Honestly, I think most people are familiar with the story of Macbeth (at least anybody whose ever had an English class whose made them read Shakespeare) and this book, surprisingly, follows the plot to a T. The main characters, much like the original play, is Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, King Duncan, Macduff, and the three witches. For anybody unfamiliar to the original story, it basically is a story about ambition and follows the character of Macbeth and how his ambition ultimately gets the best of him. After Macbeth kills King Duncan to seize the throne for himself, the rest of the story follows Macbeth’s decline as a ruler and his decline in his sanity. Macbeth #killingit tells the same story, but through text messages and status updates.
I found the formatting of the book, telling the original play through texts, status updates, and posting photos was very creative, and nonetheless entertaining to read. The book is formatted mostly through pictures, so anybody who just needs to get the plot of Macbeth will find this to be a breeze to read. However, the original themes, witty play on words, serious overall tone, and subtle character development (of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth specifically) is lost for its creative formatting. The writing style is that of text messaging, using emojis and “ur”, “WTF”, and hashtags, and there is a lot of modern jokes and humor. This book would be good for anybody just looking to have fun with a book, and I would especially recommend it to people who have read the original play, but not for people who need to read Macbeth for school and don’t want to read the original, because this book follows the correct plot but loses a lot of the original play in the process.
The most memorable thing about the book is just the premise itself. Taking 11th century characters and drama and turning it modern was very creative and funny.
Reviewed by Emily, Grade 9, Twin Hickory Area Library
HCPL TeenScene's Read + Review 