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aarnireads's review against another edition
2.0
Beautiful, vivid imagery and casual queerness amidst the flowers - except it is more style and aesthetic than story and likable characters. I found myself incredibly bored around halfway point and skimmed the rest.
also once again fel and estrella could have just been friends. you can love someone as a friend and still think them the light of your life. like bro
also once again fel and estrella could have just been friends. you can love someone as a friend and still think them the light of your life. like bro
blurrypetals's review against another edition
5.0
Well, you outdid yourself here, Anna-Marie. I thought it couldn't get any better than When the Moon Was Ours, but it did. Just like When the Moon Was Ours, this book is another book that makes me glad to be alive, one that's beautiful through and through, and I adored it to pieces.
I am a huge sucker for the way Anna-Marie McLemore writes about love. It portrays love of all kinds, be it a girl's love for another girl or for a boy as a natural and beautiful thing. The book opens with the five youngest Nomeolvides girls all discovering they're in love with the same girl and it's treated so simply and without contest, just as it should be treated. There's a lovely sentiment Estrella has at some point in the book where she is thinking about how she was once in love with a girl and then she was in love with a boy, that it didn't matter what was beneath their clothes but what was in their hearts.
McLemore's use of metaphor and metaphors-turned-literal is so wonderful and enchanting in every possible way. I got so wrapped up in the story and the characters that, once it was over, I got a little upset that I didn't get to spend just a little bit more time with them. I wanted to spend another 8 hours with them, I wanted more, I wanted an epilogue...I wanted it, but the book doesn't need more. It's perfect just the way it is.
The way Fel's and Estrella's relationship blossomed was as lovely as the flowers the Nomeolvides women grew and I reveled in each moment they spent together, especially the scene with the indigo mushrooms; I thought my heart was going to burst.
Everything I've read of McLemore's thus far is absolutely effortless in its beauty, its love, and its willingness to speak for people who have often been left voiceless, be it for the LGBTQ+ community or the lantinx community. They're so wonderful and unique a writer I doubt I will ever find someone who writes things quite as lovely as they do. Thank you, Anna-Marie, for this gift of a book. You are incredible.
I am a huge sucker for the way Anna-Marie McLemore writes about love. It portrays love of all kinds, be it a girl's love for another girl or for a boy as a natural and beautiful thing. The book opens with the five youngest Nomeolvides girls all discovering they're in love with the same girl and it's treated so simply and without contest, just as it should be treated. There's a lovely sentiment Estrella has at some point in the book where she is thinking about how she was once in love with a girl and then she was in love with a boy, that it didn't matter what was beneath their clothes but what was in their hearts.
McLemore's use of metaphor and metaphors-turned-literal is so wonderful and enchanting in every possible way. I got so wrapped up in the story and the characters that, once it was over, I got a little upset that I didn't get to spend just a little bit more time with them. I wanted to spend another 8 hours with them, I wanted more, I wanted an epilogue...I wanted it, but the book doesn't need more. It's perfect just the way it is.
The way Fel's and Estrella's relationship blossomed was as lovely as the flowers the Nomeolvides women grew and I reveled in each moment they spent together, especially the scene with the indigo mushrooms; I thought my heart was going to burst.
Everything I've read of McLemore's thus far is absolutely effortless in its beauty, its love, and its willingness to speak for people who have often been left voiceless, be it for the LGBTQ+ community or the lantinx community. They're so wonderful and unique a writer I doubt I will ever find someone who writes things quite as lovely as they do. Thank you, Anna-Marie, for this gift of a book. You are incredible.
cupofteenspirit's review against another edition
4.0
Add this to your list of MUST reads.
I love the magic of the garden, and the lyrical writing really sends you to this dark enchanted garden hiding something in the roots of the flowers. There is maybe one or two straight people in this entire book so Why make the only straight couple in this book your chosen POV to write in?
I feel like the story could have been told better from Delia's POV or Bay's. I love Fel and Estrella but they aren't really the main plot. The series of events is caused by a queer romance after all, why not let the reader read Delia hide Bay from everyone because she loves her so much?
I love the magic of the garden, and the lyrical writing really sends you to this dark enchanted garden hiding something in the roots of the flowers. There is maybe one or two straight people in this entire book so Why make the only straight couple in this book your chosen POV to write in?
I feel like the story could have been told better from Delia's POV or Bay's. I love Fel and Estrella but they aren't really the main plot. The series of events is caused by a queer romance after all, why not let the reader read Delia hide Bay from everyone because she loves her so much?
jujube2387's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
trin's review against another edition
2.0
The writing is beautiful and there are some interesting, magical ideas, but there needed to be a bit more concrete plotting and solid set pieces to really root the reader in the world (pun sort of intended). As it was, I could never quite connect to the characters. And Estrella, the supposed main character, never really gets to do much of anything to distinguish herself from her cousins, nor did the love story between her and Fel feel visceral enough. I just wanted a little more solidity amidst all the lyricism.
freedommwrites's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Poetic and lovely
moodreadermelissa's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
ancsanna's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
laura_mayfair's review against another edition
5.0
"Even in its first faint traces, love could alter a landscape. It wrote unimagined stories and made the most beautiful, forbidding places. Love grew such strange things."
Wild Beauty is a magical fairy tale that tells the story of the Nomeolvides women who are cursed to love their lovers out of existence. When the five cousins all fall in love with the same girl, they give offerings to la Pradera (“the meadow”) in hopes that the land will not make their beloved Bay Briar vanish.
The land takes their offerings and gives them a mysterious boy named Fel who knows as little about his past as the girls do. Told in lush, lyrical prose, the novel unravels the mystery of this boy’s origins as well as the nature of the curse that has plagued these women for generations.
McLemore uses the layered brushstrokes of a poet and nearly every page contains passages readers will want to savor:
"Buds opened into tea roses so pale pink and peach they were almost white, and into wide blooms the yellow of candle flames or the deep red of black pearl peppers. They came in the soft tints of a shell’s inner curves, and in colors as deep as ink and indigo."
"He kissed her, and she was a world in bloom, her skin becoming starflowers."
My favorite aspect of reading Wild Beauty, besides the delicately perfumed prose, was the way McLemore crafted the story to allow the reader to slowly discover the mystery of la Pradera. There are subtexts here that reveal sharp truths about first love and second love, about the love of brothers and sisters, and about the complex dynamics of power and oppression.
Wild Beauty is a gorgeous novel and one well worth returning to. I look forward to reading more of Anna McLemore’s books.
Wild Beauty is a magical fairy tale that tells the story of the Nomeolvides women who are cursed to love their lovers out of existence. When the five cousins all fall in love with the same girl, they give offerings to la Pradera (“the meadow”) in hopes that the land will not make their beloved Bay Briar vanish.
The land takes their offerings and gives them a mysterious boy named Fel who knows as little about his past as the girls do. Told in lush, lyrical prose, the novel unravels the mystery of this boy’s origins as well as the nature of the curse that has plagued these women for generations.
McLemore uses the layered brushstrokes of a poet and nearly every page contains passages readers will want to savor:
"Buds opened into tea roses so pale pink and peach they were almost white, and into wide blooms the yellow of candle flames or the deep red of black pearl peppers. They came in the soft tints of a shell’s inner curves, and in colors as deep as ink and indigo."
"He kissed her, and she was a world in bloom, her skin becoming starflowers."
My favorite aspect of reading Wild Beauty, besides the delicately perfumed prose, was the way McLemore crafted the story to allow the reader to slowly discover the mystery of la Pradera. There are subtexts here that reveal sharp truths about first love and second love, about the love of brothers and sisters, and about the complex dynamics of power and oppression.
Wild Beauty is a gorgeous novel and one well worth returning to. I look forward to reading more of Anna McLemore’s books.
book_immersion's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0