Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
September 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover, 193 pages
Purchased
Book Synopsis
In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.
Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her. But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering. Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does. (GoodReads)
Memorable Quote
When I looked into those topaz eyes, I did feel like I knew him, at least briefly. But that's still not the scary part; I see that now. The scary part is that moment, it was like he knew me......
pg. 28 (The first meeting...)
Review
Beauty and The Beast is by far my favorite fairy tale of all time. So needless to say I know my beasts and I know my beauties. While Aurora and Lucius certainly had aspects of the characters, Aurora with goodness and Lucius with his flawed character before the beastly transformation and his changing heart after beauty walks in- something felt lacking.
I’m not saying I didn’t like this but I didn’t love it. The writing flowed very well, the main characters perspective alternate between chapters in the first person, giving the reader both sides of the story. Some scenes are the characters alone, but we get to read what each person is thinking and feeling. If your familiar with the original fairy tale, its suppose to be dark, dramatic and tender all wrapped in one. Lucius at points in the story defiantly had a darker undertone, but most of his personality was sarcastic, I think there’s a huge difference between sarcasm and darkness. Beauty helps pull beast out of this darkness whereas Lucius basically pulls himself out. Another aspect of Lucius was underdevelopment. His character was likeable but there was so much more I wanted to know. Exactly why (explosion aside) did he blow his arms off- what lead him to these actions- what was in his heart to take him down this journey?
The story had the potential to be great; it had the plot (the background leading up to the explosion, the whole Gallowglass concept, the death of Aurora’s mother) and makings to get deep, gritty and powerful. Baratz-Logsted had some beautiful, awesomely flawed characters to make this an intense read....but it was presented as a fast YA novel consumable to the masses. So take Crazy-Beautiful for what it is- a few hours of a watered down fairy tale, a lot of laughs and a few tender hearted moments. Teen romance yes...contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast...absolutely not.
Rating
Language if any was very minimal, violence, a little bit of kissing and a chapter on male masturbation. Recommended for 14 and up.
3.5/5- YA, Romance
i love that fairy tale tooo ...might add this to the to read pile.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, so I might read this one.
ReplyDeleteWow..like another capt. hook takes place for a hero this time *LOL* but i love the story of how it sounds..thanks for the review.. =)
ReplyDeleteFirst off - great review. It made me ponder my reaction to this book. I think you make some valid points about the differences between a true fairy tale re-telling and what happens in this story. But that said, I liked it because is was consumable, something to read and finish in a couple of hours. I came in knowing it wasn't going to be perfect, that it was sold as a YA romance, and that I liked the cover. I'd give it about a 3/5 too...but you know how sometimes a book doesn't have to work on all levels to be interesting and enjoyable? That was this one for me.
ReplyDeleteDon't give up on YA fairy tale re-tellings - some of them are seriously awesome!
p.s. have you thought of doing a post on your favorite Beauty and the Beast stories? I'd like to see that!
The premise definitely sounded interesting. I am sad to hear the story didn't follow through! :( Have you read Beastly? I am going to try to read it before the movie comes out.
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