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A review by readsforlove
Hunted by Meagan Spooner
1.5
Good lord, this book has me pissed. This is the second installment in my Beauty and the Beast research, and ... wow. This was painful. I at least kind of enjoyed Robin McKinley's Beauty, but this ... like, damn.
Skipping over the usual problematic parts of the source material that this book tries to fix in one conversation 85% through the book (spoiler: it doesn't work), this book was just ... GAH.
Let's start with Yeva. She is ... stupid. But that foolishness is not very consistent, which is so. infuriating. The scenes where she is first captured by the Beast (and being held in a cell until she gets sick and almost dies) were probably the most infuriating part of the novel, because she just ... is so naive? And comes up with these assumptions with no fucking grounds for them??? like. girl.
She had the potential to be a good character, and I did like the heart of what the book was trying to say (chasing the things you want and turning again and again to the next thing in the hopes of finding it, but never succeeding) but the ending just completely negated that theme (as well as, you know, most of the novel also negating it). I can kind of see what this book was trying to be, but it just ... failed. Miserably. The Beast wasn't cruel, but he hurt her and manipulated her and I just don't get why??
Anyway, I'm already tired of writing this review so I'll end with the reason it gets a star--the writing was pretty. It felt really haunting and scary (would have worked so well as a horror, I'm telling you), and the magic system was really cool too. I loved the various magical creatures. They really took my breath away and heightened the fairytale experience of reading this.
Okay I'm going to go take a break from B&tB content to purge my weary soul of the ick.
Skipping over the usual problematic parts of the source material that this book tries to fix in one conversation 85% through the book (spoiler: it doesn't work), this book was just ... GAH.
Let's start with Yeva. She is ... stupid. But that foolishness is not very consistent, which is so. infuriating. The scenes where she is first captured by the Beast (and being held in a cell until she gets sick and almost dies) were probably the most infuriating part of the novel, because she just ... is so naive? And comes up with these assumptions with no fucking grounds for them??? like. girl.
She had the potential to be a good character, and I did like the heart of what the book was trying to say (chasing the things you want and turning again and again to the next thing in the hopes of finding it, but never succeeding) but the ending just completely negated that theme (as well as, you know, most of the novel also negating it). I can kind of see what this book was trying to be, but it just ... failed. Miserably. The Beast wasn't cruel, but he hurt her and manipulated her and I just don't get why??
Anyway, I'm already tired of writing this review so I'll end with the reason it gets a star--the writing was pretty. It felt really haunting and scary (would have worked so well as a horror, I'm telling you), and the magic system was really cool too. I loved the various magical creatures. They really took my breath away and heightened the fairytale experience of reading this.
Okay I'm going to go take a break from B&tB content to purge my weary soul of the ick.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Moderate: Blood