Cruel Beauty in What's the Name of That Book???

Oct 07, 2015 karen rated it it was ok

Shelves: books-everyone-loves-but-me, why-yes-i-ya, continuations-n-retellings

For one moment, I felt like a river running down to his ocean.

i feel like i need to drop a few lines here about what, precisely, i felt was lacking in this story. i so rarely throw down a fewer-than-three-stars rating on here, i figure an explanation may be helpful. i'm not going to go into too much plot-detail, since there are a bazillion reviews of this book already on here - i just want to have a record of my own reaction, for the day when some stranger asks me WHYYYYYYYYYYYY i didn't like th ...more

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Dec 19, 2013 Emma rated it it was ok

Nyx was raised to marry a monster. She has always known she would marry a beast on her seventeenth birthday. She has been betrothed to the Gentle Lord since the disastrous day her father's bargain blew up in his face--as bargains with demons generally do.

Nyx has been training for just as long to kill the Gentle Lord and free her people from his curse which surrounds their kingdom. It's unlikely Nyx will survive this mission. Sometimes she isn't even sure she will succeed. But isn't it a worthy g Nyx was raised to marry a monster. She has always known she would marry a beast on her seventeenth birthday. She has been betrothed to the Gentle Lord since the disastrous day her father's bargain blew up in his face--as bargains with demons generally do.

Nyx has been training for just as long to kill the Gentle Lord and free her people from his curse which surrounds their kingdom. It's unlikely Nyx will survive this mission. Sometimes she isn't even sure she will succeed. But isn't it a worthy goal to die saving her people? Isn't that something a normal girl without hate coursing through her veins would be eager to do?

As she is dressed and dragged through a sham wedding, Nyx is far from eager.

Inside the Gentle Lord's castle she expects to find a ravening demon and a heap of ruins. Instead Nyx finds luxurious surroundings and Ignifex--a husband who is an charming as he is infuriating. As she learns more about Ignifex and the strange shadow that follows him everywhere, Nyx is torn between her sense of duty and her sense of what is right. The longer she spends in the castle, the more likely it seems that Nyx has had everything very, very wrong in Cruel Beauty (2014) by Rosamund Hodge.

Cruel Beauty is Hodge's first novel.

Hodge draws on Greek mythology and fantasy elements to create an enchanting world filled with magic and demons; a world where bargains always have a price.

Nyx is a flawed, selfish heroine. And, given her upbringing, understandably so. She is realistic about her own faults as well as the limitations of her surroundings which makes her a very prickly, often angry, narrator. She isn't always sympathetic but never doubt that she is interesting.

By comparison, Nyx's new husband Ignifex is decidedly dull. Their romance, such as it is, is never quite as believable as this premise demands.

Ultimately the biggest problem with Cruel Beauty is that the underlying premise feels very seedy. Nyx is meant to seduce Ignifex and then kill him--essentially prostituting herself to save her people. The preoccupation in the first fifty pages with making Nyx look a delectable bride and easy to strip come the wedding night is decidedly uncomfortable.

This story should have a strong heroine and that heroine should be Nyx. She rails against the lot she has been given. She is furious about the societal constraints that have shaped her life. Then she meets her husband and tears open her own dress saying she is desperate for his touch to deflect any consequences from threatening to kill him. It all felt very clumsy and disagreeable.

Aside from the character issues, Hodge works with a lot of source material in Cruel Beauty. There are several references to Greek myths and fairies in this supposed retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Toward the end elements of the legend of Tam Lin also appear. While all of these things are interesting and have the potential to create a wonderful story, together it became a rather jumbled world with a lot of moving parts to follow just to understand the background of the story.

Possible Pairings: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, Entwined by Heather Dixon, The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, Enchanted by Alethea Kontis, Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier, The Archived by Victoria Schwab, Paranormalcy by Kiersten White ...more

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May 21, 2014 Erin rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2014

All the relationships in this book (romantic, familial) were super underdeveloped, but it's got some good atmosphere going for it. I'm also baffled by the fact that everyone under the sun (including the author?) bills this as a Beauty and the Beast retelling without acknowledging the fact that at least half of the plot is taken directly from Bluebeard. ...more

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Aug 10, 2013 Amanda rated it really liked it

Shelves: angelic-demonic, arcs, myth-based, fairytales-fables-retellings

Very interesting re-telling, rich in mythology. I need to process my thoughts on this one.

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May 29, 2015 Hannah added it

Shelves: audio, ya, myth-fairytale-folklore, 2015, fantasy

This was probably not a good choice for an audiobook. Or maybe not for me to read at all. I started out interested, especially since it seemed more Bluebeard than Beauty and the Beast. But I lost my ability to focus, and as usual I'll blame half on my difficulties focusing on audiobooks at all and half on the prose, which was so stylized that it became rather purple at times. it got harder and harder to actually know what was happening because there were so many elaborate turns of phrase that we ...more

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Jul 18, 2017 Susan rated it liked it

Shelves: teen-fiction, teen-fiction-fantasy-sci-fi

Many reviews said this was a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but I didn't really find it so. It had elements of Greek mythology, Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, and even a bit of Bluebeard thrown in for good measure. I LOVED it until the final quarter, when it became a bit draggy and confusing. ...more

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Jan 14, 2014 Lorena rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, ya

A dark retelling of the Beauty & The Beast fairytale. Beautiful language that walks the edge of florid at times, but ends up carrying off all of the drama and angst.

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Sep 03, 2014 Rachel Piper rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, own, best-read-in-2014

Like a darker BEAUTY mixed with THE HERO AND THE CROWN mixed with ARCHANGEL mixed with a sharper Diana Wynne Jones mixed with ... I don't know. But I loved it. ...more

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