This was an absolutely bonkers but utterly enjoyable YA read. A clever modern retake on Macbeth - basically The Craft but they actually kill people! I loved the concept and if I'd read this when I was 15, it would have been an obsessive, underlining key paragraphs read over and over again joy. It was so refreshing to read some YA that wasn't dystopia. romance or horror but where the female protagonists are properly challenging to read and properly angry and controversial. This book doesn't sit on the fence with its graphic violence, sexual assault, drug taking, drinking and manipulative narcissistic characters - but most of these things do actually happen at high school, just not to this extent.

Where this book fell down for me was that the stream of consciousness POV starts on such a high point that it has nowhere to go with pacing, it's so incessant that the intensity almost wears off and loses its impact on the reader. There were times - in the middle - where I could skip through paragraphs and pages whilst I waited for the action to properly continue. But this is a minor style criticism because like I say, it was so refreshing to read something so properly bold and controversial and angry. Capin has done a great job and I'd definitely read something by her again because she's not been afraid to take us right into the heart of darkness with her, when so many would pull back.

A good, challenging read.

I really liked the premise of this novel, however, fount it really difficult to read - it was the style of book that I found a little offputting! I recommend this novel for those looking for a millennial thrill ride with some twists that may not be suitable for everyone but results in a good ending.

FULL REVIEW: https://wordsunfilteredbys.com/2019/12/20/foul-is-fair/


this, first of all, is a book you have definitely got to read. bare in mind, it does go into detail about things which may be triggering for some.

i don’t know where to begin.

i–

this book tore my heart out into so many little pieces and stomped on it, before slowly beginning to mend it. as Elle slowly got her revenge. as those golden boys began to pay.

but from the very beginning, i fell in love with Hannah Capin’s writing. her style took my breath away.

It's Elle's sixteenth birthday. All she wanted was to party and make great memories. But her memories soon turned to nightmares when she woke up battered and bruised. Her drink had been spiked. She remembers being pinned down by several boys. Elle now calls herself Jade and she plans to get her revenge on the boys who attacked her.

There is a trigger warning page at the beginning of the book. Jade and a group of friends set out for revenge on the boys that attacked her. The teenagers are stereotypical rich kids. This is a fast paced, dark and creepy read. The story is loosely based on Macbeth.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Random House UK Children's and the author Hannah Chapin for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me at female revenge, then I discovered that it is a feminist retelling of Macbeth. Sign me up!

When sixteen year old Elle is raped at a party, she vows to take revenge on the boys who did this to her. Her girl gang, or 'coven', become Shakespeare's three witches, while she transforms into Jade, a young Lady Macbeth, determined to get justice, and not by halves. She wants to kill the boys, and set up their friend, golden boy Macbeth for the murders.

What follows is a thriller of epic proportions. It is utterly unrealistic, with all the drama of Gossip Girl or Cruel Intentions, alongside the blood and murder of a Tarantino film. Yet move past whether it is believable and it becomes so much fun, bursting with passion and female rage. The links to Macbeth are cleverly woven in, elevating it beyond the ridiculous and giving it a higher sense of purpose. It is a fantastic revenge fantasy, a wonderful story of female friendship, and a vengeful, violent thriller. Yes it is over the top, and no it definitely won't be for everyone. It is dark and disturbing, but it is also exactly what I needed, and what I would have loved, in my teens. Screw 'girl power', everything about this book is badass.

This book is for every woman who has ever been told to smile, or wolf whistled at in the street. It is brimming with anger not just passively at the injustices, but more specifically the Brock Turners and Brett Kavanaugh's of the world, who think they can or seem to get away with it. Don't take it too seriously or you've missed the point of this, book which is very simply raw, powerful and a hell of a lot of fun.

In a Los Angeles located privileged group of mean and powerful teen girls, the world is their oyster until Elizabeth Jade Khanjara, known as Elle, crashes a St Andrew's Prep Party on her sweet 16th birthday, with her friends, Jenny, Summer and Mads. She is raped and assaulted by 4 boys after her drink is spiked. Her memory fragmented and elusive, Elle becomes Jade, with her new short revenge black hair, she is no victim, no survivor, and with the unswerving support of her loyal coven of sisters, she swears a raw, bloody, unforgiving take down of those who thought they could act with such lawless, arrogant, impunity. They picked the wrong girl. In this feminist re-interpretation of Macbeth, those familiar with the play will recognise quotes and characters from Shakespeare's play in the novel.

As Jade enrols at St Andrew's as the new girl, the guilty parties have been identified, presided over by king golden boy, Duncan, and his gang of corrupt lacrosse sport team jocks, with their rigid ranked hierarchy. Until now, they have been the untouchables with their guaranteed golden futures, not any more. Spells are cast, if fair is foul, then foul becomes fair as Jade and her coven scheme, manipulate, and ruthlessly exploit the weaknesses of their enemies, identifying Andrew Mack as a key weapon to bring about their death, destruction, madness and mayhem. As fear and guilt begin to insidiously take hold of Duncan and his boys, Jade and Mack become an item, prophecies are made that tempt, corrupt and beguile, promising a new order to come. There are ghosts, daggers, and hands that refuse to be washed of the glistening red blood as toil and trouble take over in St Andrews.

Hannah Capin's prose is as sharp as broken pieces of jagged glass, poetic, and dramatic, all primary colours and monochrome. She takes our contemporary world issues with its sports men who have eluded justice when it comes to their unforgivably brutal crimes against women and girls, and weaved a dark narrative of a no holds barred, blood thirsty revenge, drawing on Macbeth for its inspiration. Jade and her coven are not women that can be ignored, they are bright, intelligent and deadly. You mess with them at your peril as Duncan and his group are to discover, but far too late to save themselves. This is a compulsive and memorable read which I will not forget in a hurry. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Penguin Random House UK for an ARC.

An over the top rollercoaster ride of revenge and raw, powerful female fury. Think Tarantino on steroids remaking Heathers after re-reading Macbeth. It's *that* good.

I like books that are written in a slightly strange style. This one was quirky and odd. It took a bit of time to get into it, the sentences are staccato short, giving the novel an hurried abrupt feel. This is a tale of revenge and empowerment. It's dark and twisted - but so fresh and interesting!

I found the writing style quite hard to follow, and wasn’t always sure whether Jade was imagining things or retelling them. That said, the story is compelling, if somewhat far fetched, but once I made the Macbeth connection it made sense a bit more, as otherwise I was struggling that no one anywhere appeared to have a conscious, apart from Mack. If I’m honest I’m still not 100% sure what happened in the lead up to the end, with Piper, Lilia and Jade/Elle’s hospitalisation, but I did enjoy it and it certainly kept my attention.

This was a fantastically dark revenge tale, I loved the over dramatic twisty prep school way that this story is told. I loved the writing and characterizations and how mean girls are celebrated for doing what needs to be done.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Penguin for the opportunity to review Foul is Fair.

I really enjoyed this Macbeth retelling. The addition of the #MeToo storyline, with a dark thriller (another review mentions Kill Bill which is a spot on comparison!) had me hooked.

I truly felt for Elle/Jade toward the end of the book, although she was a very difficult character to get on with in the beginning! I would’ve loved to have learned more about Lilia and her story as it seemed to be brought in when needed - if you got rid of that character story altogether, the overall plot wouldn’t really be changed.

The writing is a bit melodramatic and I was definitely confused for a few chapters as to whether this had an element of fantasy within it - and I’m not sure whether I’m certain now.

Another smaller issue (for the publisher) is that any “ff”’s didn’t show up in my e-book - hopefully that will be corrected in the final version.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I did enjoy reading this book, though I found the writing quite melodramatic. As a modern retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth, Caplin explores what might happen if Lady Macbeth's motivation was a #metoo story. Prep school, as an entitled and privileged environment, is the perfect place to set this kind of story, and Caplin does make the retelling enjoyable, but for me it's at the expense of believable characters. The book is highly stylised so this may be part of the point, but I wanted a bit more depth. As a revenge retelling though, it does work.

This is a feisty retelling of Macbeth set against the background of a gang rape at an American college, St Andrews. Ellie, the Lady Macbeth in this version, gatecrashes a party with her gang, Jenny, Summer and Mads. Ellie's drink is spiked and she is brutally raped and the book is about her seeking and taking revenge. Macbeth? The rapists are called Duncan and Banks and the person Ellie procures to murder them is called Mack.

Ellie changes her name to Jade, signs on at the College where this happened and begins to plot. Her gang play the part of the witches, neatly using text messages to plant ideas in the minds of these relatively dim but swaggering boys. For the most part, it all works out and there are several bloody deaths while Mack has to be bullied and cajoled to keep to the sticking point!

It's a clever idea but a little hard to sustain. For a start, everyone involved is relatively young, they are rich and have cars, their parents are conveniently absent for the most part, and the college simply provides a background seemingly not much worried about all these murders. You need a fair bit of willing suspension of disbelief to go along with all this!

The style is constantly sharp, brittle edged, and there's a lot of profanity, blood and self harming apart from the murders, but it's a good representation of utterly vengeful rage and if you can accept the metaphors, a tendency to miss out the odd linking word and a lot of blood, bone, flames and stone it's a compelling read. Hannah Capin also drops in a bit of additional Shakespearean reference and language along the way just to keep the story rolling.

Another thing in its favour is the topicality of appalling behaviour in American fraternities and the misogyny of 'college boys'. It will make some people want to cheer the witches on!  Anyway, if you enjoyed Macbeth (and it certainly helps to know something about the Scottish play) then there is no guarantee that this will appeal but it's a clever conceit, consistently delivered and it might yet make a series on Netflix! If it does, you can always say that you read it first!

I don't often step away from books I'm struggling with, but I found this intolerable to read and had to stop at only 8% in. I requested Foul is Fair because I thought it sounded very dark and exciting. I thought it would be fun. However, I found the writing style to be terrible and the characters unlikable. The descriptions, dialogue and actions seem stupid and gratuitous. Edgy just the sake of it which comes off as rather cringeworthy to read. It also seems wholly unrealistic. I do enjoy YA Fiction, but sometimes I'm just certainly not the target audience and I feel that this is one of those times. Despite my disdain for the book, I imagine many teens will actually love it, including the way it's written.

Foul is Fair embedded itself into my heart. This is a book that I won't be forgetting anytime soon and it became an instant favourite.

Jade Khanjara and her three best friends rule their glittering LA circle. They decide how the party ends - every night but one. The night four boys spike Jade's drink, lock her in a room and brutally attack her. The night they try to ruin her.

But they chose the wrong girl. Certain that the boys will face no consequences, Jade and her friends take vengeance into their own hands. There's no mercy left: and now Jade won't rest until she gets bloody satisfaction.

This book burns with righteous rage, so much so that you can almost feel the heat searing off the pages and into your soul. It grapples with our misogynistic society and rape culture through the lens of a modern day Macbeth re-telling wherein Lady Macbeth takes on her own Taratino-eque revenge thriller.

Jade is such an excellent protagonist, complex and nuanced. You can't help but root for her, despite her manipulative and destructive nature, as after all the boys brought it on themselves to an extent.

Capin's writing is exquisite - all at once lyrical, fantastical and devastating honest and raw. I was highlighting so many quotes of this sumptuous writing and will be doing more when I buy my finished copy.

Foul is Fair is a primal scream of a book that you cannot help but read.

Full review will be up on my blog nearer publication date.

I loved this book. If you like dark, dark books where you have to set your morality aside at the door, then you'll love Foul is Fair and you'll love Jade and her coven. These girls are out for revenge, and they'll do anything to get it. The timescale seems a little far-fetched, it only takes something like two weeks for Jade to infiltrate, manipulate and destroy these boys, but honestly that's pretty in-keeping with the ridiculous time-scale in Macbeth so I'm fine with it. I love Macbeth and this book is Macbeth rewritten with female power in mind.

All of the characters in this book are inhuman, witches and monsters and killers, and maybe that's why it's so easy to suspend your morals and enjoy this tale of revenge. I wanted Jade to get her revenge, and if she'd roped me into this, I'd be right there with her. It's over the top, but it's meant to be, violent and gruesome and downright evil, and it still manages to be funny in places and empowering too as Jade re-invents herself from victim to killer.

This book was a wild, fucked up read, and I hope there's more from Hannah Capin coming. I'll be adding Dead Queen's Club to my to buy list as soon as I can find a UK link to it.

My Kindle refused to accept any typing of “ff” in this book, leading the name Duffy to read as ‘Du Y’. It took me until 19% through this book to realise that Du Y was not a Chinese name that I hadn’t heard before, but that the book was actually a Macbeth retelling.

This book knows it’s fantastical, that in real life these events could never occur, but it’s an amazing read, with the lyricalness of a true Shakespeare play. Elle/Jade was a wonderful character to read – ruthless and angry and manipulative, an easy character to fuck up by a lesser writer. Capin makes her sympathetic, even as she murders her way through St Andrews.

Side note, lesbian trans characters? In my Shakespeare retellings? It’s more likely than you think.

Overall, I give this book 4 stars. I couldn’t put it down (and read it under my desk at work), but I did find that some of the characters blended into one, with Jenny and Summer serving the same purpose, much like Banks/Duncan – It took me a while to figure out which boy was which. Still, it was so unique, and I would definitely recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

This book will absolutely find its audience. And they will eat it up. I, however, am not the right reader. I find it nearly unreadable it is trying so hard. No one talks like this, no one thinks like this. This reads like a comic book without the advantage of the form. It is all soap opera cutaways and PLL-level-over-the-top and it is unbearable.

DNF @ 20%
Thanks Penguin for approving my request to read and review this title. I'm not generally the biggest fan of YA fiction but I requested this one thinking I may like it based on the dark subject matter and the rave reviews that I was reading and hearing.
Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me. I wasn't on board with the writing style and because I found the writing style so odd, I just wasn't connecting with the story.
Again, thanks for giving me the opportunity to try this one.
Due to the fact that I DNF this book, I won't be writing and publishing any reviews on social media.
I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing more of your titles in the future.

Netgalley marketed this as ‘feminist, man-hating filth’ so of course I had to read it. I hadn’t seen anything else about it, so I was delighted to realise it was a modern, feminist slant on Macbeth.

I would say it’s not actually super feminist, mostly because these are young teens who still berate other women for being different kinds of women to them. But apart from that, it's wonderful. And not TERFy, which is even better.

It’s always fun to watch chaos, and chaos this is. I love a good revenge fantasy and I have a lot of love for Lady Macbeth and here she lets loose her anger and frustrations. Is it realistic? Hell no, but who cares. These women have a plot and a plan and will do anything to make it happen.

My only (minor) gripe is that the MC is lightly coded as South Asian (which yay inclusion), yet using only a hair change, coloured contacts and contouring makeup makes herself completely unrecognisable to everyone. I’m not sure how many other South Asian’s there are meant to be at this super posh school, but I doubt it’s that many that she can disappear and be forgotten/unrecognised so easily.

TW: for sexual assault, blood, violence, murder.