Kay's Reviews > Cruel Beauty

Rosamund Hodge understands my deep and abiding need for awful people in love. Objectively, I'd say Cruel Beauty is probably three stars -- it's a good, solid debut, but the writing lacks finesse, and I found some of the action sloppy and awkward. That said, I feel like I've been subtracting stars from things lately because they've hit be in a bad way, or for the wrong reasons, or really just failed to appeal to my interests. Inversely, Cruel Beauty gains stars from me because it is almost everything I love in a novel.

Nyx is a wonderfully complicated, if sometimes exasperating, heroine. Her choices tend to be genuinely awful, which is what I find so charming about her -- she's flawed, she's angry, she's selfish and bitter and still so, so heroic. Ignifex is pure delight, and Hodge describes the movements of both characters with such precision and vivacity that they really come alive on the page. The romance is not precisely organic, and it's not even really two awful people finding out that their awful bits compliment each other; really it's about two people trying and utterly failing to be heroic, and loving each other for their failures (amongst other reasons).

I loved Nyx's relationship with Astraia. I was really, really worried this book was going into some "but I'm not like other girls" BS but wow did I love Astraia. I loved how complicated their relationship was, all tied up in love and resentment and vengeance. I love, love, love how Astraia grew and changed, and I love how Nyx changed against her. Excellent use of foils, A+ job deconstructing crappy dichotomies between the flighty, shallow sister and the series, kick-ass one.

The actual world of Cruel Beauty is kind of weirdly crafted -- it's probably my biggest point of contention. The land of Arcadia is the remnant of some weird alternate-history Greco-Roman empire except people are frolicking about in waistcoats and ballgowns. I think this was Hodge's excuse to use Greco-Roman mythology as parallels and symbolism to the main plot, but the thing is that the book didn't really need those symbols -- it was strong enough on its own. And while I think the idea of this alternate history was an interesting one, it's not enough of a focus for the book for it to really work. I guess I feel like it was too specific to fit that kind of fairytale dream-world feel you'll find in some stories, and yet not specific enough to feel like a grounded, well-thought-out universe.

That said, the imagery and descriptions of the castle rooms are amazing. The sheer imaginative force that went into this book is impressive. The rooms Nyx encounters, and description of the people around her, the sense of place in this novel is really stunning. I'm really, really excited to buy my own copy of this one, and I'm really, really excited to see what Hodge writes next. Cruel Beauty is an amazing debut.