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90sinmyheart's review
5.0
WHAT.
Full disclosure, I think I tried reading this once before but it moved very slowly at the beginning and didn't get past the first few chapters. This time I did though. WORTH IT.
Full disclosure, I think I tried reading this once before but it moved very slowly at the beginning and didn't get past the first few chapters. This time I did though. WORTH IT.
winterreader40's review
4.0
This book is what would happen if Dracula and Rebecca made a beauty and the beast baby.
Simon receives a letter from a woman whose research he never credited on his greatest discovery threatening exposure if he doesn't come to her, but Simon is to old and ill to make the journey so his son Matthew goes in his stead.
Even though vampire Sidonie was not expecting Matthew she keeps him in Simon's stead and they wind up living together though she will not drink his blood without his consent, which she asks for every evening and he refuses each time.
He spends months in Sidonie's home, painting by day and denying her at night, with the complications of villagers and other vampire's adding twists to the tale, until a letter arrives for Matthew telling him his father is dying and to come home.
This was a surprisingly good story that I randomly found in a second hand store and I'm super glad I picked it up.
Simon receives a letter from a woman whose research he never credited on his greatest discovery threatening exposure if he doesn't come to her, but Simon is to old and ill to make the journey so his son Matthew goes in his stead.
Even though vampire Sidonie was not expecting Matthew she keeps him in Simon's stead and they wind up living together though she will not drink his blood without his consent, which she asks for every evening and he refuses each time.
He spends months in Sidonie's home, painting by day and denying her at night, with the complications of villagers and other vampire's adding twists to the tale, until a letter arrives for Matthew telling him his father is dying and to come home.
This was a surprisingly good story that I randomly found in a second hand store and I'm super glad I picked it up.
moonlit_shelves's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
francis_deer's review
3.0
Intriguing version of "Beauty and the Beast".
In the role of beauty we get Matthew, a gifted painter. The beast is an ancient vampire woman. The story appears to be set in Canada.
The atmosphere of this book is quite haunting and dreamlike, the resolution of the story stays true to the fairy tale. Ultimately, this book is about finding beauty in something alien and utterly scary as well as about redemption.
In the role of beauty we get Matthew, a gifted painter. The beast is an ancient vampire woman. The story appears to be set in Canada.
The atmosphere of this book is quite haunting and dreamlike, the resolution of the story stays true to the fairy tale. Ultimately, this book is about finding beauty in something alien and utterly scary as well as about redemption.
mdpenguin's review
5.0
I got this as part of a Story Bundle and it never really caught my attention until I read Robin McKinley's Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast and surprised myself by liking it. This is, of course, radically different and I honestly didn't expect to enjoy it terribly much but it managed to really grip me. Baker's writing held my attention well and the descriptions were at the same time detailed enough to get a good image of the setting and characters -- something that's actually pretty important to making the story seem realistic enough to suspend my disbelief since it's told mostly through the perspective of a visual artist -- but there was also ample room to let my imagination customize everything from the time to the geography. Unlike McKinley's story, which takes its time even introducing the Beast, it's a single-track from the beginning to the conclusion without much more deviation than is needed for the story to work. I think that what I liked about it wasn't so much the overarching story as the fact that it's almost a long character study of William, the Beauty to Sidonie's Beast. To give his psychological journey life, Baker created a very colorful, though narrow and confining, world for him to live in as he found his way reluctantly from fear to love. I think that a lot of my admiration comes not only from that but from the fact that this was as good as it was while being a vampire romance novel, which is a subgenre that is so easy to dismiss. Perhaps my surprise at its quality enhanced my enjoyment of it to get an extra star or so in my rating, but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it enough to rate it with five stars.
errantdreams's review
4.0
This is a relatively gradual and low-action story. I didn’t have trouble focusing in the beginning, however, because it’s very easy to read between the lines and pick up on the fact, very early on, that Sidonie is not human. It’s clear to the reader, if not to Matthew, that the young woman he meets when he arrives at Sidonie’s house is actually Sidonie, not her daughter. She never eats, he only sees her at night, and the house contains no mirrors. The villagers who live nearby and who do her shopping and bring her supplies call her “the old one”. Matthew spends his days painting and exploring the house, frustrated beyond belief that he has no idea why he’s there, but he’s not allowed to leave. He knows she could kill him any time she wanted–so why doesn’t she?
Tal is the vampire who created Sidonie, and he is a cruel, malicious creature. He and his followers find it fascinating that Sidonie obviously hasn’t fed from Matthew, and there’s some question as to whether or not they’ll abide by the rules that keep them from touching him.
There are some episodes that keep things from being entirely slow. Matthew of course has to try to escape at least once. He visits the nearby village a couple of times, and nearly has a breakdown from taking a drug his friends gave him before he left. He and Sidonie gradually become more aware of each other’s dark places, and it isn’t that hard to figure out where things will go, but it’s the journey that’s so interesting. I love the details of the complex relationship that evolves between the two. They both end up winning my heart even though they’re each somewhat unlikable in their own way at first.
All in all this is a lovely book, and a very good vampire novel.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/10/review-a-terrible-beauty-nancy-baker/
Tal is the vampire who created Sidonie, and he is a cruel, malicious creature. He and his followers find it fascinating that Sidonie obviously hasn’t fed from Matthew, and there’s some question as to whether or not they’ll abide by the rules that keep them from touching him.
There are some episodes that keep things from being entirely slow. Matthew of course has to try to escape at least once. He visits the nearby village a couple of times, and nearly has a breakdown from taking a drug his friends gave him before he left. He and Sidonie gradually become more aware of each other’s dark places, and it isn’t that hard to figure out where things will go, but it’s the journey that’s so interesting. I love the details of the complex relationship that evolves between the two. They both end up winning my heart even though they’re each somewhat unlikable in their own way at first.
All in all this is a lovely book, and a very good vampire novel.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/10/review-a-terrible-beauty-nancy-baker/
rhetoricandlogic's review
1.0
I read this, because I was enchanted with [b:Cold Hillside|22115668|Cold Hillside|Nancy Baker|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415844739s/22115668.jpg|41459849]. This here is -without words- .
Another take on the human falls in love with vampire and manages to unvamp vampire in the end trope.
Enough said.
Another take on the human falls in love with vampire and manages to unvamp vampire in the end trope.
Enough said.
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