rikajewellee's review against another edition
2.0
my first experience with robin talley turned out to be not what i expected. i don't know if i will continue reading her books.
this book wasn't horrible but it wasn't good. the couple wasn't my favorite as well.
this book wasn't horrible but it wasn't good. the couple wasn't my favorite as well.
freja_ts's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like the author totally knew where she was going with this book, but became unsure of how to get there and just kinda wrote it anyway.
Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention or maybe it's all some clever Macbeth ref that I don't understand
Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention or maybe it's all some clever Macbeth ref that I don't understand
chrissireads's review against another edition
3.0
I absolutely loved Robin Talley’s debut novel, but was a little disappointed by her second release. However, the synopsis of this book had me easily gripped and I knew I had to read it. I also really enjoy retellings and I was intrigued by the modern take on Macbeth.
As I Descended takes place at a boarding school. Our main characters use a Ouija board and that is the catalyst to the madness…Although this story is told from multiple points of view, Maria is the main focus of this story. She is determined to take down Delilah, who is the front runner for the Kingsley Prize, a scholarship for college. It will give her more time with Lily, her girlfriend. Maria and Lily work hard to make sure Maria gets that prize, no matter what it takes. The story definitely takes a turn for the worse when creepy things begin to happen….
I really enjoy Robin Talley’s writing style, she created such a wonderfully chilling atmosphere, I just had to keep turning the pages. I absolutely loved the diversity in the characters. As a reader, you can find LGBT characters and also a character with a physical disability.
If you don’t know much about Macbeth then it really doesn’t matter. I know the plot of Macbeth, but I’ve never read it and it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story.
As I Descended takes place at a boarding school. Our main characters use a Ouija board and that is the catalyst to the madness…Although this story is told from multiple points of view, Maria is the main focus of this story. She is determined to take down Delilah, who is the front runner for the Kingsley Prize, a scholarship for college. It will give her more time with Lily, her girlfriend. Maria and Lily work hard to make sure Maria gets that prize, no matter what it takes. The story definitely takes a turn for the worse when creepy things begin to happen….
I really enjoy Robin Talley’s writing style, she created such a wonderfully chilling atmosphere, I just had to keep turning the pages. I absolutely loved the diversity in the characters. As a reader, you can find LGBT characters and also a character with a physical disability.
If you don’t know much about Macbeth then it really doesn’t matter. I know the plot of Macbeth, but I’ve never read it and it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story.
j_m_boyer's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This retelling of Macbeth is instantly intriguing, the wlw romance adds to the narrative and kept breaking my heart with every page. I don’t want to say too much because I loved it- but it is another ‘kids in a special high school,’ YA book and that caused some disconnect for me. Otherwise it was haunting and an overall delightful read.
jbaileyclark's review against another edition
3.0
I'm giving it a 3 star rating because while it was awesome to read a book with queer leads that wasn't focused all on the romance, I don't feel like it always had the best flow. It was a quick, read though!
liralen's review against another edition
3.0
I love Talley's books conceptually, but so far I haven't been super enthusiastic about the results. Here, all the elements sound right—boarding school, characters who are non-white, characters with disabilities, multiple queer relationships, a Macbeth retelling, ghosts, an author unafraid to let her characters be unlikable—but it never really connected for me. I suspect a big part of it is that last list item: it's such a great thing to have protagonists who do unlikable things...but you have to be able to sympathise with them as well, and I'm not sure I ever got to know any of the characters well enough to do that. These are characters ready to kill, from quite early on in the book, and yet the motivation boils down to 'eliminate the competition for a scholarship virtually nobody in the book needs'.
I'll keep reading. Talley's premises are too promising for me to stay away. But...I'll do so hoping for just a bit more relatability in the the next book.
I'll keep reading. Talley's premises are too promising for me to stay away. But...I'll do so hoping for just a bit more relatability in the the next book.
lauren_shilling's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
sarsev's review against another edition
2.0
If you're here for a spooky, ghost-filled boarding school story, with lesbian protagonists, then you'll probably have a great time with this one. The writing is good, the characters are interesting, there are indeed a lot of ghosts, and teenagers being ambitious and brutal makes for a good story.
But I was here looking for an adaptation of MacBeth and this...really misses that mark.
Somewhere in the process of trying to make the protagonists of As I Descended sympathetic, the story as an adaptation stopped working. Because MacBeth is about committing completely unforgivable acts in the pursuit of desires that cannot be satisfied through better means. It's about murder and guilt and corruption. And taking that weight of responsibility and immorality off of Maria, in order to make her less culpable and more relatable, throws a wrench in the whole story.
Which makes me think that this shouldn't have been an adaptation at all - because as a boarding school ghost story with a diverse cast, this is actually a very enjoyable book. But I was looking for a Shakespeare adaptation, and this doesn't really work as one.
(Though it probably would've helped if I had spent less time studying Shakespeare in undergrad).
But I was here looking for an adaptation of MacBeth and this...really misses that mark.
Somewhere in the process of trying to make the protagonists of As I Descended sympathetic, the story as an adaptation stopped working. Because MacBeth is about committing completely unforgivable acts in the pursuit of desires that cannot be satisfied through better means. It's about murder and guilt and corruption. And taking that weight of responsibility and immorality off of Maria, in order to make her less culpable and more relatable, throws a wrench in the whole story.
Which makes me think that this shouldn't have been an adaptation at all - because as a boarding school ghost story with a diverse cast, this is actually a very enjoyable book. But I was looking for a Shakespeare adaptation, and this doesn't really work as one.
(Though it probably would've helped if I had spent less time studying Shakespeare in undergrad).