Foul Is Fair

A young woman chooses “avenger” over “victim” or “survivor” in this take on Macbeth for the #MeToo era by Capin (The Dead Queens Club). After 16-year-old narrator Elle Khanjara is drugged and raped by a group of prep school boys at an L.A. party, she determines to handle the situation herself. Requesting that her parents not contact the authorities, she asks her father, a connected plastic surgeon, to facilitate her transfer to St. Andrew’s Prep, the boys’ school. Taking the entitled young men out herself would be too easy. Elle, now going by her middle name, Jade, plans to bring them down from within, and she launches a scheme devised with her “coven,” close friends Mads, Jenny, and Summer. Nothing short of murder will do, but falling for the boy she’s set up to take the fall isn’t part of the plan. Elements of the coven’s elaborately staged scheme are hard to swallow, and a lack of character depth may blunt the impact for some, despite intersectional inclusivity across secondary characters. Still, Capin’s twisty, blood-soaked take on Shakespeare’s play is a propulsive, white-hot juggernaut of vengeance that packs a viscerally satisfying punch. Ages 14–up. [em]Agent: Sarah Burnes, the Gernert Co. (Feb.) [/em]