Klein, Lisa. Lady Macbeth's Daughter. Bloomsbury, 2009. ISBN 9781599903477. $16.99. 304 p.
Reviewer: Tessa McMillan
Reading Level: Young adult
Rating: Outstanding
Genre: Occult fiction;
Subject: Macbeth, King of Scotland, 11th cent.--Juvenile fiction; Gruoch, Queen, consort of Macbeth, King of Scotland--Juvenile fiction; People with disabilities--Juvenile fiction; Books--Reviews;
Macbeth has seen the soothsaying sisters and they have foretold that Macbeth and his wife, Grelach, will have many sons. However, when Grelach bears a crippled girl, Macbeth wants to leave the newborn to be eaten by wolves. Grelach's lady-in-waiting, Rhuven, takes the baby girl to her soothsaying sisters Helwain and Geillis. They call the girl Albia and raise her as their own. When Albia grows up, she is sent away to live with Macbeth's general, Banquo and his family. Soon she hears that Macbeth has suddenly become king of Scotland. When the news that Geillis is dying reaches Albia, she returns to the sisters to discover her true heritage and that her father is a murderer and her mother was an accomplice. Soon the death toll begins to rise as Macbeth kills all who threaten his path. Albia swears to revenge all those she loved whom Macbeth has killed. She faces Macbeth in combat, but she can not kill him. He is killed by the thane Macduff, and Lady Macbeth escapes to find her long-lost daughter. They meet and Albia forgives Grelach for what she has done. Klein has created another intriguing story that mirrors her other Shakespeare inspired story, Ophelia. This story gives more of a background to why Macbeth wanted to become king and to the madness that drove him to his destruction. This would be a useful book to use in the classroom while reading Macbeth and then to compare the two.
Volume 30, no. 3 (January/February 2010)
