Cruel Beauty

Such a beautiful story. It felt like the fairytale it is loosely based in, but it was even better than I would have imagined. But unlike fairytales, "Cruel Beauty" completely lacked flat, perfect characters. Ignifex, Shade, Astraia and Nyx are all very far from being perfect which I enjoyed a lot. Plus, I absolutely loved the mythology presented in the story, very unique if you ask me.

Ganz ehrlich Leute? Dieses Cover ist doch wohl der Hammer oder? Ich liebe es einfach, vor allem, dass die Rose in eine Treppe übergeht und haaaaach…Es ist einfach wundervoll. Diejenigen, die sich jetzt denken: Hab ich noch nie was von gehört. Denen kann ich nur sagen: ENGLISCH meine Freunde! Ich versuche, immer mehr auf Englisch zu lesen, weil ich ja auch nicht Übersetztes lesen können will, obwohl das schon verdammt schwierig ist. Dann legen wir mal los: Die Story Die Story ist ja an die Schöne und das Biest angelehnt und ich finde, das merkt man auch. Es wurde viel mit verschiedenen Mythologien gearbeitet und immer wieder Rückbezug genommen. Beispielsweise zur griechischen Mythologie. Aber ich muss sagen, dass die Story sich eher schleppte. Es gab vieles, das einfach noch nicht fertig klang. Die Übergänge waren mir auch viel zu fließend und diese Insta-Love bei beiden (jaaaaaa, Liebesdreieck….ich bins ja auch schon satt…) war einfach unglaubwürdig. Ansonsten besteht die Story eigentlich nur aus der Beschreibung, wie Nyx durch das magische Haus schlawinert und immer wieder auf neue Räume trifft. Das Ende fand ich allerdings sehr gut gemacht und ich liebe es ja, wenn ein wenig Mindfuck dabei ist. Hier gab es auch Paradoxien (schreibt man das so?), die aber auch aufgelöst wurden. Die große Endauflösung hat mir allerdings nicht so gut gefallen. Zwar musste es auf ein Happy End hinauslaufen, aber mir war nicht ganz klar, wie dieser Handel nun dafür gesorgt hat, dass es so ausläuft. Klar, der Handel war dadurch nicht fair und somit galt er nicht….aber warum endete es so? Und woher wusste das der verdammte Spatz? Ich kann mich auch total irren, weil ich einiges nicht verstanden habe, aber ich nehme schon für mich in Anspruch, wenigstens so genau zu lesen, dass ich mindestens die grundsätzlichen Zusammenhänge verstehe. Die Idee Die Idee ist wirklich großartig und es wurden viele, sehr viele schöne kleine Fantasyelemente eingebracht, die das Buch enorm aufgewertet haben. Da wären z.B. die verschiedenen Räume: Das Heart of Water, ein riesiger Raum gefüllt mit Wasser und in der Luft schwirren kleine Lichter umher oder das Heart of Air, welches ein sich in der Schwebe befindender Garten mit wunderschönen Blumen ist, der einen riesigen Pool mitten drin hat. Auch die Fetzen der griechischen Mythologie waren gut eingebracht und fantastisch erklärt, auch wenn sie eher als Hintergrund zur Story dienten. Die Atmosphäre in diesem Buch ist malerisch und nur mit großartig zu beschreiben, denn die Fantasyelemente sind so gut in die Story eingebracht, dass allein diese animieren weiterzulesen. Der Schreibstil Der Schreibstil lässt sich nur mit flüssig beschreiben, sogar für mich, die eigentlich überhaupt nicht auf Englisch liest. Allerdings schien es mir manchmal, als wären verschiedene Zusammenhänge einfach weggelassen worden oder einfach nicht erkläre worden. Vielleicht hat man sie einfach vergessen. Aber das störte den Lesefluss, weil man nicht genau wusste, was nun Sache war und was gerade passierte. Das Englisch ist vielleicht ein wenig anspruchsvoller, allerdings doch gut zu bewältigen. Zur Not den Google Übersetzer zur Hilfe nehmen

I had forgotten how heavily Greek Mythology is featured in this book. So it has two excellent things going for it, to me: Greek mythology and being a fairy-tale retelling. In a world that became a cage, everything changed. The sky is different, the Gods forgot the people, demons lurk in every shadow and the Gentle Lord, who commands those demons, rules over everything. The main character, Nyx, is fated to marry said Lord, after her father struck a bargain with him for his wife. Because of that, she hates her father and her dead mother and her twin sister because she was the one chosen to marry a monster. She was the one chosen to save their world. Nyx does her best not to hate her sister, but her easy smiles make it difficult because she can live her own life free, unlike Nyx. And as much as she tried to contain it, the hatred comes out and she hurt Astraia. Honestly, Astraia, her Father and her Aunt are nowhere near likeable. Her Father and Aunt are just plain horrible and Astraia is too gullible, incapable of thinking with her own head and not bitter for the sister she has known will lose for years. The Gentle Lord is introduced in a way that makes him immediately more likeable than anyone else. Even though this is my second time reading this book I remember nothing. So I like this Lord, I do. Is it weird that I like and trust Ignifex much more than Shade? Even after he showed Nyx the Heart of Water. Because in that scene it felt like there was a manipulation of her feelings so she would kiss him and he could talk (and trick her). So I don't trust Shade, but I do trust Ignifex, he is direct and funny! Nyx interrupts and tries to stop a bargain, but her failure to do so makes her a little hopeless. It's difficult to find the other Hearts and the fact that she knows that people don't know that there's a chance to stop the Gentle Lord is messing with her mind a little. She takes the knife from the wall, where Ignifex embedded it in, but he is right there with her and takes it away. So Nyx kind of tricks him into kissing her to take two keys from him. But she likes that kiss more than she should. One of those keys allows her access to Ignifex's study, where a "model" of Arcadia is, along with two Hermitic sayings. He catches her there and is furious, taking her to the room where his eight dead wives are, intending to leave her there the entire night. But Shade comes to rescue her and he keeps on showing some affecting toward Nyx but I don't trust him. She has some sense to leave and keep exploring the house. She finds the room with the shadows, the demons (Children of Typhon), and almost goes mad herself if not for Ignifex, who saves her. But darkness, not demons, just darkness, is lashing out around him, hurting him because it's nighttime. He begs her to help him to his bedroom but in her hate, she leaves. Only to come back sometime later and help him, with Shade grudgingly helping too, to his bedroom. Where Nyx spends the night because Ignifex asked her to. And they both feel safe. They like each other more than they are willing to admit and it is moments like these ones that make it clear. And Shade's criticism of Nyx helping the Gentle Lord betrays a part of him, his true self. If only for a split second. Ignifex takes Nyx to the Heart of Earth and they have a very insightful and sweet talk and she is starting to like him more and more. And why wouldn't she? He is funny and smart and never hurt her and kind, in his own way. And then she makes a bargain with him: they keep on trying to stop each other but together they will try to discover his name. And again, these leads to a funny, sweet and insightful scene. When Shade finally shows his true self, he takes Nyx to the Heart of Fire and almost kills her. In there she sees the truth about everything. But when she wakes up in her room, after Ignifex saved her, she can't remember anything. At least she finally knows that she can no longer trust Shade. Ignifex takes care of Nyx and even ends up taking her to the Heart of Air. There she realizes that Arcadia is actually inside the dome she saw in his study and therefore collapsing the house means collapsing Arcadia itself. But it's also there that Nyx finally admits that she loves Ignifex and is finally ready to give her entire self to him. They are adorable! After her sister's marriage, Astraia became a little bitter, hell-bent on revenge. Even after seeing that her sister truly loves the Gentle Lord she demands she helps her destroy him. And it's killing Nyx to have to go through with the promise she made before. Nyx sees the past and the Kindly Ones tell her a part of the truth. So she acts on what she knows, freeing Shade from the Children and Typhon's room, gathering them and unleashing their power on Ignifex. That joins Shade to Ignifex and Nyx has again another vision: the night the Sundering happened, where the Prince was afraid that he would doom Arcadia and so he called in the Kindly Ones and made a bargain. Arcadia and himself were locked inside Pandora's box and Shade, the hatred in the Prince's heart, was ripped out of the Prince, who became Ignifex. After they were joined again, they opened Pandora's box and time reverted to the time when the Prince made the bargain. Nyx remembers only very faintly, there and gone again memories of her life in that other "timeline", let's call it, with the Gentle Lord and feels confused. When she finally remembers, the truth was always with her, she runs to the ruined castle to bargain with the Kindly Ones. She was ready to just be with him in the darkness of the box and that was enough to break the power of the Kindly Ones and return the Last Prince to the world, to his wife. This story was amazing! I felt like I was mostly reading it for the first time because I barely remembered anything. So I could fall in love with these wicked characters that feel true, flawed like any of us; the plot, that kept the story on my mind constantly; the love these characters showed and the bonds they had no way of escaping from; the world, so beautifully written and painted. I missed this and I hadn't realized how much. All amazing.

Beautifully written and enthralling!

There were elements of the book that made me giddy: how I recognized part of the mythology used from one of my favourite TV shows, how well this mythology was blended with the fairytale retelling, how much I shipped Nyx and Ignifex. It was also really fun guessing weither Ignifex or Shade was more questionable and the world and the house it was set in was just fascinating. But then there were a lot of little sentences or moments that didn't work for me throughout the book and, worse than that, I didn't care much about everything close to the ending. It felt all over the place and also too slow. Nyx slightly annoyed me in some little moments, too, but I think she is excused due to her backstory, which was interestingly dark. I think 4 stars are earned for entertaining me that well before the ending. It had the right tropes for me and played them well for the most part.

Eine wahnsinnig tolle und mitreißende Geschichte verbirgt sich hinter diesem traumhaften Cover. Ganz nach dem Sinn von die Schöne und das Biest, wird die Geschichte von Nyx und Ingnifax erzählt. Von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite mitreißend und fesselnd. Der Schreibstil ist wahnsinnig gut und flüssig. Eine deutsche Version wäre überragend. Bis dahin schwelge ich noch etwas in den Erinnerungen an Cruel Beauty.

2.5

After like 2 years of reading slump, i was finally able to pick up this book and finished it. Surely it was interesting enough for me to kept reading until the end in the span of two days, but sadly it couldn’t meet my expectations… it had so much potential tho :( here’s my justifications : 1. It left me with confusion. The world building, laws, magic, the gods and important figures weren’t explained well making them messy and out of place… 2. Nyx the mc. While i appreciate that she’s brave, true to herself and sassy… She was annoyingly inconsistent and easily distracted, which made the story got even more confusing…. Hated her family :/ Liked her relationship with Igniflex (it was insta love and there’s this weird love triangle lmao but ehh their interactions were cute enough for me to enjoyed it so yeah) 3. Don’t get me started with the choice of names……