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The Third Witch A Novel Rebecca Reisert Books

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The Third Witch A Novel Rebecca Reisert Books

I enjoyed the story. The characters are well drawn and sufficiently motivated. The plot moves along at a good pace without overmuch description.


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The Third Witch A Novel Rebecca Reisert Books Reviews

I actually read this while attending a theatre critics' conference, and found it hard to put down. It's such a SMART retelling of the Macbeth story, and it's fun the way characters who are important in Shakespeare's play are encountered here... usually we see them "from a distance," the title character Gilly encounters them, and THEN it's revealed who they are.

Gilly is a young girl who lives with two crones in the forest. They look through dead bodies on the battlefields for goods, and prepare potions and herbs for villagers. We learn early on that Gilly has a grudge against HIM (who we can guess is Macbeth), but it's not until near the end of the novel that we know why. She gets her caretakers to help her, and inserts herself into Macbeth's castle, dressed as a boy.

Her journey towards revenge, and also towards becoming really human-- caring for a retarded child, taking responsibility-- is engrossing.

I saw Macbeth shortly after reading this book and had to smile at certain scenes where Reisert had convincingly inserted Gilly into the action in her retelling.

Resiert's prose is clear and often moving. She creates a consistent, powerful medieval world. She taught and directed the play for years before writing this book and it shows. It's a quick read, but thoroughly enjoyable, and I look forward to her next.
Rebecca Reisert's retelling of the story of Macbeth from the point of view of one of the three witches is an interesting approach to this familiar tale - and one that breathes quite a bit of life into a story that many readers, having it thrust upon them as `required reading' in Shakespeare's version, should find refreshing. The author, in her note at the end of the novel, mentions that she realized early on in her research that she could either be faithful to history or to Shakespeare, but not to both. She chose the playwright as her touchstone, and her writing skills have drawn nicely upon the Bard's immortal sense of drama to produce a very entertaining, readable and absorbing book.
The `third witch' of the title is a young girl named Gilly - raised as a foundling by two older women who live in a hut in the forest. They have a great knowledge of nature - of the animals that live in the forest, as well as the medicinal (and other) uses of the herbs and plants that grow there - and are viewed with more than a little suspicion by the peasants who live nearby. Suspected witches are not tolerated well in mediæval Scotland - and for their own safety, they keep a low profile - but from time to time the villagers, desperate to care for or to cure their loved ones, seek them out for assistance.
Gilly narrates the novel - and her burning need for revenge against `Him' is made known to the reader right away, and often. `He' turns out to be Lord Macbeth himself - and her reasons for the deep hatred that fills her and drives her on what she sees as her life's mission to bring about not only his downfall, but his death, are revealed deftly, and in due course. I won't spoil anything for any potential readers by going into them here. Suffice to say that she is determined and dedicated to such an extent that it frightens the two other women with whom she dwells.
Her adventures in attempting to accomplish this end make up the bulk of the book - and the author's writing skills, as well as her research, make the experience a very involving one for the reader. Gilly is of an age that is a difficult time for any young person to bear - and the burden of her quest doesn't make it any easier for her to grow from a child into a young woman. She disguises herself as a boy for much of the story - and without becoming a feminist treatise, the novel subtly allows her to make some very relevant discoveries about the treatment of women in her society. She also comes to discover many things about herself - the rejection that she has felt for emotion (especially that of love for others, which she considers a hindrance) comes to be seen by her in a very different manner by the story's end.
The concept of the novel interested me when I first read about it - and I'll admit that I was a little leery of how well it could be done - but I have to say that I was thoroughly entertained and pleased with the work.
I was hooked from page 1 and couldn't put this book down. I did not lose interest in a single paragraph.
The author who has been teaching William Shakespeare's Macbeth for decades has provided an exciting flip side if you will of the play, with the story of Gillyflower, a teenage girl, who is adopted by two old crones who live in the woods and are involved in herb lore and the like. This is not the first time , having viewed several movie versions of Shakespeare's Macbeth where the third witch is young and fairly attractive.

Gill is obsessed by her singleminded quest to kill Macbeth in revenge for the destruction of her homestead and the end of her idyllic childhood when she was a little girl. We are to find out a great secret of her parentage later in the book.
Gilly gets herself a job as a kitchen hand after disguising herself as a boy, the girl being disguised as a boy a common theme in many of Shakespeare's comedies.
Thereby we get to see something of what life would have been like for common folk, including the servants and serfs of the castle which Macbeth lived in, at the time
The narrative weaves in and out of the play , but in all parts we are rapt with attention to see that happens next until it all comes together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Gilly's plans help to put some very horrific acts by Macbeth into place, including murders and destruction of those she cares for.
It was quite difficult getting to grips with the benign presentation of the witches in Macbeth giving their own long speeches and dialogue which present a different story. but the author too has an explanation for this.
I enjoyed the story. The characters are well drawn and sufficiently motivated. The plot moves along at a good pace without overmuch description.