This was the first I've read by Reid and I wasn't mad about it, but did have pretty high hopes seeing all the positive praise of A Study in Drowning and I'm not sure this hit the mark for me completely.
Lady Macbeth is the tale of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (shocking, I know) from the point of view of Lady Macbeth. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure if LM is given an age in the original, but in Reid's tale, she is 17 years old and is being wed to Macbeth. She has grown up being told that she is "witch-touched". As such, she always wears a veil to prevent people (men) from looking her in the eye and being ensnared by her powers. A bit of a twist from what Will wrote! There are a lot of things like this that Reid has taken liberty with to weave in a more fantastical element to this tale. Overall, I think she does this successfully! The key elements of the source material are here, some in a new way, and we ultimately end up in a similar place at the end (with a twist).
Here's where it feel a bit flat for me. With such an iconic character, there are a lot of existing ideas on who Lady Macbeth is and what she is like. For those who know Macbeth, this character is conniving and vindictive. She does everything she can to forward Macbeth's goals and fulfil the prophecy. She could be described as blood thirsty. Part of me wondered when reading this book, where are her teeth?
Without getting too spoiler-y, there are moments where these elements of LM come through in Reid's book but it's less about her own motivations and more about being, or being perceived as, the perfect wife that she is expected to be. Most of the motivation for her seemingly comes from how other people have trained (for lack of a better word) her to be. She makes many references to what her father would think or what she thinks Macbeth will expect of her and yes, most of this thought process is ultimately for her to serve her own purposes, but what she is trying to achieve for herself is really more of an afterthought brought on by her fear of Macbeth than her really trying to meet her own ends.
It really left me with the thought that if an author is going to put their spin on a character who has been in the public lexicon for decades, they really have to go all in on what they're setting out to do. I'm not sure this book did that successfully, at least for me.
In the end, I would recommend this if you are a looking for an interesting retelling that is beautifully written. May advise steering clear if you're after a Lady Macbeth power showdown. This book comes out August 13th.
Thanks to the team at Penguin/Ballantine/Del Rey for the eARC of this book.
"[S]he is 'witch-touched'. As such, she always wears a veil to prevent people (men) from looking her in the eye and being ensnared by her powers."
I love that! Jungian in its symbolism and Grimm folklore-esque in vibe.
Very interesting assessment overall, it sounds like a very Anya Taylor-Joy retelling almost.