Cruel Beauty

Cruel Beauty

 

Rosamund Hodge

 

 

I really wanted to love this, but I figured out most of it about halfway through and that just kind of ruined it for me. I love the idea behind it, it was just too obvious for me.

 

This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling with some Greek Mythology in the mix.

 

 



Our Beauty, Nyx, was told when she was very young that she would save their city because of her father's selfish bargain with 'The Gentle Lord' who is known to grant peoples' wishes with a price. After finding out that his wife could not conceive and hated herself for not being able to bear his children, Nyx's father asked the dark man to give his wife the gift of bearing children. The man told the father that his wife would bear two girls, but once they turn seventeen, one of them would have to marry the man and stay in his castle forever. What he didn't say is that his wife would not survive the births of her children. Nyx's father kept that promise, and taught Nyx secrets to defeat the Gentle Lord and save their city from the demon shadows he rules.

 

So, Nyx has known this her entire life and kept her mouth shut against every evil though she's had about her father, her beloved sister, and her Aunt. What I don't get is that as soon as she moves into the castle, she unleashes all of her fury on the gentle lord, even after everything she was taught. I liked the Greek aspect to the book, mixing one of my favorite stories with mythology was a nice twist. There was a bit of paradoxical nature in the book that I just couldn't get into. I don't usually like parallel worlds and such so that didn't work for me.

 

In the beginning, the gentle lord tells Nyx that if she guesses his name, she will be set free but if she guesses wrong she will die. I didn't guess his name, but rather who he was about halfway through the book. I loved the answer, but hated the fact that I was able to figure it out so early because it just made the rest of the book a bit boring and predictable to me. I did like the premise of the book, I didn't particularly like Nyx though. I liked that she had a dark and snarky side, but she seemed very immature even for a seventeen year old.

 

If only I hadn't figured out the main part of the story, I would've liked this a lot more. And then there's the whole falling in love with your captor thing but I won't get into that.