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A review by emleemay
Hunted by Meagan Spooner
4.0
“She wept because she did not know what she wanted, and because she wanted everything.”
4 1/2 stars. Wow, this was... unexpected. I got an arc of [b:Hunted|24485589|Hunted|Meagan Spooner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1467052649s/24485589.jpg|44080112] from edelweiss months ago. After putting it off again and again for other books, I decided to let it expire. Seriously, who even needs another Beauty & the Beast retelling? Then this book was given to me as a gift and *resigned sigh* I decided to just give it a shot. And I'm so glad I did.
[b:Cruel Beauty|15839984|Cruel Beauty (Cruel Beauty Universe, #1)|Rosamund Hodge|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1371652590s/15839984.jpg|21580669] is still my favourite Beauty & the Beast retelling, but this comes in at a close second. It obviously follows the familiar B&tB format, whilst doing something completely new and fresh with it. I loved what it did. I love the new themes the author explores in this old template.
It's a haunting, well-written story. Full of icy coldness, the language of fairy tales, and underneath, a running theme of that inexplicable longing for something you can't quite put your finger on. Maybe it's like wanderlust - that restlessness and dissatisfaction with staying in one place for too long. Maybe it's just wanting without knowing what you want. It's powerful, though, and Spooner captures that feeling so wonderfully here.
Surprisingly, it's very... not romantic. There is no time given over to lusty encounters and stolen kisses with a somehow sexy beast. Rather, the relationship between Beauty and this Beast is one between two outsiders who see something they recognize in one another. Yeva (aka "Beauty") is a trained hunter and she remains dedicated to her passion and her family throughout.
The setting is inspired by rural medieval Russia. Lots of coldness, snow and ice, and it fits with the tale very well. Yeva and her father navigate this white-covered wilderness in their hunting, but then Yeva's father starts rambling about a beast unlike any other. A beast that is smart and cunning. A beast that is following him.
The snow is a canvas, her father would say, upon which the beast paints his past, his home, his intentions, his future. Learn to see the picture and you will know him as you know yourself.
When he doesn't return from a hunting trip, Yeva leaves her beloved sisters to go track him. Of course, she finds way more than she bargained for. Not just a beast, but a whole world of fantastical creatures that seem to play by a different set of rules. But Yeva knows these rules; they're the rules of the fairy tales her father always read to her. The rule of threes. The rule of curses. The rule of breaking them.
Yeva is determined to kill the beast and return to her family. But her quest to kill the seemingly unkillable creature unveils ever more secrets, and the longer she spends in this world, the more she worries what world she will find when she leaves.
Despite having read so many retellings these past few years, [b:Hunted|24485589|Hunted|Meagan Spooner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1467052649s/24485589.jpg|44080112] found a special place in my heart. It was thoughtful, moving and - for me - unputdownable.
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