A review by blewballoon
The Misadventures of an Amateur Naturalist by Ceinwen Langley

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

If I had read this book when I was younger, it would have become a core part of my personality. I was taken from the first page of the book, and I felt the same level of investment and excitement to read it the entire time. I put the book on my phone (normally I read on my kobo) so I could read it wherever I was even if I just had a couple minutes. 

This is a beauty and the beast retelling set in the 1800s where our main protagonist just wants to study wildlife and the society she lives in makes that really hard. If you have religiously watched the animated Disney movie like I did as a child, you will recognize some clever nods in the dialogue, but the form the story takes is quite different. This is not necessarily a gritty retelling, but it's not a whimsical fairy tale either. 

I loved all of the characters. I think that's my favorite aspect of the book, if I have to pick just one. Everyone's motivations and actions make sense, and even the worst characters were written in such a way that I sympathized with them. This is not a book where characters are operating like props to move the story where it needs to go or milk a situation for drama, the characters made decisions like rational beings dealing with complex emotions. The love story is sweet and slow and beautiful.

Literally the only criticism I have is that I noticed some typos, but that may just have been the edition I grabbed. I am definitely going to try to find a nice physical copy of this. I would highly recommend this book to fans of T. Kingfisher and Naomi Novik's fairy tale retellings.
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