As I Descended

LoveReading4Kids Says

One of our Books of the Year 2016 | September 2016 Book of the Month

In a Nutshell: Deadly Ambition |  Scheming with Spirits |  Descent into Darkness

Thrilling, chilling, supernaturally-charged retelling of Macbeth set in a prestigious southern state high school.

While Lily can’t wait to try out her antique Ouija board, her girlfriend Maria is less keen. She has history when it comes to the spirit world. But it's been a while since she's tried to talk to them so “maybe they'd forgotten her,” she hopes. While Lily and Maria are engrossed in the proceedings, their friend Brandon translates the Ouija messages from Spanish and Latin, one of which mentions their prestigious college’s Cawdor Kingsley Prize, which everyone is certain will be awarded to gorgeous golden girl, Delilah, with Maria, as usual, coming second, always the princess to Delilah’s queen. The Ouija’s messages are disturbingly ominous. “That which is second shall be first,” it spells.

It turns out that Lily had hoped the Ouija board would spur Maria into believing that it was her destiny to come first and win the prize. She's set on going to Stanford University and is desperate for Maria to go there too, but the only way she's guaranteed a place is if she wins the prize. While the message has got under Maria’s skin, when Lily concocts a plan to ensure she wins it, she doesn't want to go through with it. “It isn't right,” she says, but Lily urges her on, like Lady Macbeth coaxing her husband. It’s not fair that Maria’s talents and efforts aren’t being recognised, and besides, Lily reasons, “this is what the spirits said would happen anyway, right?” So Maria agrees. But soon there’s no going back and Maria descends down a deadly, dark path, dragging her friends and peers with her. 

This really is an inspired idea - Macbeth converts so well to this exclusive high school setting - and I especially loved the La Llorona strands, the Weeping Woman ghost of Mexican myth whose eerie influence has spread throughout Hispanic culture. This super-smart Shakespearean adaptation is a read-in-one-sitting page-turner. ~ Joanne Owen

Robin Talley's new novel Our Own Private Universe will be published on 9th February 2017 - it has been selected by the Lovereading editorial team and a review and extract will be available to view from early February.

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