Cruel Beauty in The Reader's Lounge

Jul 20, 2013 Glass rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: girl-power, girls-reading-together, tanja-zemira-miss-glass-book-club, retelling, magic, paranormal-romance, mythology, fantasy, debut

Beauty and the Beast retelling. One of my favorites fairy tales was a story about young girl who gets to be offered to Beast by her father in exchange for a rose. If you think about this story, it is one of the weirdest fairy tales - I remember Jean Cocteau movie adaptation.

Beautiful and dark. This is not a typical young adult fantasy or paranormal romance. There is nothing light or fluffy as that cartoon adaptation some of us watched as kids. Cruel Beauty is different kind of story. Nyx is no Beauty and the Beast retelling. One of my favorites fairy tales was a story about young girl who gets to be offered to Beast by her father in exchange for a rose. If you think about this story, it is one of the weirdest fairy tales - I remember Jean Cocteau movie adaptation.

Beautiful and dark. This is not a typical young adult fantasy or paranormal romance. There is nothing light or fluffy as that cartoon adaptation some of us watched as kids. Cruel Beauty is different kind of story. Nyx is not damsel in distress - she is a girl who was raised to save everybody from a monster - no matter the price or what she has to do. We are used by now to expect love story in this kind of books. I am not sure that everyone will be happy with that part - let me explain. You know how books like Captive in the Dark or Comfort Food are quite popular lately? (Maybe you even read them.) In those books love - if it can be called love - comes from a very dark place, capture-bonding relationship is main motif and the bad guy is represented as anti-hero we end up loving no matter his wicked ways. I'd say that Rosamund Hodge wrote lighter version of that premise. Something more appropriate for younger readers or for those who like strange characters and plot twists, but still are uncomfortable with extremes of that genre.
I love my stories a little bit darker so I enjoyed reading Cruel Beauty. Characters are... perfect. Author manages to avoid cliches and melodramatic situations, but still gives you something special and magical.

Standalone novel. One of the most refreshing things is that this book is not a first in the series. If you find this trend of writing sequels after sequels annoying - even after author tells that there would be no more books - this is a right pick for you. Gilded Ashes is a novella that is set in the same fictional world as Cruel Beauty and it will be published in April next year - but it is not sequel or continuation of Nyx's story.

Who should read it? Fans of original fairy tale. All of you who like a little bit darker fantasy. Everyone who read and loved Falling Under and Dreaming Awake by Gwen Hayes.

***Note! Copy of this book was provided by publisher, Blazer & Bray, via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.***

Buddy read with Zemira from YA Fanatic.

Review from Ja čitam, a ti? ...more

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Nov 12, 2013 Stacie (Shy Book Nerd) rated it liked it

Shelves: book-outlet

Actual rating 3.5

I enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it. The writing was so beautiful. I was captivated immensely by it. Yet even with its lovely writing, it also had its flaws. First, it dragged tremendously through out the book. I was waiting more and more for something to happen but nothing happened! Secondly, there was way too much info dumping that it left my head spinning. The author wrote so much folklore and difficult names such that it became a little difficult to remember the signif ...more

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