Blog Series: Spotlight on ‘As I Descended’ by Robin Talley
It’s taken me a good long time to get around to reading this one — too long. I heard ages ago that it was a teen f/f version of Macbeth and, well, that sold me. Thankfully, it was also available on my ebook library during lockdown so that when I finally decided it was time to pick it up, it was right there!
I could not wait to see what a gay novelisation of this play would look like.
The first thing I want to say is that I completely underestimated how gut wrenching it would be. Not just having the words and the actions of the players, but being given the inner thoughts of Maria, her partner Lily and best friend Brandon (Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo). We get all three of their points of view through the prologue which is basically a seance with a Ouija board within the boarding school the three of them live in.
As with the original play, the outcome of this night has spiralling repercussions that influence the rest of the whole novel.
Maria believes in the spirits whole heartedly. She goes into a bit of a trance while the others transcribe and try to make sense of what is happening. Lily is far more laid back about the seance itself. However, she wants more than anything for Maria to get a scholarship that is currently likely to land on the shoulders of the current self proclaimed queen of the senior class, Delilah (King Duncan). To that end, Lily manipulates it so as to get Delilah out of the running and using Maria’s belief in the spirits’ will to have her act in the way Lily wants her to.
This much of the story takes up almost the first half of the book, introducing all the characters and dynamics at play within the school, really setting up this story so that people who haven’t come across Macbeth before will be able to read it as its own text. It’s incredibly well done.
However, it also has the effect of making the rest of the story which has to fit into half of a novel come really fast, one thing after another, which ultimately adds to that whole feeling of things spiralling out of control.
It was honestly a fantastic and thrilling adaptation.
