There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley. 

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. 
Natalie.

Not my type of book. A revenge plot, with some pretty twisted stuff in there. Missed the mark for me.

Audacious, brutal, darkly horrific and uncomfortable to read at times. Do be sure to read the other reviews to ensure this is the book for you. The Macbeth themes run throughout but with a gratingly evil modern twist. If you are a person with strong, pure morals, don't read this fantasy-revenge shockfest! Did I like it? I'm not sure?! Would I recommend it?! To a select few!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

You’ll get the inevitable people who call this book ‘preachy’ but the sad reality is is that the story contained in this book is all too common and all too real for today’s young people. However the author doesn’t let the book come across as a ‘cautionary tale’ or a ‘lesson’. It’s a timely, important story written as a revenge thriller with a very important message. Young people need to read stories like this and know their worth, and this story stealthily sends that message. Supremely readable too. The style and character’s voices are so vivid and real that you’ll feel like you’re spending time with your own friends. Great book.

A dark, twisted modern retelling of Shakespeare‘s Macbeth - the perspective of Jade (lady Macbeth) was a great touch. I loved the coven, the power of girls together to work together to punish those who wronged them is a strong message that I think will resonate with young adults who read this book.

Where do I begin with Foul is Fair?  The premise of the story was one that had intrigued me wholeheartedly.  A revenge thriller with a feministic twist.  A classic retelling based upon Macbeth that became darker and darker the further you travelled through its pages.  I want to include a trigger warning about the book before I go any further – It is a revenge tale after a sexual assault.  The premise is one that I would have expected to grab me and hold me hostage but the preceding emotion it left me with is an uncontrollable anger – the narrative within the story could be quite dangerous.

It unfortunately, was not what I was expecting.  I had hoped for a read that would leave me feeling empowered, a sense of strength pulsating from within but it fell flat, and the actions carried out were unnecessary and brutal.  Foul Is Fair was written in such a way that the survival of sexual assault and trauma should be retaliated in actions that were wholly unhealthy and catapults the victim to a level that is on par with the perpetrator.  This book was not enjoyable.  The way in which sexual assault is handled by everyone close to Jade/Elle is quite frankly repulsive. 

The one true thing that galls me the most.  The one aspect I could not look past if I tried, is the fact that her parents were told about the assault and they did nothing. NOTHING.  I mean as a parent isn’t it your job/responsibility to do what is best for your child whether they ask you not to do something or not.  I would want the scum to put behind bars the minute I found out.  The parents seem to be an influential aspect (definitely not a positive one) into why she takes this course of action over reporting it – they seem standoffish and there social standing being of more import than the serious situation slapping them about the face.

Just for one minute imagine a young adult reading this book and taking the very wrong decision not to report a serious sexual assault.  She was a child and she was seriously let down but those that supposed to care for her. 

Revenge as imagined in Foul Is Fair seems to be without consequence.  Murder a bunch of people and not be afflicted with the human emotion of guilt or remorse…once again what does this say about the way she has been brought up?  Revenge hardly ever benefits anyone.  Murder is still murder.  It hurts those around you, it maims you psychologically and this book just left bewildered and deeply angry.

I received a free ebook version of this book through Netgalley. Thankyou to both Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this! My review is still honest.

This book is totally unlike anything I've ever read before. It's dark and sad and empowering and disturbing. It's the inner feminist's secret revenge fantasy against all the horrible men that unfortunately exist in the world.
Foul is Fair follows Jade, a girl with 3 very close best friends who is drugged and raped at a party by 4 boys. Jade then moves to the perpetrator's school in order to ensure the deaths of all those involved in what happened to her.
This is the kind of story where you can't help but root for the main character, despite all the dark and disturbing stuff they are doing. I loved how amazingly clever, cruel and manipulative Jade was and I loved her strength in the face of horrible things that have happened to her. She's so unique in the YA genre. It's a new, original spin on the dark popular high school clique plot. The coven themselves were badass too, and there are some complex characters, particularly Mack. I loved the small aspects of LGBT representation too-one of Jade's coven is trans and there is a small LGBT romance rep.
I will say that this writing style is a little odd and hard to lose yourself in. It's a little stop-startand disjointed, but the story itself and the characters are great. It's just not really one that would be easy to binge read.

I really enjoyed this! 

A modern-day version of Macbeth, this book includes great female characters and a fantastic revenge story with a little twisted humour thrown in for good measure!

This book wasnt for me. A group of girls set out to take revenge on a group of boys as they raped one of the girls. I didnt like the style of writing and think it would suit more of a younger age.

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.