Becky's View: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
♦publisher: Delacorte Press
♦release date: July 16th, 2013
♦hardcover, 400 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦from publisher for honest review

In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love. 

Review: If I was going to review this book in one word, that word would be...

BREATHTAKING.

Stacey Jay's latest book completely blew me away.  With it's gorgeous flow of words and undeniably creative restructuring of this classic tale, Of Beast and Beauty is truly one of the best fairytale retellings I have ever read.  These comfortably familiar characters inhabit a futuristic world of myth and dark magic, where one group of people have adapted to survive the world, and one group hides away and fears it.

The story is told in three alternating POVs, and I honestly have never seen this done quite so well.  The characters are so rich and complex that the lines between who is beastly and who is beautiful is continually blurred and crossed.  Main characters, Isra and Gem, both grow so much, not only because they are forced to grow by the situations they face, but because their new and cautious feelings for each other make them want to grow. They face so many challenges, both together and apart, and it was a thrill to be along for the ride.  Even the supporting characters are so well written.  Almost every person's part in the story constantly shifts as ugly truths are revealed.  One of my favorite characters was Needle---so kind and loyal and dignified right to the very end.  And the roses,...OH the roses.  They are a character all their own; I doubt you've ever seen the rose in Beauty and the Beast portrayed quite like this...and you may never look at a rose garden the same way again.

The story twists and weaves and tumbles, leaving the reader breathless.  Each long-held secret is uncovered in a flurry of devastation and awe.  The story shows how fear of the unknown can easily manifest into cruelty and prejudice.  While each fighting to save their own people, Gem and Isra make each other stronger. They desperately search for a way to stop the evil that has a hold on Isra's city, without sacrificing their lives in the process.  The ending is incredibly exciting, so much danger and triumph! And I won't spoil anything, but the way Stacey Jay interprets the "tranformation of the beast" scene was the perfect way to bring Isra and Gem's story to a close.

Of Beast and Beauty easily wins a spot on my favorite books of 2013; don't let yourself miss out on this outstanding and beautifully told story!

Find Stacey Jay online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Of Beast and Beauty:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound