#she ain't

[p3rpetual-moti0n]

Count of me saying "that's homophobic you can't do that to me in pride month" at any minor inconvenience specifically to @car-the-one-and-only so far (as an estimate)- 10

[mightydragoon]

An actual insult to Shakespeare

This book was a genuine insult to the character of Lady Macbeth, the Scottish and Shakespeare.

Let's get some good out of the way. The cover art is stellar, wow. I need to know the artist for whoever drew it and I think Reid is genuinely talented in her prose and imagery. It was one of the reasons I actually kept reading and finished the book but oh the Gods that's the height of it. The book is advertised as such;

"A reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her."

It delivers on none of that. It removes the agency and intrigue behind the incredible Lady Macbeth who in the original play goes through immense character development, guilt and reckonings in what it means to murder and follow through with power. Lady Macbeth is ambitious and pressures Macbeth to do the same.

Roscille is none of these things. I don't understand why Reid thought it be a good idea to make her seventeen, a bastard and French (the worst crime of all) when Macbeth's historic wife exists and creates the strange age gap between them. There is no indication that happened in the original. In fact Reid goes out of her way to make Scotland appear as backwards, savage and nonsensical as possible in it's practises and ruling style.

Roscilee maid, Hawaise, is killed out the gate for no reason other than to show how bad these Scots are and they have no women around. Yep, Reid fridges a maid. To make it worse everytime Roscille tries to indulge in some conspiracy or scheme she is nearly immediately caught or punished for it. I haven't even gotten into her mind-control powers which she barely uses. It's Incredible.

Shakespeare had the dignity to have Lady Macbeth work almost in the shadows, calling for spirits to take away her inhibitions to murder, having her work in tandem with her husband who appears to love and trust her. Then hesitates on murdering as Duncan resembles her father and she can't do it and descends into grief and madness over what she had done. Macbeth's "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" exemplifies the futility and utter brokenness that Macbeth feels after she is gone.

If Roscille is bad, the male characters are worse. Made in one-dimensional caricatures of themselves. The only good and important person is some dude called Lysander who is Duncan's son (ignore the fact that Donalbain and Malcolm exist). Reid creates a world so manufactured of oppression and faux feminism it is gutting to watch.

I love seeing the three witches who were basically forces of nature in the play, do laundry, locked up in some dungeon for all time. Love that!!!! (No.)

One example of this is with Fleance later in the book, Reid fails and refuses to make Roscille actually morally grey and has her be anywhere near the wrong or slightly villainous. Reid has Fleance say weirdly out-of-pocket things to justify his villainy. Rather than have Roscille be perceived as bad in any capacity whatsoever. She's just an uwu survivor who has done nothing wrong ever!

Reid created this new character and it might be fine for an og setting and bog standard fantasy story, even if there are weird absences of women even as servants for "plot" but Reid had to go with Macbeth. She had to go with one of the most infamous villains in history. She had to go with Shakespeare's most infamous female character whose very name is the byword explanation for a domineering wife trying to persuade her husband to do evil acts.

It fails to deliver. Reid discredits women's experience in medieval times and GRRM has his problems but he knows the complex roles women play and do in those societies from indirect and direct means. Reid falls down the trap of aesthetical oppression that is so manufactured and fake, that she fails to make any valid critique of the systems that existed by creating one that is not even pragmatic or feasible. If inadvertently proving men's points. Whoops!

TL:DR: Bad book don't read.

[h4p3r-f0x]

SURPRISE ABOUT FEL! BOOOOOOO!

the drawing explains for itself so do I need to explain?

think I went a bit overboard with the skirt....oopsieee

[the-starry-wisp]

The Gremlin

[hillwoodhouse]

Par 4 my ass 🤣

[cat-in-a-contra-line]

Gertrude: Yeah, all in all I had a pretty normal childhood.

Jespar, Calia, Arkt and the ghosts of Kim and Narathzul Arantheal: Your dad fucking abandoned you!

Gertrude: Once!

[sprnklersplashes]

Arsinoe is not cis

[jenniferlawurence]