Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

Goodreads Blurb

Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.

Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.

I am completely stunned with Monstrous Beauty! It wasn’t a mermaid tale in the way that the current ones are. Yes, killer mermaid, but it seemed like Elizabeth Fama used the old legends to create her story. She didn’t try to make it into a modern fish tale, she worked on the legend and created a spectacular story.

There were two story lines entwined and I loved both. But you knew what had happened, you knew what caused this, and you knew what caused that. You knew what would happen, but instead of making this book boring and predictable, it made it even more amazing and it made me even more antsy, waiting for the characters to realize what was happening. You guys have no idea how much I wanted to scream out “I know what happened!” to the characters! My anxiety kept growing until finally, finally they discovered everything. And hey. That’s totally a good thing! But there were a lot of surprising twists as well, and a lot of times, the outcome wasn’t as clear as I thought.

And a YA book isn’t a YA book without romance right? I loved the romance! It was definitely different from the rest, but why, you’ll have to read it for yourself! Let’s just say it’s a tragedy, not a HEA. Trying not to spoil anything, I’ll just say that it’s definitely not insta-love despite what you’d think and that history repeats…sadly. The romance is definitely a key point and is definitely something special.

Character-wise, I felt like the characters weren’t very dimensional. They did have separate personalities, but they just felt…unreal. And no, not because Syrenka was a mermaid and Ezra was…well, anyways. I enjoyed reading about them, but I felt like if I met them, I would feel as if they were fake. Hester resembles a lot of other characters and I couldn’t find anything very likeable about her. I just couldn’t connect with them, but it wasn’t very obvious, and honestly, I almost didn’t notice!

The tag line on the back of the ARC fits perfectly—Scary, Sexy, Soulful. Chilling and Dark, Monstrous Beauty was an incredible read that made me shiver and stare. Beautiful prose, amazing plot, and stunning twists, this is definitely one to add to your TBR!

Pages: 304

Series: Stand-alone

Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy/Romance/

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

Release Date: September 4, 2012

Rating: 4.5 ---> 4

"She screamed underwater, a high-pitched wail with a rapid burst of clicks that caused the sea life around her to scatter. It was as Noo'kas had foreseen. She had dared to love, and she had lost everything."