3 out of 5 Stars
This book has been popping up on my feeds for a while now. A dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast seemed right up my alley, so when I found it at the library, I had to pick it up.
The BlurbGraceling 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 fulfill 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—enthralls 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.
My ThoughtsBlah… There were some things I really really loved about this book, but other things that irked me enough that I had to force myself to keep reading. To say the least, I was kind of disappointed.
The concept is a uniquely dark take on one of my all-time favorite fairy tales. Nyx was raised to be a weapon, to destroy the demon lord who killed her mother through one of his twisty bargains. But then Nyx meets the demon and discovers a kindred spirit. Although she’s been training to kill him and save her world her entire life, she finds herself falling in love with the monster.
But here’s where the disappointment begins.
Despite her quest to destroy her demon husband, Ignifex, and save her homeland, Nyx is one of the most wishy-washy characters I’ve ever encountered. One second she wants nothing more than to be loved by her family, then the next she hates them and can’t stand the thought of them. Nyx ruminates about how wicked of a person she is even though she hasn’t actually done anything really terrible yet. She falls in love with Ignifex’s captive, a mysterious shadowy figure known only as Shade. Then in the next scene she’s admitting to herself that she’s falling in love with Ignifex. Ugh… another YA love triangle…
Admittedly, Ignifex is an awesome character. Although he’s the “evil” demon lord, he’s honest about his moral shortcomings and still strangely honorable in his own way. He had killed his previous wives, but not really in any way he had control over. He made life-destroying bargains with townspeople, but only with those who knew of the dangers of dealing with him. He could be rangling demons one moment, then curling up next to Nyx the next, like a frightened child. I can understand how Nyx could fall in love with him.
The world building is also pretty awesome. There’s an interesting mix Greek mythology thrown in with typical fairy tale elements. The descriptions of the setting are vivid and the demons lurking in the shadows are just vague enough to make them extra creepy.
Overall though, the pacing was a little too slow for my taste. This probably had something to do with Nyx’s incessant internal monologue–constantly berating herself for loving her “evil” husband and not wanting to give him up to save her unloving family. The ending is also a bit trippy, though I admit that I actually enjoyed the confused sort of dual perspective.
Cruel Beauty earned a tentative 3 out of 5 stars for me. If you really love fairy tale retellings and don’t mind an indecisive main character, this might be for you.
Happy Reading!Save
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