Review of 'Beauty' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I'm torn. This book had fantastic art, a very neat ambitious story, and a very interesting world. But it also has serious issues with the story that take away from the whole experience. The second half is kind of repetitive and leads nowhere for a while, then we get a very abrupt ending that had little to no build up.
It was a fun read and I'd recommend it, but the ending was pretty disappointing, so it's more of a 3/5 than a 4/5.
Spoiler review: Would've been an easy 4/5 if the book didn't actually end with "and then she conquered all the lands and everyone lived in peace". They were also building up for another villain, the son of the boar king, and we literally ignored his existance about 20 pages after he was introduced. The "happily ever after" just isn't convincing after all the wars and people …
I'm torn. This book had fantastic art, a very neat ambitious story, and a very interesting world. But it also has serious issues with the story that take away from the whole experience. The second half is kind of repetitive and leads nowhere for a while, then we get a very abrupt ending that had little to no build up.
It was a fun read and I'd recommend it, but the ending was pretty disappointing, so it's more of a 3/5 than a 4/5.
Spoiler review: Would've been an easy 4/5 if the book didn't actually end with "and then she conquered all the lands and everyone lived in peace". They were also building up for another villain, the son of the boar king, and we literally ignored his existance about 20 pages after he was introduced. The "happily ever after" just isn't convincing after all the wars and people fighting over her.
I also felt disappointed that we never got to see other faeries. We only saw Mab and that's it. It felt like they were building up to Mara being a character (Mab's sister, queen of faeries). Nothing came of it. We didn't even get to see her. I'm surprised nobody else reviewing this story mentions this because it felt like a chunk of the story that clearly was planned but never materialized. We even see faeries react to Mab saying "She's back!" and scurrying off, as if planning to do something about it.
Overall, good story. Really enjoyed the concept and illustrations, but the execution felt like there's a lot to be desired. Like there were supposed to be 50 more pages before the authors decided it's time to end it.