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.
No comments:
Post a Comment