Saturday, February 4, 2017

Book Review: Hunted by Megan Spooner

Release Date: March 14th, 2017
Read: January 24th-31st, 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: Standalone
Format: ARC, 384 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for an honest review




Description from GoodReads:


   Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them. 

   So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. 

   Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Review:


   I will call you Beauty, for that is what you are.
   Beauty and the Beast has and always will be, my favourite fairytale. Any chance I get, I will pick up a new retelling of the story, Hunted being one of those. After hearing such great things about Meagan Spooner, and hearing that her new book would be a retelling of my all time favourite fairytale, I requested it as soon as I could.
   With Disney's version of Beauty and the Beast, and the original, I tend to expect two different kinds of stories whenever I approach one of it's retellings. Hunted, was definitely a retelling of the original, with the three sisters, and our protagonist being the youngest of the three. Although it was clearly a retelling, Spooner brought her own twists to the story, with new magic and a new backstory to the Beast. I really enjoyed that sense of something new, with the new backstory. People like me, who actively seek out retellings, would be in for a real treat having not being able to predict what was coming. I also really enjoyed the different creatures that joined the story, with the dragon that was more than a dragon, and the firebird. I've always been fascinated by the two creatures, so it was nice being able to read about those.
   Having been my first Meagan Spooner novel, I didn't really know what to expect when it came to her writing style. With the case of the story, I found the writing to be a little dense. The world and story that Spooner created, just seemed too simplistic for the way her writing style was. In the end, I found this resulted in me feeling like the story was missing something, overall leaving me dissatisfied with the end of the book.
   Hunted was a new twist on the original retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and although I was expecting more out of the story, I would definitely recommend it to others who love the fairytale. 


Rating:


Favourite Quote:


"Her soul against mine feels like music, like a heartbeat, like magic. Like beauty."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:


Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings, Beauty and the Beast, Beasts, Hunting, Magic


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