Review: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

January 15, 2015 3 stars, Book Review 34 ★★★

Review: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey JayOf Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
Published by Delacorte on July 23, 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 391
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

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.

three-stars

Wow. What a wonderful page-turner. It wasn’t a love read, but dannnnng. Of Beast and Beauty receives the highest of 3s. BECAUSE WE ALL LOVE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. DON’T DENY IT.

I’m always real picky when it comes to retellings. I think I treasure the originals so much that there has to be some big wow factor to make me go crazy for one. Let me tell you, this one was close. I’m always happy reading them, there’s something about fairytales that just draw people in and make you want to read more even when you know what’s going to happen. You’ve seen it a thousand times.

And really, what’s one more time?

Beauty and the Beast is my all time favorite, as I’m sure it is for every reader out there. A beautiful, kind, and smart Belle paired with a dark, hidden sweetness that is the Beast. It’s hard not to fall in love with their story. With this novel, there is no difference in that area. Isra and Gem took a long while to grow on me. I didn’t see their relationship at first. It was nearly half of the book before I was like, “whooooaaaa…WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED.” How do I like them now? WHHHHHA??

I love the twists of this story. It’s so blended, yet transformed and any fan will notice and appreciate the changes made. Some minor, some MAJOR. Through some unusual circumstances, Isra becomes queen of Yuan, a city that banishes “her kind” –people of deformity. They are dead set in their beautiful ways.

In comes AMAZEBALLS Gem to make her realize that his people aren’t the monstrosities that her people insist they are, and that his people are all dying of hunger (he does so, by chatting her up about his culture and using oral tradition to his advantage–my favorite!). They have women and children like everyone else; he has a son back at home. Their relationship grows by working with one another, eventually trusting each other, and setting out to both do the impossible.

It was very much a Beauty and Beast tale with a twist of Romeo and Juliet, with all that feuding and treachery and whatnot.

PROBLEMS SHMABLEHMS:

-Luuurve: I couldn’t see the chemistry until I was like half-way into the book. I was feeling ‘meh’ about their whole relationship. BUT give it a chance. It gets much better later on.

-Inconsistent characterization: Gem was perfect, but I hated the hot-cold persona that is Bo. His feelings for Isra were all over the place and I’m not sure if that was so the reader couldn’t place his intentions or if it was because he didn’t know himself, but it made it harder to connect to him as a whole (which is probably because he’s supposed to be the douchebag Gaston). Isra is the one that bothered me the most because one minute she’s timid and insecure, and the next she’s strong and steadfast.

-Plotholes: I know that this is a fairytale and everything is supposed to be magical and shit. But the people of Yuan are complete idiots. I won’t spoil anything by revealing all these plotholes, but there are quite a few.

Anyway, it was UNPUTDOWNABLE after that first 40%. CLAPS-ALL-AROUND because it’s definitely the best retelling I’ve read this year, even with that rating!

Kat Stark

Kat Stark

Guest reviewer
Kat Stark

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34 Responses to “Review: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay”

  4. Felicia (asillygirl)

    I loooove the Beauty and the Beast! It’s one of my favorites. Belle is awesome, and the Beast is so cute – just a shame he regenerates into a stupid prince at the end.
    Anyway, this book sounds really interesting. I’m a hugh fan of retellings and especially fairytales, so I think I’ll have to check it out.
    See, once again you’re making my TBR-list way too long.

    – Love, Felicia
    Felicia (asillygirl) recently posted…Chapter 36: How I desperatedly tried to stay friendsMy Profile

    • Kat

      LOL! My pleasure. This one has very good twists to the story that I think everyone can enjoy!

    • Kat

      Y’know, I say go for it. I’m super picky when it comes to my fairytales, but I read this as a birthday buddyread for one of my friends and all of them gave it 4s and 5s. They LOVED it with all their hearts.

    • Kat

      I have it in Netgalley right now actually. They took like a few months to approve me, but I’ll put the review up on here when I do get around to it 🙂 I heard mixed reviews about that one too.

    • Kat

      Yeah, I heard of that one as well and people felt pretty meh about it. This one, I’m sure is her best work at least according to a majority of my GR friends.

    • Kat

      There’s a fairytale challenge, is that the one you’re referring to? This would be perfect!

    • Kat

      YES! It’s very original and she transforms a lot of things from the original that I think we’re done in a way that doesn’t make it OVERdone. If I’m making any sense on that…

    • Kat

      Well all the reviews you’ve read are correct!! ENJOY IT HUN! <3 I love me some fairytales as well