"Foul is Fair"

“Foul is Fair”

Written by Hannah Capin

Reviewed by Diana Iozzia

“Foul is Fair” is a fueled-by-revenge young adult fiction story, that follows teenage Jade and her cult, who are determined to take down a group of terrible boys that assaulted Jade. Those who are associated with them are not innocent either. Some handed her drinks; some ignored the actions. This book is first and foremost a retelling of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, but it also feels like it also combines in “Heathers”, “13 Reasons Why”, and “Carrie”. There are so many trigger warnings for this book. I highly recommend that if you are sensitive to read the information that the author has on her website, in which she lists possible triggers and explains the incidents so possibly sensitive readers may still continue to read.

With a cast inspired by “Macbeth”, we have:

Jade / Lady Macbeth

Mack / Macbeth

Jenny, Summer, Mads, the witches

Duncan, Duffy, Connor, and Banks: the lacrosse kings. The rapists.

In this book that is crude, rude, and full of bloodthirsty attitude, we see teen girls seek murderous revenge on those who have made horrible decisions and have hurt women. In a way, this book could possibly be misconstrued, as this is a book for teens. However, because it is almost too outrageous and over-the-top, I think teens would suspend their disbelief, rather than reading this as a brand-new Bible.

Jade used Mack, our Macbeth character, to kill his friends, the golden boys. She shows him affection and love but is truly just using him for revenge. She acts caring, pretends to tell the truth and pretends to be completely innocent. This book is absolutely wild. I almost think that this did not need to be a “Macbeth” retelling to be interesting. However, I think the publishing industry should start towing the line of books published that are rape revenge stories. I understand that the #MeToo movement is current and important, but revenge can be a fine line. Nonetheless, this was a campy, trashy, and bloody fun book.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this book. It was silly and cheesy and raunchy, but I had a lot of fun reading it. I do think I would have liked this a bit more if we had more involvement from the coven. A little too much of Jade sharpening her nails to be knives and scratching people. A little more magic would have gone a long way.

I received an advance review edition from St. Martin’s Press, in exchange for reading and reviewing purposes.