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Audiobook Review: As I Descended by Robin Talley


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Rating: 2.5 stars.

As I Descended was a decent Macbeth retelling, if a bit too loose.

As I Descended is about Maria, a girl who is competing for a scholarship against Delilah, who she believes doesn't deserve it. Maria's secret girlfriend, Lily, thinks so too and after they have a seance, the girls decide to take matters into their own hands and try to reveal the true nature of Delilah. But when murder results, they start to question whether it was a good idea.

I really only liked this book because of the similarities to Macbeth. Even then, it's hard to like it because it was only loosely based on the play.  I picked up this audiobook because I heard great things about how diverse it was. I do have to agree that As I Descended did have quite a bit of diversity and did it well. I think my favourite character in this book was Matteo. I have no idea if he's supposed to resemble a character from the Shakespearean play, but I liked him the best; he was the most sane.




I loved Macbeth when I had to read the play in high school. I think my favourite parts of the original Shakespeare play were the witches and watching the Macbeths fall into madness.
I was a little disappointed that this book focused more on ghosts rather than witches. I also found that I didn't find Maria and Lily's "madness" that satisfying. Maybe it's because I found it hard to really like them in the beginning of the novel. With the original play, you can really see the contrast between the character's original states of mind and their ending states. But in this book, Lily and Maria don't really experience that much of a change.

I found that the plot felt really unrealistic. I know it's a book about ghosts and the play never felt realistic either, but this is a modern retelling of a play about the supernatural: I'd like to think there would be a little bit of realism in it. What really bugged me was that none of the adults in the book, if there were any, really freaked out about all the deaths and injuries on campus. These characters had parents but they never really were a part of the story; they just did some things to affect their kids' lives at school.

I'd recommend this book if you liked Macbeth but want a YA spin on it.
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