Hailey (Hailey in Bookland)'s Reviews > Cruel Beauty

3.75*

I'm still really unsure of how I want to rate this book because my feelings on it are literally like night and day. I'm very conflicted if you can't tell.
Sidenote- whoever designed these covers gets an A+

This book is a fairytale retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" set in a kind of fantastical dystopian version of what I took to be Rome/Greece. Rosamund Hodge really invented a unique concept by combining a traditional fairytale of which everyone is familiar with ancient Greek lore, something people are also familiar with. So she takes on the daunting task of weaving mythology into mythology. The concept is awesome, however I felt the execution was only a partial success.

If you had asked me to rate this book 1/4 of the way through, I would have given it 2.5 stars. I was just downright confused because I felt like everything was happening very fast. When you're taking stories and characters from greek mythology, a kind of 'fairytale' in itself, and a complicated one at that, and weaving that into another traditional fairytale, care needs to be taken in explaining. I just felt like things were rushed through and inadequately explained.

Once I got past my confusion and started understanding what was going on I found the story pretty enjoyable. I wasn't really engrossed in it, but it was entertaining enough.

The characters were interesting, though I found the main character, Nyx to be at odds with herself at most times. Her emotions were generally all over the place which made it hard to get a true sense of her as a character.
Ignifex was the bad boy you couldn't help but love, definitely my favourite character. Shade was a very hard character to read as well, so I have many conflicting feelings about him.

All confusion aside, I thought the plot was very unpredictable and intriguing. There were many plot twists and exciting moments once the book really got going.

What really bumped this book up from a 3 to a 3.75 for me was the ending. The last 100 pages or so were just wow. It was so unexpected and really kept me on the edge of my seat.

Overall
I thought this book was a really cool dark romance. The concept was great but, I felt the execution was a little rushed and under explained. However, it was an enjoyable and interesting read.

So to sum it up:
MAYBE I would recommend this to a friend. If they were looking specifically for fantasy retellings, I definitely would mention it.
YES I will read works from this author in the future.
NO I don't think I will reread this.