Saturday, March 26

[Review] Cruel Beauty - Rosamund Hodge

Author: Rosamund Hodge
Original Title: Cruel Beauty
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: January 28th, 2014
Finished Date: April 18th, 2015
Pages: 342
Read in: English
Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.
Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom - all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfil her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle - a shifting maze of magical rooms - enthrals her.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.
Source: GoodReads

Rating

This is a very peculiar book. I'm glad I went into it knowing little more than that it was a Beauty and the Beast retelling. I can't decide whether this was beautifully weird or weirdly beautiful. Maybe it was both. The point is that this book should not have worked. But it did.
This book takes most of my buzzwords - greek mythology, Beauty and the beast retelling, morally grey characters - and blends them together in a complicated and strangely woven plot.
If you're looking for a great, out-of-the-box read, I definitely suggest picking this one up.

«Demons are made of shadow. Don't look at the shadows too long or a demon might look back

The following extended review contains spoilers
If you have not yet read the book and/or do not wish to be spoiled, please do not read any further.