Review 665: Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A retelling of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth told from the wife. This was a vastly different version, the characters are reinvented. The book was quite dark, yet the language for the most part did evoke an older time.

Roscilla/Roscille/Lady Macbeth is a hagseed, born with a witch curse, who makes men mad when they stare into her eyes. Thus her father placed a veil over her so as to protect men. Roscille is a teenager married off from her uncaring father to a brutish, overly large Scotsman – Thane of Glammis. He keeps three witches down below in the ocean water beneath the castle, they tell him the prophecies.

There are similarities to the original play, but the core, so much was not. Places are even spelled differently. It makes one wonder why not write anew and not be tied to, compared to the play. I think the book would have been stronger that way. Although, still, the main character was not drawn consistently.

I’m on the fence how to rate this, comparing to the original as a retelling I would rate it low. On its own a bit better, so I’m placing it in the middle with 3 stars.

Review 622: A Land So Wide

A Land So Wide by Erin A. Craig
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Sometimes I read books a bit outside of my normal range of reading, even though that range is quite wide. This one is described as something I wouldn’t normally tend towards. It was billed as the author’s first adult book, the writing felt like it still falls under the young adult purview.

Without rehashing the plot of the book, I will say there are many things that just doesn’t fit right. The main character, Greer Mackenzie is supposed to be 27, but her character acts like someone much younger. Her best friend growing up is said to be 4 or 5 years younger, which seems a bit of a stretch. Other than the opening scene we really don’t see her again. Also, she comes from the “wrong” family, which seemed to be okay for her father, but her friend’s brother is not someone she should marry? Is the family to be avoided or not?

Also, when did this take place? There were years mentioned, during parts when some history of the town was provided, but left wondering, when is now? It didn’t come together until near the end of the book. There was this forced some type of physical romance into the book that didn’t need to be there. The pacing was a bit off, particularly the last portion of the book. I really disliked how the denouement occurred, and the ending left things open for a possibility of a sequel.

I did get through the book fairly quickly, but mainly because I was listening to it and wanted to get it done, rather than feeling compelled to know what came next. I was worried about this being a “horror” book, but found it was more fairly tale than scary and evil.

Thanks Pantheon and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.