Review: Of Beast and Beauty

“Of Beast and Beauty,” by Stacey Jay. The Goodreads summary:

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

So good! It was way better than I was expecting. I was seriously impressed. It’s not like I had particularly low expectations for this book or anything, but I’ve just not been having super great luck with books recently, so I expected this one to follow suit. But I was so happy when it didn’t.

Admittedly, I don’t think any Beauty and the Beast retelling could ever live up to Robin McKinley’s duo, but those are very much classic retellings. “Of Beast and Beauty” takes the basic fairytale and transforms it into something uniquely its own. It’s mostly fantasy but kinda sci-fi too, and the world the author has created, while you don’t get to see all that much of it, is fascinating and complete with its own set of prejudices and social issues. And I loved how the lines were blurred between who was Beauty and who was the Beast. Gem and Isra are both . . . both, and it was just so dang clever of the author to do that.

Gem, I loved the whole time, but I feel like there’s not really all that much else to say about him. Tall, dark, handsome, brooding—what else do you need? Isra was a bit more interesting of a character, because while she’s likeable the whole time, she starts off weak and naïve and powerless. But then as the story progresses, she slowly comes into her own and finds her way. She reminded me a bit of Elisa from the Girl of Fire and Thorns series in that way. Gem and Isra were both characters that had me thinking about them even when I wasn’t reading the book, and when I finished it, they and their story stayed right there with me. (Which, since I finished this book right before bed, made it dang hard to fall asleep, let me tell ya.)

Overall, I enjoyed just about every single thing about this story. Not only was it a fresh take on Beauty and the Beast, but it was a fresh take that was done well. I whole-heartedly approve.

Rating: 4 / 5

Review: Cress

“Cress” (Lunar Chronicles #3), by Marissa Meyer. The Goodreads summary:

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

I really enjoyed “Cinder.” And I totally adored “Scarlet.” “Cress” . . . well, I want to make it clear that I did generally like it. I can tell already that this review is going to come off sounding more negative than I actually feel, so I feel I should state up front that the book was fine. It just that “fine” was a bit of a letdown after the amazingness that was “Scarlet.” So here we go.

First of all, I feel like this book has about a million points of view. There’s Cress’s, Scarlet’s, Cinder’s, and Kai’s, and that’s just for starters. Thorne, Dr. Erland, and Levana have bits from their perspective as well, and I’m sure there are other ones I’m forgetting. And switching between all those points of view got frustrating for me. I didn’t get to spend enough time in anyone perspective to really start to feel at home there.

I think this was especially the case with Cress and Thorne’s story. I mean, Cress is the title character, but I don’t feel like I got to know her in the way that I got to know Cinder and Scarlet in the other books. Same thing with Thorne. There wasn’t nearly enough time for him to develop as a character as much as I would’ve liked. With both of them, there were such promising hints of depth to their characters, but as soon as I felt like we might be getting somewhere with them, the perspective would change and we’d never really get back to that hope of depth.

And speaking of Cress, that girl did not come close to winning me over in the way that Scarlet or even Cinder did. I feel like Cress is always cowering and screaming, and yes, I understand why she’s that way, but it didn’t make it any less annoying. And don’t even get me started on her “relationship” with Thorne. He’s the first guy she’s ever seen, he’s handsome and charming, and they’re tossed in a stressful situation together—there’s no way that’s a foundation for a healthy relationship, and the author never really developed their feelings enough to convince me otherwise.

Plus, Wolf pissed me off in this book. He’s so awesome in “Scarlet” that I wasn’t expecting to be so constantly frustrated by him. It’s like he literally cannot function without Scarlet, and I just wanted to tell him to get a grip and focus on something other than his woe-is-me, my-life-is-over-without-her attitude. Mopey men are NOT attractive.

The shining moment of this book for me was the chapter with Winter. That girl has got fascinating written all over her, and I’m excited for the next book to see more of her.

Overall, like I started out with, I did like the book in general, it’s just that there were so many things I had issues with that it doesn’t really compare to, say, “Scarlet.” I mean, the “unputdownable” point for me (the point where I finally got sucked in) didn’t come until page 483, and in a book that’s 550 pages, that’s a long time to wait to finally get into it. Still, I’ll be reading the final book when it comes out.

Rating: 3 / 5

Other books in this series:
Cinder
Scarlet

Review: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary E. Pearson. The Goodreads summary:

Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers?

This fascinating novel represents a stunning new direction for acclaimed author Mary Pearson. Set in a near future America, it takes readers on an unforgettable journey through questions of bio-medical ethics and the nature of humanity. Mary Pearson's vividly drawn characters and masterful writing soar to a new level of sophistication.

This book was pretty much nothing like I expected. In a good way. I was expecting this to be an action-y dystopian where after Jenna discovers the truth about her accident, she teams up with some friends, takes on the establishment, and ends up saving the world. I don’t know why I was expecting that, but I was. Seriously, through the entire book I kept waiting for the story to take that turn, and it never did.

Instead, what I ended up getting was a much more reflective book. Not reflective in a slow way, because Jenna keeps discovering new secrets right and left and that keeps the story going at a pretty fast clip. But reflective in that it’s a book that brings up issues that make you think. Like about what it means to be a human and what determines identity and worth. It also makes you think about medical advances and if it’s possible to go too far to save someone. And those are just the bigger questions—there are so many smaller ones it brings up as well.

So the majority of the book is Jenna trying to figure out her own answers to those questions. And trying to navigate the new relationship dynamics in her life—with her parents, with her grandmother, and with her newfound friends. I was really impressed with the way the author explored Jenna’s complicated relationship with her family. It was deftly done, and her family was really well-layered. Especially her parents. It would have been so easy to portray them as the bad guys, but instead Mary Pearson shows you not only their mistakes and struggles, but their intense, unwavering love for Jenna as well.

Overall, the book was really well done. It’s not big on action and adventure—in fact, like 90 percent of the book takes place at Jenna’s house. But despite that, it’s not a slow or boring book at all. There’s too much going on psychologically for that. So if you want a book that will give you things to mull over even after you’ve finished reading it, give this one a try.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Review: Scarlet

Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2), by Marissa Meyer. The GoodReads summary:

Cinder returns in the second thrilling installment of the New York Times-bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother and the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she has no choice but to trust him, though he clearly has a few dark secrets of his own.

As Scarlet and Wolf work to unravel one mystery, they find another when they cross paths with Cinder. Together, they must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen who will do anything to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner.

I really liked “Cinder,” the first book in this series. It was so much better than I was expecting. So needless to say, I was pretty excited to read “Scarlet,” especially considering some of my most trustworthy sources said it was even better than the first book. And they were so right.

I enjoyed “Cinder” quite a bit, but I adored “Scarlet.” Something about Scarlet’s character grabbed me from the second she was introduced in a way that Cinder didn’t quite manage to do at first. Scarlet’s different than Cinder—she’s a bit more gritty and rough-and-tumble and not afraid to fight. And I don’t know . . . she just came across as a little more awesome than Cinder. Which is not to say Cinder isn’t awesome, because obvs she is, it’s just that Scarlet was a bit stronger of a heroine, I thought. And let me just say: WOLF. Kai was kind and charming, but Wolf is a street fighter. And isn’t that enough said? He’s just that wary kind of tough that gets me every time.

And lest you’re worried that the book doesn’t manage to continue the story started in “Cinder,” let me put your fears to rest. The story continues, and it gets even more exciting and complex. Scarlet and Wolf are the main characters in this book, but Cinder and Kai still play a large part as well, since some of the chapters alternate over to their perspective. And I just thought the author did a great job both balancing the two different stories and integrating them.

And the intersection between “Scarlet” and Little Red Riding Hood, on which it’s based, is really well done too. Scarlet has her signature red hoodie and a missing grandmother, but more even beyond that, there are some especially clever parallels. There was even one point where the parallel was so unexpected and spot on that I may have let out a little squeal of delight.

Overall, a fantastic second book. I can’t even remember the last time I read a strong second book in a series, but this definitely fits the bill. It has me looking forward to the next book for sure.

Rating: 4 / 5

Review: Cinder

Cinder, by Marissa Meyer. The GoodReads summary:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

After finishing this book, I was struck with an almost overwhelming desire to burst into applause. It was just that good! I don’t know why, but I was not expecting anything great from this book. I think it was the fact that Cinder was a cyborg that turned me off--sci-fi stuff like that just isn’t my thing. But luckily for me, my awesome sister sent me a copy, so I decided to read it despite the fact that I wasn’t planning on reading it before. Good choice on my part.

The thing I loved most about this book, and the thing that drew me in from the first page, was how, I don’t know . . . friendly? . . . this book felt. It felt so natural and easy, and basically reading it was like listening to a friend. The writing style was just so accessible and fresh. And funny--don’t forget funny. This book made me smile so many times.

Cinder is endlessly likeable. She’s funny and self-deprecating and down-to earth. And my heart just went out to her for the prejudice against her for being cyborg and for the crappy life she has--but Cinder never lets that get her down. She’s so awesome. My favorite secondary character goes, hands down, to Cinder’s android friend Iko--she’s just so spunky and hilarious. But oh my gosh, the villains in this book are so well written! There’s the step-mother and the Lunar queen, and both are just so devious and passive aggressive and horrible that they made me want to pull my hair in frustration--which is probably actually a sign of an effective villain.

In case you didn’t pick up on it before, this book is a retelling of Cinderella, and it’s such a good one too. It keeps important elements of the original story (the step-family, the prince, the ball, etc.) while introducing new and completely awesome things, like Cinder being a mechanic, all the futuristic stuff, and the political tensions between the people of earth and the moon.

Overall, I really liked Cinder. It’s the first in a series, so I have a while to wait before I get to find out what happens next. But apparently the next book, Scarlet, is going to be another fairytale retelling, featuring Little Red Riding Hood. I can’t wait!

Rating: 4 / 5 (honestly, if this book had managed to be a standalone, I probably would’ve given it a 5--I’m too prejudiced against series)