A review by jellifysh
Savage Beasts by Rani Selvarajah

Did not finish book. Stopped at 34%.
This is mostly because of Meena, our main character, which I could barely stand.
First, she has zero agenda on her own in the first third. She gets pushed around by other people and the only reasons why she chooses to do something is because people told her she should. Great exception: her first encounter with James, which just makes zero sense why she was there in the first place, and also, why she interrupted.
Second, she immediately falls in deep deep "love" with the first guy that's not a bitch to her. They meet twice from what I can tell before he gets his ass arrested, followed by two other discussions, and then they're proclaiming their undying love to each other. She steals money from her family and plans to run away with him. They've only talked a handful of times beforehand. 

The setting was cool, I guess. It didn't fit the way the characters interacted and just from that, it wouldn't have made much of a differene if this hadn't been set in the time and place that it was, aside of the brewing war with the East India Company. Meena mentions in the first chapter that she shouldn't be caught without a chaperone, but she never has a chaperone with her in the first place, so that didn't mean anything I guess.


Well, I'm sad but not surprised. YA-Greek-Mythology-Retellings are apparently just not my genre. I should just stop reading them, honestly.


@NetGalley and Harper Collins: Thank you guys for this ARC!