As I Descended

As I Descended (love the title) is a reimagined YA LGBT version of Macbeth. Instead of Scottish castles we get a female Macbeth, Maria, and her girlfriend Lady Macbeth aka Lily as they try to win the ultimate prize at their American boarding school.

I'm going to keep this as spoiler free as possible. Maria desperately wants to win the 'Prize' but only Delilah stands in her way. The story is dark for a YA retelling, like really dark, but this helps keep the Macbeth feel to the story.

Robin Talley does a wonderful job tackling the competitive spirit of the girls and their classmates, but more importantly she really goes for it in terms of diversity. Diversity is something we don't always see enough of in YA stories. Not only do we see an honest look at a teenage lesbian relationship, Talley provides a close analysis of sexism, racism, homophobia and classicism.

Maria and Lily start off looking for a way to enhance Maria's chances of winning but end up in the realms of "that escalated quickly!" But baring in mind this is a retelling of Macbeth I wasn't exactly expecting the story to end well for everyone. I'll leave you to discover exactly what happens in this clever, spooky reimagining. I did question the motivation for events at times but it works in a Pretty Little Liars or Gossip Girl kinda way and serves as a warning against the pitfalls of jealousy and an overly completion environment for teens.

4 Stars in my Sky!

I received a copy from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review!

In a world of ambition, where would you stop to get what you want? It all starts with a Ouija board and what Maria Lyon thinks she is asking for is to win the coveted Kingsley Prize, an all-expenses paid pass to the best school in the country. But what she is actually asking for is something much darker and more sinister. Who was it who said, “be careful what you wish for”?

Maria, Brandon and Lily are seniors at Acheron Academy, a campus located on an old plantation, built by slaves and the home of unbearable tragedy over the centuries. What they begin on that dark night with the Ouija board soon descends into a fiery web of horror and devastation that will continue to burn out of control until it has destroyed everyone in its wake.

What is really happening on the campus? A series of unfortunate accidents or a force that will bring each character in the story to their knees? When does ambition end and true horror begin?

As I Descended is the powerful new young adult release from Robin Talley, author of the critically acclaimed Lies We Tell Ourselves which won the inaugural Amnesty CILIP Honour in 2016. Set in a privileged boarding school, on the surface it is a story of high ambition and competitiveness but it is also a book that tackles racism, depression, mental illness, suicide and physical impairment.

One of the greatest calls in 2016 is for more diversity in books and Robin Talley is known for writing diverse characters into her stories. Rather than writing token or stereotypical supporting characters, As I Descended features diverse characters who are central to the story – Maria is Spanish and gay, Lily and Brandon are gay too and Lily is physically impaired following a car accident.

None of the characters is static either, cardboard cut-outs waiting to come to life when the protagonist is in the room. We learn about the thoughts, fears and histories of Maria, Lily and Brandon, but also of the people around them including Brandon’s boyfriend Mateo, Maria’s rival Delilah and to some extent, siblings Austin and Felicia.

As I Descended is a book that will keep you guessing until the final pages. Is there really a supernatural element to the story or is this a case of serious mental illness? Does it have to be one or the other? Without divulging any spoilers, Robin Talley gives the rarest of gifts and lets the reader choose for themselves.

One thing I can say is that As I Descended is as scary as heck and reading it alone, in the dark, is not one of the finest ideas I’ve ever had. There are bumps and scratches, apparitions and fatalities and this is not a book for the faint-hearted.

Ultimately, this is a story about redemption and the power to make the right decision, no matter how long that choice is in the making.

I give As I Descended an excellent four out of five stars and would recommend to fans of both paranormal young adult fiction. This is the first of Robin Talley's books that I have read but I already have Lies We Tell Ourselves on my Kindle waiting to be read.

Power resides in all kinds of places these days so when Robin Talley decided to take Macbeth as inspiration the first thing she did was change the seat of power being vied for to an American High School.

Maria Lyon is one of her schools most popular students. But since she fell in love with her roommate Lily Boiten there are obstacles in her path that she never dreamed of. They can’t come out but if Maria can just win the Cawdor Kingsley Prize they’ll be assured the same college and four more years in a shared dorm room. But one thing stands in their way, Maria’s one-time friend and the most popular girl Delilah Dufrey. Lily and Maria are willing to do anything―absolutely anything―to unseat Delilah for the scholarship. They hold a seance together with Maria’s best friend Brandon but things get out of hand and before long feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what’s imagined, the girls must attempt to put a stop to the chilling series of events they’ve accidentally set in motion.

I’ve read a fair few Shakespeare plots reimagined over the last couple of years and although most have been lit-fic – written by some of our greatest writers; don’t think that this one – written for the YA market by a fairly new (though already award winning) author can’t compete. It can and it does.

For a start, this isn’t a straight up re-write and some of the ways it honours the original are subtle and quite frankly a little twisty. There are no witches, instead she cast the three main characters in the fortune telling role through the seance, and there are plenty of other deviations too.

One of the other aspects I liked was the fact that there LGBT+ leading characters and that they weren’t some kind of freak show or tragedy device. Don’t get me wrong, awful things are done by and happen to these characters but awful things also happen to the straight characters. Not only that but the issues of being out or staying closeted are raised and stereotypes about LGBT+ people and drug-taking are circumvented. The characters are driven by deep and passionate loves but the fact that they are same gender in these cases is just a fact, it’s obvious that these characters could easily have been driven the same way if they were straight and there were obstacles to their happiness.

This is a great mix of psychological horror and waking drama with a big dollop of the supernatural stirred through it.

4 Bites

NB I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews