the thing is. macbeth already has such interesting things with gender going on. macbeth is constantly compared to a woman, and lady macbeth to a man (the thing is. macbeth already has such interesting things with gender going on. macbeth is constantly compared to a woman, and lady macbeth to a man (to simplify). it could lend itself really well to a retelling that comments on gender roles, or even with feminism, in a unique and interesting way! but no - we have hulking evil brute macbeth and tiny sexy innocent lady macbeth, which feels like it undoes what the original play sets up.
instead of attempting to be coherent in paragraphs, here are things that made me go ?????? 1. there are a total of 3 women on page the entire book. there is not a single woman in macbeth’s entire fortress apart from roscille (lady m). this is said explicitly on page. hooray for feminism.
2. the three weird sisters are inhuman creatures macbeth keeps locked in his basement that he goes to when he wants a prophecy. later it turns out they were once macbeth’s dead ex-wives.
3. roscille’s whole Thing is that she has witch-cursed eyes that make her able to control men once she makes eye contact with them. when they first brought up that she was forced to wear a veil by her father bc everyone found her eyes uncanny and they “seduce men”, i was like, “oh, allegory for women blamed for how they looked/dressed for ‘tempting’ men?” but no. she can actually control them.
4. she killed duncan (reluctantly, on macbeth’s orders, i might add) by making eye contact with the king’s guards and ordering them to kill the king and then each other.
5. the end of the book is roscille killing macbeth by making eye contact with him. this causes him to shrivel up and die.
6. the book uses the “no man of woman born” version as the actual prophecy, which annoys me pedantically. suppose they needed some way for roscille to kill macbeth. macduff is mentioned twice and one of those is to say he’s been killed offpage.
7. roscille makes friends with the three witches (~wronged women~) and fabricates the entire prophecy about banquo so that macbeth will kill him and fleance. at the end, when roscille is locked in the basement to become another inhuman prophecy creature, the other three give her all their strength and now she has “the power and energy of four women” which makes her able to break iron locks and run really fast and such.
8. even putting aside any macbeth interpretation, the romance is not at all convincing. roscille meets the love interest (not macbeth, who is a rapist) like twice before they kiss and (almost) have sex. the next time she meets him she takes torture in his stead. the following, they have ardent declarations of love. the final time, he shows up to save her at the very end and then they rule scotland together.
9. similarly, even without taking into account how she's not at all like shakespeare's lady macbeth, roscille was not a compelling character. we were told she had certain traits and saw very little evidence of it. i got the sense the author was trying to get her to have an arc, or become more ruthless, but she seemed pretty stagnant to me. there were like 4-5 times where the narration gave us some version of “but roscille was dead. there was only lady macbeth” which was dramatic (if ineffectual) the first time but made me roll my eyes all the other times, both because of the repetition and because of the fact that i saw literally no indication of that actually happening.
10. themes were weak. i don’t really know what they were besides women lacking (and, to some degree, taking, i suppose) agency. and that one had nothing to do with the gender or agency themes in macbeth. nor did macbeth’s ambition (or roscille’s, though i wouldn’t really call it ambition at all). nor was prophecy near the kind of driver it was in macbeth, and it didn’t play the same role. there was enough mention of “time” and its standing still and such that i want to say reid meant to do something with it, but again, it was only brought up in mentions and never in a way that felt thematic to me, much less thematic in a macbeth way. they brought in madness a little bit at the end, but only, it seemed, to name-drop another theme (macbeth was “mad” because he was making erratic military decisions). it wasn’t discussed beyond that.
overall, this just doesn’t feel like macbeth to me, or that the author cares about macbeth as a story. i obviously don’t think retellings have to glorify or 100% agree with the original text - most of the time they do not, and that's what makes them compelling! - but i think they need to respect them and understand them (even if their understanding is different than mine). adaptation choices i don’t personally agree with are one thing; adaptations that don’t feel like they share a core with the original are another. this one feels like ava reid stripped macbeth down for superficial set dressing for the totally separate story she wanted to tell....more
i do like matter-of-fact takes on fairytale tropes. i think this did what it set out to do but didn't wow me. not generally a fan of downer endings uni do like matter-of-fact takes on fairytale tropes. i think this did what it set out to do but didn't wow me. not generally a fan of downer endings unless it's explicitly a tragedy (which this is not)...more
this was terrible! as expected. the only things that got me through it were a) rebecca soler narration and b) getting to send all the updates of everythis was terrible! as expected. the only things that got me through it were a) rebecca soler narration and b) getting to send all the updates of every stupid thing that happened to my friends and have them mock it with me (we had great fun mocking it).
i have all the winglets as individual short stories in goodreads but that's a lot of effort to add a new read date to them all at once and i listened i have all the winglets as individual short stories in goodreads but that's a lot of effort to add a new read date to them all at once and i listened to them collected this time sooo this version it is...more
i LOVED how the series resolved. it did a little bit of "the characters know the plan but you the reader does not know all of it" with some variation i LOVED how the series resolved. it did a little bit of "the characters know the plan but you the reader does not know all of it" with some variation along the lines of "you know xyz is part of the plan but not what the purpose is" and it does it in a way that is satisfying. the stone of shackles at the end? so clever and a lovely callback to book 1. i could do with some more resolution after everything is solved (more closure maybe? there are sooo many side characters and i want to know where more of them ended up. like furysong). however i could not stop reading bc i needed to know what happened and it was not at all a disappointing finale! senera and thurvishar are my favorites and i will always want more of them (i wanted more resolution with them too!! clearly they are hanging out together bc of the co-footnoting (which i adored) but !!)...more
definitely my favorite of the series so far. i wasn't too invested in the "past" plot they pulled the memories from, but i loved the dynamics between definitely my favorite of the series so far. i wasn't too invested in the "past" plot they pulled the memories from, but i loved the dynamics between those trapped in the lighthouse a LOT. the emotions were on point and the tight quarters, time sensitivity, and planning worked really well to draw them out.
a fair amount hinges on talea and shivan's relationship, but unfortunately that is not one that convinces me. however! i am absolutely obsessed with thurvishar and senera. my favorites. i love them so much their relationship is the best....more
having a great time with this series! i enjoyed this the most so far, probably for two reasons: one, the discrete groups of people we've been followinhaving a great time with this series! i enjoyed this the most so far, probably for two reasons: one, the discrete groups of people we've been following throughout all interact at various points to the highest degree they have so far. two, it felt the most "various separate active plots converge" of the three so far and i enjoy that a lot. thurvishar is my favorite character and coincidentally "thurvishar does interior design" is my favorite scene....more
i really need to reread the actual second arc, because most of the amusement i got out of this was through memory of the full scenes. also i loveeee wi really need to reread the actual second arc, because most of the amusement i got out of this was through memory of the full scenes. also i loveeee winter and qibli's dynamic but it's so out of focus here bc there's not enough space 3 also it was really hard to tell the icewings apart, which is understandable but did make it a little hard to follow at times...more
today i stood on the train platform and realized the two options for reading material on the commute were 1. chapter of shakespeare criticism i downlotoday i stood on the train platform and realized the two options for reading material on the commute were 1. chapter of shakespeare criticism i downloaded off jstor and 2. graphic novel adaptation of a dragon book for children. i think this encapsulates my taste in literature pretty well honestly.
i liked how they illustrated moon/darkstalker conversations since they're very literally just voices in moon's head, nothing overtly visual there to give the artist anything to use. otherwise i rly do think this one benefits from reading the actual novel bc moon thinks soooo much (and so does everyone else) (which moon is, coincidentally, also privy to) and you can't fit all of that in the graphic novel format to the extent that you'd be able to get that impact from the prose version. THOUGH! i did like how sometimes people's thoughts were just images in thought bubbles and demonstrated pretty well that there are all sorts of different thought formats moon has to sort through and translate....more
in direct contrast to my opinion on the dark secret, i think this one worked extremely well as a graphic novel. i also just really enjoy sunny's pov ain direct contrast to my opinion on the dark secret, i think this one worked extremely well as a graphic novel. i also just really enjoy sunny's pov and how she's the absolute best narrator for the culmination of the prophecy plot and how her personal arc lines up so nicely with those themes and now i want to reread the actual novel bc there's more theme/arc detail there for me to be !!!! about. (the graphic novel read was supposed to stop me from going to reread the whole series but i think it has done the opposite. oh well! stay tuned) (most of my other thoughts while reading were about the book itself rather than the graphic novel adaptation aspect so i shall save them for later)
also the several cinematic panels where we get all 5 dragonets,,, thank u mike holmes u know what the people want...more
feel like this one didn't work quite as well as a graphic novel (felt a little disjoint? maybe that's not quite the right word) but also this is my lefeel like this one didn't work quite as well as a graphic novel (felt a little disjoint? maybe that's not quite the right word) but also this is my least favorite of the first arc anyway so it could just be that. did appreciate how the illustrator at least tried to make the nightwings visually distinct...more
make kinkajou the most egregious highlighter yellow like god intended u cowards
being serious i think this is a fun one to adapt for graphic novel formmake kinkajou the most egregious highlighter yellow like god intended u cowards
being serious i think this is a fun one to adapt for graphic novel format since colors are so important and often described in the rainwing-centric book so now you get to see them...more
didn't think this one was AS great of an adaptation of the novel as the first one but still enjoyable and i liked the seawing dragon designsdidn't think this one was AS great of an adaptation of the novel as the first one but still enjoyable and i liked the seawing dragon designs...more
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