As I Descended audiobook

For someone who doesn’t enjoy retellings at all, it’s odd that I keep finding Shakespeare-inspired books that thrill me and make me rethink my position. After Cat Winters’ The Steep and Thorny Way, As I Descended shows us that classics are classics for a reason and that things like ambition and jealousy are inherently human, and therefore always interesting and relevant.Like Macbeth, As I Descended is divided into five acts, each inspired by its counterpart. Bloody knives and burning candles are taken directly from the original, but Talley took enough artistic liberties to make the story entirely her own. Ghosts and boarding schools always went well together and Talley used the connection better than most. Relying on an old Mexican legend about La Llorona, she created a heavy, ghost-filled, terrifying atmosphere.Maria and Lily are a power couple at their boarding school, even though they are closeted. To be fair, though, their popularity falls entirely on Maria, who is second best at everything in their school. As a disabled girl, Lily was barely noticed before she got together with Maria and even now she’s only visible in Maria’s reflected glow. But Maria being second best isn’t enough for the girls. If they are to end up at the same university, Maria needs to win a prestigious scholarship, and for that they have to get rid of Delilah – unfair, sluttish, drug-using queen of Acheron Academy. Unwittingly, even stupidly, the girls team up with Acheron’s resident ghosts and are led on a downward spiral that can only end in tragedy.As I Descended is practically bursting with diversity on all sides. If you’re looking for a book with LGBT themes, sobering thoughts on living with disabilities, and even a Latina heroine well-versed in Hispanic legends and culture (even though she often tries to hide it), As I Descended is the perfect book for you. Most importantly, all of it was blended so naturally, and in a book that isn’t primarily about diversity at all. Unfortunately, Talley falls a bit short in characterization. She put a lot of effort into creating the right atmosphere, but the girls never quite become fully fleshed-out. Instead they remain just tools controlled by evil ghosts, without proper emotional depth or believable motivations. It’s difficult to care for props, and as much as I was entertained and frightened by their story, I was entirely indifferent to their fate.Overall, As I Descended is a successful retelling of one of my favorite tragedies, and one of those ghost stories that hit just the right note at precisely the right time. What it lacks in characterization, it makes up for in many other ways.

Really spooky book that had me up late reading. I loved the writing, the characters and the setting. Also the diversity! Highly recommend this for a book to read around Halloween.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. Thank you to the author, Robin Talley, and the publisher, HarperTeen, for this opportunity.This is a tale than amalgamates time, genre and emotion into a cacophony of commotion! The contemporary setting, the YA genre tag and the synopsis concerning teen rivalries belied the horror and terror that ensued from the very first chapter. The unification of horror and contemporary has been unsuccessful in past experiences, but here the discord seems to work, somehow.The boarding-school setting, the trite synopsis and the rehashing of well-used tropes was offset by the diversity of character and the fresh perspective. The horrifying paranormal aspects of the novel was worked into this Mean Girls revival and it actually worked!I had, as you can probably tell, mixed emotions whilst reading this. I loved the diversity of character, the atmospheric paranormal scenes and the fluidity of the perspective alterations. I hated the pettiness and the bitchiness that was incorporated into every character. The parts focusing on this completely failed to grip me.Despite my gripes, I have never read any other book that manages to amalgamate horror and YA contemporary so well before. For the most part, this utterly beguiled me and I haven't slept with the lights off since reading this, which I think says more about the power of this book than any of this review has...

it was spooky and i got goosebumps from time to time. i think the book had great diversity -- LGBT+ rep, a person living with a disability/chronic pain, a hispanic character and they weren't stereotypes or tokenized. they were written in an authentic way. unfortunately, i just didn't love the ending. it had a FANTASTIC beginning, intriguing middle, and then it was just done. i'm not sure what i wanted out of the ending but i was slightly disappointed. overall though, i enjoyed my reading experience. 3.5 stars

4.2/5 “’Tis time, ’tis time.Round about the talking board,Candles burn, the charm’s own chord.Open, locks, whoever knocks.We, the living, offer you the Vox.” First book of the year picked up with my new random system, and let’s be honest I’m LOVING picking up books that I already own at random, it might turn into a surprise or a disappointment. This is definitely a surprise!I jumped into it without knowing much, and I even thought it was a contemporary… ups. Even the short synopsis on the back doesn’t explain much, but I seriously thought it was a high school drama contemporary, INSTEAD in was a horror book whaaatThat’s actually the genre of horror that I generally love, teen ghost stories set in schools. That’s all I ask from horror stuff usually and this was not a disappointment either!I discovered lately that it is a MacBeth retelling too and that’s even cooler. We follow a group of school friends and after a night spent using the Ouija board, creepy things start to happen especially to Maria. With the help of Lily things get even more complicated once they try to knock off the lead competitor for the Kingsley Prize, Delilah, but this is just the beginning. A lot more “incidents” are on the way…I basically liked everything, the first sentence immediately got my attention.The set of characters is very good, their interactions are great and the story is pretty creepy too. It was a very fun and fast read and I loved all the spooky parts. The plot is very easy to follow and very easy to understand, it was in fact a “simple” read.As I said this was for me a very good ghost/possession story and even if pretty predictable I found myself glued to its pages.

Full Review on The Candid CoverThis book totally blew my mind. Since it is based off of Macbeth, I really should have seen everything coming, but Robin Talley still managed to surprise me. There is so much diversity in As I Descended, as well, and a main character who is in between a hero and a villain. This is definitely a must-read!As I Descended is a Macbeth retelling, which I don't believe I've read before. Typically, when Shakespeare retellings are written, the story is based on Romeo and Juliet. I could definitely see the similarities between Macbeth and As I Descended, which was really satisfying. Although I am not much of a paranormal fan, I found myself enjoying this story. Basically, there are these spirits that the main character can sense, and because of them, some horrible things occur. It's hard to describe the plot without spoiling, but believe me, this is not a book to be missed.There is so much diversity in As I Descended! There are two LGBT couples, Mexican characters, and a character with a disability. I really enjoyed how realistic the romance is between Maria and Lily. Not every couple is comfortable with coming out right away, and Maria and Lily decide to wait. I loved the way their relationship is portrayed and appreciated how believable it is.Maria is not the most likeable of characters, yet I still enjoyed her character, if that makes sense. She is kind of a villain, but doesn't really intend to be one. At the beginning of the book, Maria is focused and determined to be the best at everything, and she'll do whatever it takes. She ends up going too far, and her personality totally changes. Maria becomes frightening, but I couldn't stop reading. She is such a complex character that isn't quite a villain, but not a hero either.As I Descended is a Shakespeare-inspired story with so much diversity. The main character is interesting as she doesn't have the best personality, but is still likeable. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone!

"What are you reading?""As I Descended.""That tells me nothing.""Lesbian boarding school Macbeth.""That tells me everything."It kind of does. If you like the sound of "lesbian boarding school Macbeth," you will like this; I did, and did.Maria and Lily, roommates at Acheron, are also girlfriends. They keep their relationship a secret known only to a few, because Lily's parents are highly conservative, and she can't stand the thought of them pulling her out of school and separating her from Maria. All she wants is to ensure that graduation will mean four more years of a shared room at Stanford, which Maria can't afford on her own, not without the Cawdor Kingsley prize one student from Acheron always receives. Currently, Maria is number two on the list, just behind Delilah, the queen bee who maintains her status through means foul as well as fair, who doesn't need the money, and who also has a nasty weekend Oxy habit. Lily's plan? Find out when the next mandatory "secret" drug test will be for the soccer team and make sure Delilah still has Oxy in her system. The problem is, it doesn't stay for more than three days, and Delilah never does drugs during the week.The obvious, awful solution, after the others are exhausted, is to slip it into her drink. After all, as Lily points out, they aren't doing anything to her she doesn't do to herself on a regular basis.Also, the Ouija board has told Maria that the second will be first and she will get what she wants.You can guess, from all that, that things start off bad and then get worse.Talley's storytelling is strong. A lot of modernized takes on Shakespeare either founder on plausibility or make events plausible by watering them down, but Talley succeeds at keeping the tragedy and strangeness of the play intact in her sleepy Southern Gothic boarding school setting. Grounding the beginning in adolescent hijinks--the Ouija board--and believable adolescent crime--the drugging--helps, because it means that Lily and Maria have thoroughly committed to their actions by the time the ghosts really start getting involved. Once they've done something, they have to keep trying to cover it up, and because they're teenagers, and psychologically fracturing teenagers at that, they keep making more and more mistakes.And, also believably, so do Brandon (Banquo) and Mateo (MacDuff), the other main couple in the story, who are also a blend of logic, love, and hormones, but who find themselves on the opposite side, horrified and angry about what seems to be happening.Another strong point is the genuinely spooky atmosphere. Talley piles on the ghosts, and the effect is layered and chilling rather than messy, because it gives the campus the feel of a pot just waiting to boil over. It's a necessary quality in a Macbeth retelling, and it works nicely.I'm torn, because I want to give this three-and-a-half, but Goodreads won't let me: it's a compelling read and I liked it, but some of the writing is thin and the book is overlong and could have benefited from a little judicious trimming. I originally rated it at three and then, over the course of writing this, bumped it up to four, because the specifics I could recall were all good: the nice touch of everyone at "progressive" Acheron referring to Brandon as Mateo's "friend," the scene with Lily in the bathroom where boiling water starts pouring out of the sinks, the little details like Maria as "queen" taking the time every day to style her hair... So while this could have been sharpened up, it's still a fun, unnerving, well-told tale.And, again, it's lesbian boarding school Macbeth, which is just cool.

This was a 3.5 star read for me. It promised to be a lesbian boarding school Macbeth, and although it's not a direct retelling, it definitely brought that brooding atmosphere and theme of revenge, as well as enough nods to the story to fulfill the premise. I enjoyed the broody beginning of the story, and how it starts off at a run (the first page has the characters contacting spirits with a ouija board). As the book continues, it gets darker, veering into horror territory. That I wasn't totally prepared for.This seems to be "southern gothic", including many mentions of the racism that the school was built on (the land was formerly a plantation). I enjoyed this, but it's definitely dark. I suppose it was silly of me to think a Macbeth retelling would be anything else, but I would definitely warn that it gets into horror territory, so be prepared for blood and violence.

Queer retelling of Macbeth with a f/f ship, a m/m ship, a disable character and Hispanic folklore?yes please!!!I read Macbeth a couple of months ago so I could fully appreciate the parallelisms between the original and this book.It's obvious that Talley did a lot of research, and I particularly like how she incorporated ghosts instead of witches and the tale of La Llorona.Also, the spanish was grammatically correct. HOW RARE IS THIS? GRACIAS ROBIN TALLEY! Al fin alguien que hace bien las cosas!The whole atmosphere of the book was super creepy and it was almost impossible to put it down. Maria and Lily's descent into madness is like watching a train-wreck (specially if you've read the original play); you know it's not going to end well and yet you can't stop reading.You don't need to read the original story to enjoy As I Descended, though I highly recommend it to discover all the references made to Macbeth.A boarding school. A bi girl and lesbian disabled girl willing to do anything. Ghosts.It's scary and it's gay. What else do you need?

Find this and other reviews at Ramblings of a Daydreamer.I wasn’t completely sure what to expect when I started As I Descended. I knew two things: it was a retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and it featured queer characters. Honestly, that was enough to pique my interest. Within the first few pages, I realized it was a bad idea to be reading the book at night. I’m a total wuss when it comes to scary stuff, and let me tell you, As I Descended had a pretty terrifying beginning. That creep factor lasted all the way through the book, making for a dark, suspenseful, often disturbing story about revenge, jealousy, and the lengths people will go to for what they want.It’s hard to say too much about the plot without getting into spoiler territory, but the book is set in an elite southern boarding school and starts out with what was intended as a fun, innocent game with a Ouija board between Maria, her girlfriend Lily, and Maria’s best friend Brandon. Maria grew up sensing spirits, and was aware of the school’s history of various hauntings, but had no idea that she would stir up something sinister and deadly. What started as an innocent game unraveled quickly into the entire school basically spiraling into madness with Maria and her group of friends at the forefront. This book was dark - really dark. On its own, I think I would have had some issues with it, but because it was a reimagining of Macbeth, it was obvious from the start that As I Descended wasn’t going to be sunshine and happy endings. The book’s darkness and creepiness were what made it so compelling. The events were so horrifying, it was hard to put the book down because I wanted to know what would happen next. With a diverse cast of characters and a setting that’s so vivid it’s almost like a character itself, As I Descended is a chilling, atmospheric story. If you like horror with a side of paranormal, and enjoy creative, well-written retellings, be sure to check out As I Descended.

AS I DESCENDED is a re-imagining of MACBETH, starring two queer girls in the Macbeth and Lady Macbeth roles. It is set at a southern boarding school, and, man, it is SUPER dark.One of the hallmarks of Talley's works so far (I've not read her second book, but the two I have read have been consistent), is that she does not flinch when it comes to addressing the darker aspects of American history. In LIES WE TELL OURSELVES, desegregation was a lot of the plot, but in DESCENDED, Talley continues to not pull punches, addressing racism, classicism, and privilege. This ranges from a Hispanic character who can't speak the language, to all the crap you'd expect at a boarding school mostly full of entitled white kids, to acknowledgement an consequences for the slavery that was once condoned on school grounds.I mean, it's MACBETH. There aren't a lot of outs. What Talley does, though, is make you have pretty much the same range of feelings you had when you read/saw the play. Like, I was hoping and everything, and then I'd remember.(To address the Dead Lesbian/Bury Your Gays trope, well: Macbeth. There are four not-straight characters, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo and Macduff. Not great odds. But I feel like if you're going to kill a queer character, making them Macbeth is a great way to start. Giving every single one of them agency and motivations is a great way to continue, and Robin's done all that, and more.)Talley is also really good at dialogue, and absolutely nails several different POVs throughout.ANYWAY, I blurbed it, which really tells you what you need to know about my feelings. I highly recommend it.

"LA SANGRE QUIERE SANGRE.Blood will have blood."What a fun little ghost/horror story. A retelling of Macbeth - which is wonderful because it's such a fun twist. I really liked Lily and Maria and how we are torn because you learn them and get to know them so it's hard to like or hate them. I also loved Brandon and Mateo. Again, they are stuck in a rough situation and it's hard to take sides here.But most of all was Delilah. She's a character it's easy to hate but for more vague reasons than anyone else. The twists and turns in the story were well done and I loved that, when the characters became more confused and sleep deprived, the story got really jumbled and tough for the reader to follow - just as it was for the narrator. I loved this one!

Holy shit you WANT to preorder this book IMMEDIATELY

Re-read 2020. I was in a big mood to read something spooky during my camping vacation and so here we are! OMG, this was just so spooky and so awesome and I am glad that I forgot most of the details and could enjoy this book fully again. 5 stars again! I wasn't a fan of the characters, but I believe that is how they were written. The ghosts were terrific and spooky and OMG no thank you with your black eyes and I wonder why anyone still stays at the school with everything that happens. I would definitely have picked my bags and said BYE. :P I loved how everything spiraled down and how it went from jealousy to much more. ---------------------------------------Even though I absolutely detested all the characters, I also loved this book. :PThe book was creepy, scary, wtf-ish, and so much more. I even had a bad night sleeping thanks to this book. That says to me that a book is good. If it causes me to not want to go to sleep, and then later on not being able to sleep because I am creeped out, perfection. :PAnd yes, I hated all the characters. At first I did like most of them, but in the end I just wanted to throw them all for the ghosts in Acheron and have those ghosts have some fun. We have a whole cast. Maria, Lily, Mateo, Brandon, Delilah (well for a bit at least as she wasn't around much in the book for reasons I won't specify). Maria, Lily, Mateo, I quite liked them in the beginning. Brandon and Delilah? I didn't particularly like them. But then poop hit the fan, and I saw the true side to Maria. Lily also turned out to be a meh character. Mateo? Well I can slightly imagine why he was acting the way he was acting, but at times I found him unreasonable. I think the character I disliked the most was Lily. Lily who kept playing the sad OMG-my-legs card, but in fact didn't want people to use that on her. Lily who was actually just a vile girl with vile ideas. It was her who planned the whole drugs in drink thing (though yes, Maria went along with it, but considering that Lily is quite manipulative....), she is the one who makes a mess out of everything. She is the one who tells her girlfriend not to say anything, she is the one who, instead of comforting, is trying to rein in her girlfriend so she won't do anything weird, strange. Maria? Well she was quite a nice girl at the beginning, though I was a bit worried about her jealousy problem. But then stuff really happened and she really started going crazy. Certainly, I can vaguely understand why with all that happened, but really, isn't the first thing you learn that wishing can be dangerous, especially if you don't know who is doing the wish-granting? (Or well, she thought she knew, but come on, she must have felt it wasn't right from the start.) It was quite interesting to see her tumble down the rabbit hole. From quite sane, to something so much worse that words can't describe it. Delilah? Well, lets just say we see a different side to her and I really warmed up to her.I was a bit sad that we didn't seem much romance from Lily and Maria. I was looking forward to that, but not including some kissing scenes, it was pretty bare and empty. It felt more like they were roommates with benefits. :|I loved how the story went from high school problems, stress about exams, to ghosts, revenge, death, and much much more. I am however a bit sad that we don't find out more about the school (we do find out a lot, but I still have quite a few questions), or see how stuff ended. I mean, there are vengeful ghosts in there, and you just let them be there? Continue with their things? Isn't anyone going to try and fix stuff? It felt a bit incomplete. The ghosts were suppppppppppppeerrrrr creepy. Really, I am not one for ghosts already (they are already creepy), but black-eyed ghosts? Calling you, humming a song, luring you? Yeah, nope, I am out. :P Even though it felt a bit incomplete, I still loved the ending. That we could see how it ended for those characters. That we could get a peek at the months after the whole thing happened.All in all, this was a fantastic read, and I loved it to bits! It is the perfect read for this Halloween month, and I am glad I saved this book for this month (even if it was a struggle to wait). I would highly recommend this book.Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

Robin Talley does a really great job of reworking 'MacBeth' in our modern world. She didn't just copy+paste the story, she reinterpreted it to work with modern young adults and the hierarchy that exists in high school. That doesn't mean she had to hold back on the horrific aspects of the Scottish play.MacBeth is my favorite of Shakespeare's tragedies, maybe my favorite play of his overall. I would be curious how someone unfamiliar with the play, who wasn't reading it because it was a retelling, would feel about this book. I know I enjoyed it a lot because I was looking for the parallel stories and really enjoying the new twists that Talley added. If you're a fan of MacBeth, definitely pick this one up!