I think that I was not the intended target audience for this book. I think a younger audience would definitely enjoy this.

Aside from that, there were many plot inconsistencies which took me out of the story.

Stunning - deliciously dark, dangerous and Shakespearean.

Appearances can be deceiving... if you didn't know before starting that this was a modern take on Macbeth, it would become apparent before long.

This is NOT for the faint-hearted, or for anyone expecting a light teen romance. You could not read anything further from that description. While it just about shys away from deeply graphic content, know from the off that this contains scenes of rape, violence, murder. And it's absolutely brilliantly done.

Elle is about as resilient, resourceful and razor-sharp as they come. After she and her friends crash a 'prep school' party on her sixteenth birthday and she is badly assaulted, she and her 'coven' immediately swear revenge. With their assistance, Elle switches schools and begins using her wiles and charms to infiltrate the popular group, intent on splitting loyalties, sowing distrust and rancour. She is going to make sure every last one of them pays for what they did.

And it's just delicious. While nobody in real life will condone this sort of amoral amoral payback, it's cathartic and satisfying to watch Shakespeare's dark story play out among the privileged, entitled teens of St Andrew's.

I didn't feel that any of Elle's coven really stood out as a character in their own right - they are the witches, with Elle taking centre stage as the duplicitous Lady Macbeth, manipulating behind the scenes. None of her opponents at St Andrew's are anywhere near as well-drawn or interesting. Elle is brutal. She is beautiful and knows how to use this. She is sly, scheming, smart and never less than sympathetic. You cheer her on.

Highly entertaining in its dark humour and intentions. Get your Shakespeare fix here. Not for younger teens really, I would recommend to age 14 and above. And adults - you'll love it.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy.

The first thing it feels necessary to say is this: if you don’t like reading about sexual assault or violence, this is definitely not the book for you. The entire story centres around Jade being raped at a party and, although the rape isn’t graphically described and doesn’t happen on the page, it’s still not the most comfortable thing to read.

‘Every teenage girl thinks she and her friends are the mean girls, the ice queens, the wicked witches, but Jenny and Summer and Mads and me – we’re what they wish they were.
Savage.’

Everyone knows what the St. Andrew’s Prep boys get up to at the notorious parties they throw and their behaviour goes unchallenged. In fact, it’s a bit of a joke. One of the boys posts comments on their public Instagram pages alluding to their lewd behaviour, but they’ve still never experienced any repercussions.

Until now.

Foul is Fair is a pull no punches attack on rape culture. The morning after she is attacked, Jade gathers her coven around her and tells them how she wants to get her revenge: by killing all of the people who hurt her. Not only the boys who put their hands all over her and used her body without her permission, but the ones that allowed them to get away with it. The boy who stood outside and guarded the room they were in. The girl who left her alone with them, knowing exactly what they were going to do. The boy who crushed up a pill and spiked her drink.

And, if she can ever remember what he looks like, the boy who handed the drink to her.

This was an empowering novel. No, I’m not suggesting that you get revenge on the people who wrong you by murdering them, but you can’t lie and tell me that you’ve never been tempted.

I thought it was brilliant to see a character who had experienced something traumatic and wasn’t excluding everyone around them and keeping it to themselves. Before they even leave the party Jade has told her friends what she has experienced, and they support her unquestioningly. She then tells her parents the next morning, telling them that she wants to be able to deal with it herself, which they accept.

Quietly supportive parents in YA are rare – either parents don’t appear at all or they want the character to deal with their ordeal the way they think they should, rather than the way that they want to – and I thought this was one of the best things about Foul is Fair (along with the fact that Jade goes to the hospital to get checked out – something that is weirdly overlooked when characters experience sexual assault).

So many of the little choices Capin made elevated this novel. Mads is trans, while Jenny is in love with Summer (even though Summer doesn’t know it yet) and it’s great to read a story featuring LGBTQ+ characters whose identities are simply accepted.

As you can tell, there were a lot of things I appreciated about Hannah Capin’s second novel, but the one reason I didn’t give it five stars was because of the “mystery” surrounding the identity of the final boy. If you don’t guess it within the first couple of chapters I’ll be surprised, and I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to believe that Jade herself wouldn’t have figured it out faster.

This book is wacky in the best kind of way, and it’s hard to resist gasping in shock at the audacious things Jade gets up to in her quest for revenge. Despite the dark subject matter Foul is Fair is a highly entertaining read, and if you’re someone who enjoys reading Shakespeare you’ll have fun seeing the clever ways that Hannah Capin brings the story into the modern age. It definitely feels like there must be a sequel on the way, and I can’t express how much I’m looking forward to picking it up.

For fans of: Asking For It by Louise O’Neill, Undone by Cat Clarke

Feminist interpretation of Macbeth with a dose of Kill Bill. I mean, Quentin Tarantino would be impressed.

A 16-year-old girl is gang raped by a group of privileged preppy boys and embarks on revenge. This was twisted, it was crazy, and you know what? I loved it.

Hannah Capin has taken an extremely serious subject and made it a feminist blood thirsty need for revenge. These girls are not dim witted. They are smart, they are deadly and cunning, and they will stop at nothing to take their power back.

On the dark side of literature and yes, this book will not be for everyone. Some of the scenes were so over the top (and I’m tempted to insert a spoiler here to prove my point -but I won’t) but that was the whole point of it. It was not meant to mirror reality in any form and that is why this fantasy revenge was so good.

Her words were poetic, with a jagged edge quality. Razor sharp sentences that mirrored Shakespearian literature. This fusion of the old with the new was brilliant and I really admired the authors ability to achieve this with such finesse.

My only one set back? The UK cover is no way as epic as they US.

Sweet 16. Deadly. Claws sharpened and ready to play.

Zubs

I absolutely fucking adored this book. It COMPLETELY lived up to my expectations and as someone who was studying Macbeth I loved getting the references. It was so fierce and gorgeous and crazy - just WOW. It was so amazingly feminist and murdery, the prose was gorgeous, atmospheric and lyrical and the characters were immediately enigmatic and impossible not to adore.

Not my kind of story. About a group of girls who set out to take revenge on a group of boys. one of the girls was raped by the boys on her 16th birthday at a party which the girls had gate crashed.

5 Words Review: Revenge, friendship, manipulation, family, misogyny.
Content warning: Off page sexual assault, misogyny, rape culture, abusive relationships, bullying, transphobia, suicide, substance abuse, violence, gore.

I think that Foul is Fair is one of those marmite books - you'll either love it or hate it. And from the very first page, I loved it.

Foul is Fair is exactly my type of book. It needs those content warnings, and the author has a detailed breakdown on their own website. It is dark, so very dark, and it is full of vengeance. It's brutal and packs a punch, it doesn't hold back. It's theatrical and fast paced, and I loved how the Shakespearean influence came through and really complimented the story. Jade is understandably a very angry narrator - and she has a lot to be angry about.

One thing I particularly liked about this story was the way friendship was explored. Jade is A Lot, and this was shown particularly in how she interacted with both her actual friends (her coven) and the group she was inserting herself in to.

After reading Foul is Fair I will definitely be checking out the author's other book. I just loved their writing style so much.

One small thing I want to throw out there is that I think I prefer the UK cover - it's sharp and subtle and has such impact. It reminds me of some of the RSC posters I've seen in the past too, particularly the font. Don't get me wrong, both covers are absolutely gorgeous, but in a bookshop it's the UK one I'd grab. What do you think?

A gripping YA tale of revenge. Despite the dark and twisted nature of the story, I liked this a lot. Jade is a wonderful character and the writing is amazing and unique.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a highly stylised novel. I think I expected it to change in tone as it went on, but it stayed the same throughout. The problem is, when every scene is written as if it's the height of drama, the scenes that actually are dramatic seem less so.

Very little feels grounded in any semblance of actual reality.

I can't quite put my finger on why but it didn't succeed for me. Hints of Heathers or Jawbreaker, but not as successful - but then those references show that I'm probably too old to enjoy this. It doesn't quite work as a fable and it's not quite enough to be anything else.

The Macbeth references were too much for my personal taste - not subtle or particularly well done.

I think this needed to be slightly more tongue in cheek, or knowing. What should have been entertaining revenge just fell a bit flat.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I liked how this book centred on survivors and had a main character who wouldn't necessarily be considered likeable, because I don't think all women need to be liked and it was nice to see a fierce, brutal woman at the centre of this book. However, I did think that the plot kind of lagged, and I wasn't a massive fan of the ending. I also didn't think the writing was the greatest.

I couldn't put this down because I had no clue where it was going. I've never read anything written in this style before but I think it worked with the storyline - which although felt very unrealistic I still enjoyed because I just went with it!

"I whisper, sweet, "You picked the wrong girl."

Where to even start? This book was...an experience. I didn't really like Jade (Elle) at first, I just couldn't take to her. Then I realised she'd been raped by 4 teenage boys and I wanted her to kill them one by one. This story is brutal, it's twisted, it's deeply unsettling and quite scary in places and made me wonder frequently if I was trusting the wrong characters - but I couldn't put it down and it's still on my mind days after reading it. I appreciated the few contrasting gentle moments in Foul is Fair, particularly the ones between Jade and her parents. The female solidarity in this book is fierce and powerful and I particularly liked the way Hannah Capin has written a trans girl into the story without turning her into a stereotype or a caricature, she's actually my favourite character in the story. Would I read Foul is Fair again? Not for a while...no. Would I read more books by Hannah Capin? Definitely.

"Bravery isn't being fearless - it's swallowing the fear and spitting it back out."

A story of a girl and her friends. Boys think they have control but watch who they mess with. Revenge is a dessert best served cold.

A raw, real, ruthless read. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
The writing style is hard hitting , dark, raw which it needs to be due to the nature of this book
Here is a book not for the faint hearted.
Many thanks to both NetGalley and publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

This book had been on my radar almost as soon as it was announced, as I had heard fantastic things about Hannah's debut (though I still haven't managed to get a copy of it), and I love the idea of a modern retelling of Lady Macbeth. In Foul is Fair, the main character, Elle, goes to a party held by the infamous students of St Andrew's Prep for her 16th birthday, with her sisters, Mads, Summer, and Jenny. While there, they all get separated, and Elle get's drugged and raped by the golden boys, led by their king, Duncan. Now, Elle was the wrong girl to attack, and she reinvents herself as Jade, enrolling in St Andrew's to take them down from the inside, and by take them down, I don't just mean knock them down a peg, but actually kill them. There's a target on the boy's heads (Duncan, Duffy, Banks, and Conner, as well as anyone else who was an accomplice, including wannabe queen, Piper), and Jade is going to get one of their own, Mack, to turn and do her dirty, in true Lady Macbeth style.

I did definitely enjoy this book, but it took some getting into. Elle/Jade is an anti-hero, and her and the coven weren't characters I immediately was drawn too. Until the main action started, I think I was probably skimming the sections that was wholly them four. Once you got to St Andrew's and met the Court and the hangers on, including Lilia, who I liked, and sweet, sweet Mack, that's when my interest was piqued, and I found myself getting through it a lot faster. Jade does grow on you, especially once her murderess nature comes out, and people start to fall. If you enjoy the source material, or any of the film adaptations that have been made about Macbeth (the 2015 one is my favourite, with Marion Cotillard portraying a perfect Lady Macbeth), this is a book for you!

I would definitely NOT have liked or been friends with these girls in real life. BUT as fictional characters, I loved reading about them! They are fierce and loyal, and frankly wonderful to journey along with. All of the characters are not great people, and part of that is the world they all live in - a very opulent one, full of absent parents, privilege and trust funds.

I did love Elle / Jade and her coven, and that they referred to themselves as such hehe. And I loved how they protect each other, sometimes even from themselves.
Obviously this book does deal with some very serious topics - rape and abuse etc, and does deal with them well. I would not necessarily recommend this book as a guide on how to deal with them though! Hehe.

This book is wonderfully full of violence, revenge, and a messed up version of justice that I strangely loved. It felt like a book I needed to read - a way of dealing with some of the extremities of life, that I have luckily not personally experienced. It is dark, but tempered by humour. it is glorious.

This modern sort-of retelling of Macbeth flies along nicely, easy to read and engaging in its own way. We follow Elizabeth Jade, initially known as Elle but soon reinvented as just Jade, and her group of close friends (known to each other as 'the coven') as they work to exact Jade's revenge on a group of high school jocks for their actions towards her at a party.

There were some nice little touches in here as far as references to Macbeth go (I especially liked the way Mack and Banks' first meeting with the three girls was handled) but, perhaps as a high school English teacher who knows Macbeth inside out, I actually found the main connections to the original plot quite distracting and was pulled out of the story by them. It's also, in its style, one of the most stereotypically YA novels I've read in a long time (and I read a lot of YA).

I can see this being really successful with older teenage girls but it wasn't really right for this Xennial.

A retelling of Macbeth with a teenage cast, which was very brutal. It was well done, but hard to read.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

It wasn’t a bad book by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn’t for me. I’d say this book is aimed at the young adult market rather than someone in their early forties.

The book itself was somewhere between cruel intentions and American Horror story and is based on the main character Elle seeking revenge following a brutal attack by a bunch of high school boys on her 16th birthday. The boys involved are your stereotypical rich kids who are use to getting what they want, but they soon start to panic and fight amongst themselves when Elle starts her revenge mission. Book is fast paced enough, but wasn’t for me

Savage reworking of Macbeth for teenagers which doesn't hold back. The narrator gets revenge in the most brutal way possible. A very uncomfortable read that drags you along to the bitter end.