Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Book review on “Foul is Fair”




Partial list of content warnings for novel: mentions of rape and sexual assault (not depicted), physical violence/murder, suicide attempt/ideation, abuse, transphobia, substance abuse

Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin is full of power. This “scorching and cathartic retelling of Macbeth for the #MeToo era” is pitched as “a bloody, thrilling revenge fantasy for the girls who have had enough. Golden boys beware: something wicked this way comes.”

The Me Too Movement?
Macbeth?
Revenge?
All in a YA novel?
I’m in.

Foul is Fair follows Elle (Elizabeth Jade Khanjara) and her intoxicating group of friends: Mads, Jenny, and Summer. They remind me of “Queen Bees”, the girls so many wanted to be but never would be.

Nothing happens to those girls? Right?

Well Capin destroys expectations:

A new spin on Macbeth

A young adult novel full of both poetry and violence

A girl allowed to be powerful

By taking that power for herself.


Elle and her friends crash an elusive St. Andrew’s Prep party on her 16th birthday, and the four expect a night of fun and partying.

Our expectations are yanked to the side when Elle is drugged, raped, and assaulted by four boys (including friends Andrew Mack and Duncan). Elle has left the party, and in her place is Jade with short black hair, painted nails, and a taste for revenge.

After putting the pieces of that night together, she lives her new life as Jade. Jade is not a victim. Jade turns her entire life around, takes her life back, and to my shock, enrolls in St. Andrew’s: the school of her rapists. Jade slips into her new school seamlessly, saying all the right things to get the popular friends, and dating the oh-so popular Andrew. Yes, Andrew Mack. Jade and Andrew, or Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, rule the school now, but this never distracts Jade from her goals.

In an unapologetically bold yet poetic prose, we watch Jade create her own power to dismantle the golden boys one by one.

The writing of this book truly draws you in from the first line: every sentence appears to be perfectly crafted and thought out, so much so some of this book would not leave me three months after I finished the book.

I love how upfront this book is, how Capin doesn’t shy from brutality. Jade doesn’t just dismantle the golden boys:

She kills them.

I’m going to be honest: I don’t know how a group of high school girls get away with multiple murders of teen boys, but Capin’s writing is so captivating that I don’t care. I am so invested in Jade’s story, and Capin has drawn me in to that amazing point where I am able to suspend belief of high school murders. I’ve just accepted Jade is the reincarnation of Lady Macbeth but she has a cellphone and red lipstick and potentially a bit more of a thirst for blood. Jade could murder someone, and I’d just go with it.

Oh right. She did.

Or, she convinces her boyfriend Mack to kill Duncan. Sound familiar?

With Macbeth, we need witches, and that’s where the best friends Mads, Jenny, and Summer come in. Mads, Jade’s best friend, since the days of skinned knees, Summer, the supermodel embodiment of summer, and Jenny, “so sweet she’ll kill you” (5).

Come not within the measure of their wrath.

Together, the four of them cast spells on boys with the bat of their winged eyeliner.
Mads is a really engaging character, and I appreciate the subtle inclusion of the history of their relationship: “When her parents still called her by her deadname and the only time she could wear girl-clothes was when she was with me. Mads, who last night was the only one I could think about once I could finally stand without falling…Mads, who knew what happened without me saying anything, and found a pair of lacrosse sticks in the pool house and together we broke all the windows we could find, and the glass shattered and caught in the nets and our hands bled bright and furious” (6). The friendship of Mads and Jade shines with complete, undeniable love, and Mads is the first to back up Jade. Honestly, we all need a Mads.

The complete sisterhood the girls create is admirable. No matter what, they will always be there for one another. “Mads tips her head toward mine and I do the same. Until we’re foreheads-together, eye to eye, no room for lies. ‘You tell me when you need me.’ I say, ‘I don’t need anyone.’ She laughs, but it’s the most beautiful sound in the world. She says, ‘I know.’” (81)

Foul is Fair challenges the concept on a demure sidelined woman character: Jade is full of ferocity and I love it. She never has to explain her anger to her friends; they accept what has happened to her and in their world, what needs to be done. Although I don’t condone this sort of violence necessarily, it makes for a great book, and an amazing rise of awareness for sexual violence.

I truly loved this book, and I look forward to Capin’s promising future in writing. I highly recommend you check out Foul is Fair and keep an eye out for her future books.

I received a free ARC from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. Some sites say Foul is Fair was released 2/4/20, and Amazon says it will be available 2/18/20. Keep an eye out!

-SS

Works Cited:  
Capin, Hannah. Foul Is Fair. Wednesday Books, 2020.

A full list of content advisories can be found here: https://www.hannahcapin.com/foulisfair

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