Of Beast and Beauty

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Author(s)

Stacey Jay

Publisher

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Genre(s)

Age Range

13+

Release Date

July 23, 2013

ISBN

0385743203

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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.

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

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.

Editor reviews

2 reviews

Beautifully Beastly

November 05, 2013

Overall rating

3.7

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What I Liked:
Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised to really enjoy Of Beast and Beauty, since I enjoyed the two prior Stacey Jay books I read, in spite of the subject matter being less aligned with my interests. Anyway, Of Beast and Beauty perfectly fits what I've been looking for: science fiction fairy tale retellings. They are my favorite thing at the moment. Though not quite at the level of A Long, Long Sleep or Cinder, Of Beast and Beauty serves as further proof that such retellings are brilliant, putting a new spin on well-trod literary ground.

First up, to enjoy Of Beast and Beauty you will need to just accept that the planet these humans landed on is imbued with its own conciousness. There's a spirit in the planet, and it watched the humans arrive. Seeing that they weren't prepared for the alien landscape, the planet helped them adapt, changing their skin. Some people, being vain as they are, were disgusted by these adaptations (scales, thicker skin, claws, etc.) and determined that those who had evolved were no longer human. The smooth skins, unchanged from the skins we wear today, made a pact with dark magic to protect their domed cities, leaving the Monstrous to fend for themselves in a land that becomes more inhabitable for every year the domed cities thrive, because the planet's spirit is suffering from the dark magic.

Within this setting, you might suspect that the Beauty would be smooth-skinned and the Beast monstrous. In fact, it's the other way around, or, a bit like Pride and Prejudice, they're both beautiful and beastly. Looking at the story arc, Gem, the monster boy, serves the role of the beauty, held captive, traded by his father. Isra, the beast, is smooth-skinned, but not perfectly so. Mutations have cropped up even within the smooth-skinned humans, and, were she not the queen, would be exiled within the dome. However, Queens are important, as they must sacrifice their lives to keep the pact going; they must feed their blood to the roses.

As the fairy tale dictates, Gem and Isra fall in love, and their love just might be able to break the curse (this is not a spoiler, because it's revealed in the prologue). Their romance comes a bit out of left field, but once it got going, it was very adorable and shippable. They actually spend a couple of months together, tending the garden, slowly warming up to one another in spite of their prejudices. My favorite thing about their relationship is the way that they come to realize how subjective beauty is and how attracted they are to one another, even though society wouldn't necessarily deem either of them beautiful. That's such a nice message and contrasts with the model perfect hero and heroine in most novels.

Jay also spins in Gaston, in the figure of Bo. Like his counterpart, Bo is confident and impressed with his own prowess. He's had his share of the ladies in the dome, but now he's got his sights set on Isra, and the crown that comes with her. Though I see what Jay was trying to do with Bo, his character didn't really work for me. I like that Jay tried to show that he wasn't just a villain, but he was also creepy to a degree that I couldn't sympathize with him, even though he's got some good qualities.

What Left Me Wanting More:
The retelling is really quite brilliantly done and, if you can just accept the magic planet stuff, the setting is lush and fantastical. The ending of the novel, however, comes to a conclusion that, while aligning well with the original tale, contradicts somewhat with the other messages about beauty.

Though I do enjoy Stacey Jay's writing, she did not pull off multiple first person perspectives well. Isra, Gem and Bo all take turns narrating, and, despite the chapter headings, I regularly forgot whose head I was in, because they all sounded the same. I'm also not sure if Bo's perspective was entirely necessary, added as it was to show his depths, but I think he might have been easier to like had I not seen some of those thoughts. Some of the good would have shown through without using his perspective, perhaps more clearly.

The Final Verdict:
Of Beast and Beauty retells Beauty in the Beast in a wholly original fashion. Readers who enjoy fairy tale retellings will not want to miss this one.

Christina Franke, Staff Top 10 Reviewer 677 reviews

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Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

August 21, 2013

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After finishing this book I'm stuck thinking to myself "Did I read the same book as everyone else? I think I did it wrong." Everyone I'm friends with on Goodreads LOVED it and I was struggling not to DNF it. The only reason I plowed through it was because I didn't have anything else to read. I had so many books that I was waiting on but none had arrived yet.
I wanted to love this so bad. If you know me, you know that my favorite fairy tale of all time is Beauty and the Beast. To me it portrays the story of true love, seeing past any imperfections they may have while they're still perfect for you. And don't get me wrong, it DID have all the elements of the story I love, like the roses, the magic, the unconditional love, the Beauty, the Beast, and even the books were thrown in there, but that's about it.
I also loved the world building. I could see all the domes and the way the new world looks in my head as I read. And the way the Monstrous were described helped me come up with the way they looked in my head. Even the desolate plains of the Desert (no mater how brief their stint there) stood out in my head. But unfortunately those were the only things I really came to care about.
One thing I didn't like was the writing style. I found myself confused by all the time jumps. In the book it goes from them talking and then it'll say randomly that its been months. I'm not sure if its because I have a Nook Book and the pages weren't broken right, but the time jumps were weird and they threw me off. I also felt like there was nothing going on. So many times I wanted to put down the book because I was bored. The plot was literally like this /\________/\_________ Every time something happened it fell off again and I wanted to put it down. And of course that plot twist, I guessed it from the very beginning. Lastly, the beginning was an info dump. Had it been spread out through the story I might have enjoyed it more. I had to take more notes in the beginning than I did the entire story.
Then there is the romance. I felt kind of weird about the way they hated each other one day and then fell in love the next and then he was still not be truthful with her. For it to be Beauty and the Beast it didn't feel like real love to me. Only on Isra's part. Gem was flaky and didn't end up really trusting her. And Bo was every bit a lunatic as his father. It was a lot going on with the characters for the plot to be so boring.
I'm not sure what about this novel hooked all the other readers, but unfortunately I was not one of them. I intended to love this one, but I just couldn't get into it. And for that, I truly am sad. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the summer (and the year) and it did nothing for me. Hopefully everyone else will love it more than I did.