Lisa Reviews: Rosamund Hodge’s – “Cruel Beauty”

Growing up, there was hardly a single day that went by where I wasn’t watching Lion King or Beauty and the Beast over and over again. These two Disney movies were my absolute favourites. Looking back, I don’t know how my parents put up with them constantly playing! So, when I heard that Cruel Beauty was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I knew I had no choice but to get my hands on a copy and read it.

The Beast is actually a Demon Lord who grants peoples’ wishes, but not like the tooth fairy. Instead, he twists people’s words, and the wish always comes back to haunt them. (He is a Demon Lord after all. What did you expect?)

Before Nyx was born, her father asked the Demon Lord for a wish. It came true, and he had to repay the lord by giving him one of his two twin daughters once they turn seventeen.

Nyx has been trained to kill her soon-to-be-husband and is willing to take any risk to do so. But even after years and years spent preparing for the day when she will be married off to the Demon lord, Nyx can’t help but feel anger and hatred toward her sister who wasn’t chosen, and seems to be the apple of her father’s eye, and towards her maternal aunt who is now slipping in between her father’s sheets.

But as many of you Beauty and the Beast fans may know, the Demon Lord isn’t much like he is claimed to be. Yes, he grants people’s wishes and causes them harm, but nobody knows that he is forced to do it by a greater power. He is a prisoner and Nyx is the first person in hundreds of years to truly see him for himself, and not as an evil king.

Nyx knows what she had to do, but she is no longer sure if it’s the right thing to do. She’s caught and doesn’t know which way to go: Do as her father taught her, or help the Demon Lord escape his own imprisonment?

Cruel Beauty was an interesting read. If I got the chance I would definitely visit the mansion, just to see all of these crazy rooms, especially the one that mimics nature.

While I absolutely loved Nyx and her odd relationship with Shade and the Demon lord, I was disgusted by her father. I understand that he made this crappy deal, and that it was a huge mistake, but treating the twin sister differently and loving one much more than the other wasn’t right. Besides the way Nyx’s father treated her, I also disliked her aunt. She was sleeping around with her dead sister’s husband. How did she not feeling horrible?

Overall, the story was good! It was an amazing retelling that kept most of the original details, but didn’t follow the entire story directly. If you get the chance to pick this one up, I recommend doing so!