stand, the powerlessness and the scapegoating, the bitter truth and the sore acceptance - especially in times such as the one explored, with ripples that last to this day. the writing and the worldbuilding add to this, building up an atmosphere of nerve-wracking dread, a backdrop to the story the fmc discovers at newer, more insidious levels in every passing page. it is pretty solid storytelling in that sense alone, but it's not a perfect book, much less a loyal retelling. i wasn't a fan of how almost every other character seemed incredibly two-dimensional with no real depth to any of them besides what the fmc pre-perceived. another issue, and this one slightly more irksome, was how this book could've been so, so much more, especially for a reiteration that had just so much to absorb and deliver from its source material. i understand the author's vision, and how the fmc here couldn't be an exact reflection of lady macbeth (the original) because of her age and general naivety, but i just felt like there could've been so much more done, in terms of plot at least - if not characters.
*and there's also some weird maybe(?) scottish xenophobia going on here, so um. fair warning.
thank you to del rey for the arc. 2.5/5