Cruel Beauty

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And I still don’t know your name.” My hands trembled as I undid my belt, then started to unclasp the brooches. It seemed forever since that first day when I had ripped my bodice open so

Cruel Beauty – A Dark and Romantic Retelling of Beauty and Cruel Beauty – A Dark and Romantic Retelling of Beauty and

Betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom, Nyx has always known that her fate was to marry him, kill him, and free her people from his tyranny. But on her seventeenth birthday when she moves into his castle high on the kingdom’s mountaintop, nothing is what she expected—particularly her charming and beguiling new husband. Nyx knows she must save her homeland at all costs, yet she can’t resist the pull of her sworn enemy—who’s gotten in her way by stealing her heart.” There are creepy demon shades roaming around in the book along with some other weirdness. Nyx gives her all to save Ignifex and in the end it all pays off. Thus, I decided it was time to cull the herd. So decided I would try the cliched booktube trend of reading first chapters of books that have been on my shelves awhile...unhauling anything that didn’t at least mildly capture my attention. I thought this would be a book of action, but it's actually a book of inaction. Nyx spends the majority of time thinking about what she needs to do and her feelings of hate and inadequacy, but almost no time actually doing anything relevant to achieve her goals. The majority of the book is spent with her walking down hallways, opening doors, and entering different rooms, while ruminating about kissing guys and how much she loves/hates her sister. This book, I would have preferred to read written for adults. It is mostly a romance, with a lot of talk of virginity, ravishing, tearing off dresses, etc. But because it's YA, despite being quite sensuous, it doesn't go further than kissing. Too bad really, I don't come across many good adult romances, and setup of "Cruel Beauty" is perfect for creating all kinds of convenient excuses to facilitate sexy times.Okay, so let's talk about characters. Holy shiz. These characters are so crazy and dark and totally different than most other YA protagonists. Nyx is what I wanted Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy to be - BA and mean, with an iron will, but so broken that you couldn't help but love her. I loved how her family relationships pushed her into her feelings for Ignifex. Her character motivation and development flowed really well, I thought. The reason why Shade and Ignifex share the same height and appearance is because they are two pieces of the same person - Prince Marcus. An Aesop: Nyx saves Arcadia not through destroying her nemesis, the Gentle Lord, but through saving the man she loves - prince Marcus. Nyx Triskelion and I are not right for each other, this much is apparent. I saw many similarities between her and Penryn (protagonist of Angelfall), which is probably part of the reason why I fel the comparison was necessary; anyway, many were the differences as well. Both heroines are flawed and know it, but while Penryn fights along with her faults making strengths out of them, Nyx's attitude is more ambiguous and, I believe, hypocritical. She never denies having, as she dutifully remind us every now and then, "poison in her heart", but she fluctuates between thinking of herself as the most despicable person on Earth and easily rolling with it, even relishing it. It basically depends on her mood of the moment. I personally prefer the latter case, which is a pity since we see more of the former. Nyx is so volatile that she can convincingly assert she in love with Ignifex and be firm in her purpose to kill him, which she can express with determination and willingness one minute and with nothing but frustrated reluctance the next. She does not seem torn: she seems bipolar. The fact that she simultaneously falls in love with two men ( I don't give a hoot they are in fact the same person: for the whole book they were separate entities and that's it) does not help me getting rid of the impression, actually it reinforces it: she does not know what she wants, she's indecisive, flighty, erratic, and she remains so for the whole story, never growing up and never deciding until she had but a path to take, so it's not as if she finally did take a real decision.

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This book has some of the coolest worldbuilding I've seen in a YA novel. Originally, I thought the book was going to be high fantasy, but now I'm not so sure. It almost feels like "low," or "second world" fantasy, as the setting is a world that was settled by the Greeks and then cut off from the rest of the world. For that reason, the people believe in Greek gods, and the demons that the blurb refers to are supposed to have originated in Tartarus. I love twisted fairy tale retellings, and “Cruel Beauty” definitely hits the mark for me. This is more than a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” though. It is a story on its own, with hints of a familiar tale yet completely new. Shade had been created when the Kindly Ones had prince Lux split into two beings; Shade was one of them, the creature with all the malice removed and unable to speak about the two halves of a whole. Since then, for nine hundred years, he had been a captive and servant of Ignifex, taking human form only during the night. Trying to undo the Sundering, he had five wives of Ignifex killed in the Heart of Fire, as they could not bear the truth. While I understand why many might not like it, I'd still recommend it if you're looking for an enjoyable retelling loosely based on the Beauty and the Beast. But then again, I'm no expert in this genre since I'm a newbie and all yet, I know that I loved it.And considering Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies/fairy tales and the Cupid and Psyche myth is probably my favorite in the entire Greek mythology canon... Nyx was intended by her father to be the savior of her people. It means she will most definitely die. Her father made a deal with the king of the demons, the Gentle Lord; in exchange, Nyx will be given in marriage to the Gentle Lord when she turns 17. In return, her beloved twin sister, Astraia, will be able to live a normal, happy life. Nyx truly loves her twin sister, the innocent, sweet Astraia, but it is so hard not to feel resentment at one who has been the recipient of all their father's love, while knowing that her happiness will come at the cost of your own, but she is determined to fulfil her mission: I had broken my sister’s heart. I would never see her again, so I could never beg her forgiveness. I had let hatred fester in me so long, I didn’t think I could ever learn to love her properly, either. But I could make sure she lived free of the Gentle Lord, no longer afraid of his demons, with the true sun shining down upon her.Nyx has been groomed half her life to be the Gentle Lord's bride, but her father and his secret society has other plans for her: she will marry him, she will seduce him, she will kill him. Nyx will save Arcadia from the demons. Nyx wonders whether Shade is some part of Ignifex. As it turns out, he's part of prince Marcus's soul. I was totally absorbed in this book. I couldn't put it down. Basically, this was me and Cruel Beauty: The mythology aspect was pretty cool. I’ll admit that. I enjoyed that more than the characters, the nonexistent plot, and the weird as hell ending.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge | Waterstones

There's literally like a magical god bird who explains everything, but then MC conveniently forgets so that the story can drag on for a few more chapters on paper, the concept of fusing multiple fairytales with classical mythology is exciting and should make for a pleasantly dense story that is at once comfortably familiar but also studded with surprising AHA moments as the overlaps and contrasts begin to manifest. however - there wasn't a true marriage between the elements here. their presence was more decorative than functional, and while it occasionally meshed well, overall it was just too cluttered. it's like when you have a really delicious cupcake and it's already got a tasty frosting on top but then someone thinks "add gummy worms!" and it throws off the texture and the taste and you have to chew SO MUCH you forget about how tasty the cupcake was because you're so focused on not choking to death. Also, the writing. The writing is so dull. Gahhh, it’s monotone and Nyx and is a v terrible narrator. Plz, keep your day job. Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide. Get started Close Readers can look at the ways this story is based on the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale. Also, this cut-off world worships Roman gods and goddesses and some of the lesser "peasant" gods called Hedge gods. Mythological stories are told throughout, especially those dealing with the Underworld and including older stories of Kronos and Typhon.The dialog between characters feels so odd and stilted to me. Often when two people are talking, what each is saying individually makes sense, but not in the context of what the other is saying. It's like the author wrote one person's lines independent of the other, and then wove them together without making any edits. The odd dialog makes certain parts of this story really hard to follow, and I walk away from this not really sure I understood the crucial plot points. Okay okay, lastly, let me just add that the first scene with Nyx and the Gentle Lord made me burst out laughing, and I don't mean that fake laughter where someone says they're laughing and they're not. I mean I was actually laughing and crying at 3 in the morning - holding this book to my chest because I knew I was going to freaking love it. You deserve all that and more. It made me happy to see you suffer. I would do it all over again if I could." I realized I was shaking as the words tumbled out of me. "I would do it again and again. Every night I would torment you and laugh. Do you understand? You are never safe with me." I drew a shuddering breath, trying to will away the sting of tears. Liked it less this time around. Still think it would have been better as a smutty adult romance because there is just not enough world building for this to be a good fantasy novel. Often, I felt as if characters existed in a vacuum. When I first started the book I was disappointed and thought I would not like it because it seemed to drag for me. It took a few chapters for me to get interested, pretty much when Nyx got to her wonderful husband's home, the evil Ignifex.