Book Review: Cruel Beauty

Author: Rosamund Hodge
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 2014, Balzer + Bray
Rating: 2/5 Stars

Nyx is promised to marry Ignifex, the evil, deal-making ruler of demons. Her father is the one who is sending her to this fate, but he has trained Nyx her entire life to kill Ignifex. When Nyx turns 17, she marries him. Her plan is to destroy him and his castle, which will in turn release the kingdom from Ignifex's curse. However, Ignifex isn't what Nyx expected. As she learns more about this mysterious man and uncovers his secrets, Nyx must make a choice that will either save or destroy the kingdom.

Cruel Beauty is marketed as a "Beauty and the Best" retelling. That's pretty much what drew me to the book, and I found myself very disappointed at the lack of parallels. I gave this book 2 stars because I did enjoy some parts of it, but I didn't really like it overall.

Let's discuss the issues. First off, Nyx was a terrible main character. She was SO ANNOYING. She had very few redeeming qualities, if any. I might have said this before: I can get over an irritating main character if I really enjoy the story, but alas, that was not the case this time.

How I felt about Nyx.

I love "Beauty and the Beast," but Cruel Beauty felt pretty far removed from that story. Some of the names were so weird that they felt weird just for the sake of being weird, you know? That's not the most important thing in a book to me, but it was odd.

My other big issue with the book was the lack of world building. It was so freaking confusing. Hodge throws around all sorts of terms relating to the world, but then they're never explained. The Greek gods were still worshiped, which is super interesting, but she never did anything with it. I was confused about a lot of stuff. I didn't know why the kingdom was cursed or what exactly the curse was. Ignifex was just a confusing character altogether. The ending of the book was unclear and rushed; so many things could have been better. It seemed like Hodge started writing a dark, magical world but never fully developed it. 

I don't think I can recommend this book to anyone unless you don't mind underdeveloped, confusing stories. I'm pretty disappointed. The writing was repetitive and choppy and I'm not about that. It was just weird.