ARC Review: Elizabeth Fama - Monstrous Beauty

Elizabeth Fama - Monstrous Beauty

• Pub Date: September 4, 2012
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
• Age Range: Young Adult
• Source: ALA

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.

**My review is a bit spoilery depending on how you look at it. So you've been warned. :o)**

The writing was pretty great, but the story just did not connect with me! AT ALL. I don't really like mermaid stories. I prefer present tense and first-person writing, and this was the opposite of both. So right off the bat I kind of didn't want to continue reading this. Then I started to get into the mystery because this is mermaids AND ghosts, but then I got bored. And the final page just irked me! That didn't wrap much up. And I don't think this is a series, is it? I just did not care for this book.

Like I said, I really did like the writing style. But I just didn't feel anything for Hester, and I thought there'd be more of a love thing with Peter and there was just nothing really interesting going on. It went from mermaids to ghosts, and that was just strange. I had high hopes too because some of my awesome blogger friends really liked this one. I've concluded that mermaids just aren't for me.

Plus, the author made some disastrous remarks about what to do with her ARC including not even giving it to kids in desperate need of reading material. Not cool, Fama. I'm over this.

Bottom line: Read if you like mermaids.. at your own risk.

Rating:

2.5 / 5 book sharks