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Women's Fiction
The Third Witch: A Novel

The Third Witch: A Novel

List Price: $25.00
Your Price: $25.00
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: It could have been so much better
Review: A friend recommended The Third Witch to help with my research for my production of Macbeth. I must say the concept of the book was intriguing, but the pay-off was less than satisfying. I am not going to write a short synopsis as most of the other reviews have one. Instead, I want to talk about my major problems with the book. The book is written entirely in the first-person. This may not be a bad thing for a lot of people, but I found it impossible to like Gilly until the fairy-tale ending. I found her annoying, selfish and too dogmatic and I feel had she be written in the third-person (like the loveable supporting characters especially Pod, Lisette and Fleance) it would have been easier to like and even care for her. Putting Gilly at the center of the story meant she had to be present in every scene for the story to move on. That placed her in some of the most unlikely places in the Macbeth plot, and at many left me screaming at the page.

Don't get me wrong, I think this was a brave choice for a debut and at times it worked wonderfully but I felt no emotional connection to Gilly. In a book like this, written in the first-person, the reader needs to feel connected to the subject. If that doesn't happen, the rest of the story falls-flat, and I'm sorry to say this one fell hard.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Rich, dark, fascinating
Review: Although there were times I wished this wasn't quite so dark, I found this book to be extremely enjoyable. This is a great first novel & I look forward to more from this author!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth reading
Review: Although this book has its flaws (namely placing Gillian at the heart of every single thing that happens to Macbeth) this book was still definitely worth reading. I loved the descriptions of medieval Scotland, and the castles and the lives of the kitchen staff. It inspired me to reread Macbeth which I hadn't done for at least 10 years, and it really served to "flesh out" the story. I recommend it highly--especially to any Shakespeare fan.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth reading
Review: Although this book has its flaws (namely placing Gillian at the heart of every single thing that happens to Macbeth) this book was still definitely worth reading. I loved the descriptions of medieval Scotland, and the castles and the lives of the kitchen staff. It inspired me to reread Macbeth which I hadn't done for at least 10 years, and it really served to "flesh out" the story. I recommend it highly--especially to any Shakespeare fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Rich, dark, fascinating
Review: An easy, entertaining read. Emotional at times, although I found the ending a bit *too* triumphant. However, if you can allow yourself to just enjoy it, without rolling your eyes, you may find yourself cheering (albeit silently) at the outcome, the almost fairy-tale like ending. But why not, right? :) I had to switch gears to make myself feel that way. None of this took away from my experience with the story. I enjoyed Ms. Reisert's writing style very much, a great twist on Macbeth. I love hearing stories told from a woman's perspective. Actually, this book would make a *great* movie. Cheers~

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another good one for a winter's eve.
Review: An easy, entertaining read. Emotional at times, although I found the ending a bit *too* triumphant. However, if you can allow yourself to just enjoy it, without rolling your eyes, you may find yourself cheering (albeit silently) at the outcome, the almost fairy-tale like ending. But why not, right? :) I had to switch gears to make myself feel that way. None of this took away from my experience with the story. I enjoyed Ms. Reisert's writing style very much, a great twist on Macbeth. I love hearing stories told from a woman's perspective. Actually, this book would make a *great* movie. Cheers~

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Shakespeare lovers opinion
Review: As a former student of Rebecca Reisert's and an avid Shakespeare fan I would love nothing more than to get revenge on my former teacher by criticizing Reisert's imagining of the Bards Tragedy MacBeth, but, after reading the novel, I was completely unable to find any real faults. The writing is immersing, the story is immaginative and the characters, while sometimes over-the-top, are always well crafted. As someone who has studied MacBeth in detail, Reisert's telling of the story from the the point of view of one of the weird sisters (the three witches of MacBeth fame) never fails to please with its explanations for the fantastical events described in MacBeth and the central characters ability to always be present for some of the most critical moments in the play. A knowledge of MacBeth isn't required to enjoy this novel, however, it certianly adds to the story. I would highly recomend this book to all readers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The fascinating "other side" of one of my favorite plays
Review: First of all, I love _Macbeth_. (I'm about the only person I know who feels that way, but I do. ) Needless to say, when I discovered _The Third Witch_ , the story of one of the three Weird Sisters, during an aimless ramble through a bookstore, I snapped it up immediately. When I got home, I started reading right away, and didn't put the book down until I had finished itm well into the wee hours. I really, really like this.

The witch of the title is Gilly, an emotionally wounded teenage girl, whose world was ravaged by Lord Macbeth when she was a child. Orphaned, Gilly was raised by the eccentric herb-women Nettle and Mad Helga, considered by the local townspeople to be witches. Gilly, feeling like she has finally grown up and needs to seek her destiny, tries to enlist her guardians' help in revenging herself upon Macbeth. To bring Macbeth down, Gilly needs to know more about him, and so she disguises herself as a boy and goes to work in the lord's kitchens. She initially focuses on her quest for vengeance to the exclusion of all else, leaving hurt feelings in her wake, but eventually she begins to care for others. This disturbs her; such weakness can only sabotage her mission. Will Gilly learn that there is more to life than revenge?

Reisert says that she sacrificed historical accuracy in favor of faithfulness to Shakespeare's play. Frankly, I never noticed any anachronisms. This is a good historical novel, as far as I can tell, filled with realistic detail about kitchens, herbs, warfare, and what-have-you. Add a pleasant but unobtrusive dash of feminism, and you get a darn good book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The fascinating "other side" of one of my favorite plays
Review: First of all, I love _Macbeth_. (I'm about the only person I know who feels that way, but I do. ) Needless to say, when I discovered _The Third Witch_ , the story of one of the three Weird Sisters, during an aimless ramble through a bookstore, I snapped it up immediately. When I got home, I started reading right away, and didn't put the book down until I had finished itm well into the wee hours. I really, really like this.

The witch of the title is Gilly, an emotionally wounded teenage girl, whose world was ravaged by Lord Macbeth when she was a child. Orphaned, Gilly was raised by the eccentric herb-women Nettle and Mad Helga, considered by the local townspeople to be witches. Gilly, feeling like she has finally grown up and needs to seek her destiny, tries to enlist her guardians' help in revenging herself upon Macbeth. To bring Macbeth down, Gilly needs to know more about him, and so she disguises herself as a boy and goes to work in the lord's kitchens. She initially focuses on her quest for vengeance to the exclusion of all else, leaving hurt feelings in her wake, but eventually she begins to care for others. This disturbs her; such weakness can only sabotage her mission. Will Gilly learn that there is more to life than revenge?

Reisert says that she sacrificed historical accuracy in favor of faithfulness to Shakespeare's play. Frankly, I never noticed any anachronisms. This is a good historical novel, as far as I can tell, filled with realistic detail about kitchens, herbs, warfare, and what-have-you. Add a pleasant but unobtrusive dash of feminism, and you get a darn good book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great book
Review: I am just about done with this book and I have to highly recommend. It did grab my attention in the first chapter and so far I've found it hard to put it down and get to work! The perspective of the girl puts a different slant on the story of Macbeth. I find it fascinating. I plan on purchasing for a friend for the holidays.


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