Capture Of Beast And Beauty Depicted By Stacey Jay Shown As Script

good fairy tale has a few critical elements, We have our heroine and our hero, their epic tale of romance, the obstacle in their way, and, most likely, there is a curse to break as well, “Beauty and the Beast” is easily the best of these fairy tale stories, far more romantic than “Snow White,” much darker than “Sleeping Beauty,” and all together more satisfying than “Cinderella”.
With Of Beast and Beauty, however, Stacey Jay has managed to mix together all of the correct ingredients and just a little something more a secret ingredient, if you will.
And thus, I am finally elated to proclaim that Juliet Marilliers Hearts Blood is not my only favorite “Beauty and the Beast” retellingthis one is too.


Our Heroine

Isra, the blind Queen of this tale, is unlike any protagonist I expected, For one, I love that, right from the start, Jay manages to twist this classic tale around so that it is not a woman caught in a mans castle, but rather a man caught in a womans.
And yet, despite being the Queen of her domed city, Yuan, Isra is powerless, In her world, Smooth Skins live in glass domes to escape both from the harsh conditions of the outside world and from the mutations that take place there, giving the people who live there the name “Monstrous.
” All Isra knows is that the Monstrous are cruel and dangerous and that to live safely, every few decades a queen must willingly sacrifice her blood to the roses that bloom in the gardens and keep their dome intact.


Nevertheless, despite knowing her fate, Isra is not content to merely sit still in the tower her father has confined her in, Instead, she escapes each night to roam through her city, yearning to feel the wind on her face though she cannot and yearning even more to see, When she catches a Monstrous, Gem, in her city walls one night, Isra is terrified and curious, For all her airs and graces, at her core Isra is just a girl, one who yearns for friends and freedom, What I love about her is not that she is courageous for she is but rather that she is perseverant and, no matter what, refuses to go down the wrong path.
Furthermore, her blindness is not the detriment most people believe it to be, It enables her to see with untainted eyes and this, this I loved, Every love story is made better by characters who look beyond appearance and not only does Isras blindness make her romance stronger, it also makes her bolder in her vision for a better world.


Our Hero

Gem, the “Monstrous” who breaches the city walls and winds up being Isras prisoner, was possibly a character I liked better than our protagonist.
First and foremost, I have to mention that his narration was perfect, I love that Jay chose to add more than one point of view in this tale as it helped to see the situation at hand from both perspectives, Isra and Gems people have a long and estranged history, Although they both were once the same race, the new and magical land they came to sought to help them through mutations which many of the people were frightened by.
Thus, seeing Gems perspective his starving people, their different customs and traditions only added to the worldbuilding, Furthermore, I love that Gem is so unapologetically honest, When he first sees Isra, hes there to kill her, to take her roses and food and help his people, Even as the two get to know each other, he still thinks of ways to kill her alongside ways to help and comfort her, Jay never crosses that awkward line of instalove and instead allows their romance to develop, right alongside their conflicted feelings, Gem, especially, is flawed and the fact that he is even more flawed than Isra at times makes him seem all the more human, despite his scaled body,

An Epic Tale of Romance

I do, actually, think this is a beautiful love story, Not only is the pacing perfect, but the reasons behind it true understanding, not lust are evident too, Furthermore, there is no concrete “Beauty” and “Beast” in this tale, Both Isra and Gem have their own aspects of beauty and bestiality to their personalities and the fact that either of them could fulfill those roles is utterly satisfying, And yet, what really made me fall headoverheels for this romantic pair was the fact that their physical attraction was explored as well, Jay doesnt hesitate to explicitly state that Gem and Isra are physically attracted to each other as well, I feel as if most literature either goes one way or the other true comfort/understanding with a few chaste kisses or pure lust, Of Beast and Beauty manages to strike a balance between the two, however, which I appreciated, If there is a dearth of anything in fiction it is of a teenage girl acknowledging that she wants sex, so I particularly enjoyed seeing Isra approach their relationship in a light in which she felt comfortable wanting more physically and especially seeing how that empowered her in many ways.


Obstacle in their Way

Obviously, there are many hurdles for these two to cross, And yet, perhaps most taxing emotionally is the truth of their pasts, For both Gem and Isra, their union is foolish and unethical, despite how right it feels, Not only do their people hate each other, but their people would hate them if the truth emerged as well, Furthermore, Isra has a duty as Queen to at least marry before sacrificing her life for her people, I was pleasantly surprised that Bo, the man she is supposed to marry, is given his own slices of narration as well, From Bo we finally see that Yuan is more than merely a kingdom, it is a cage to all sorts of people, not just Isra, Additionally, his perspective allows us to see the true political rulers of Yuan, Isra is just a sacrificial doll at the end of the day and this only raises the stakes and heightens our bond with her,

A Curse

I wont deny it the original curse in “Beauty and the Beast” is a little lame, Ive seen it employed in various ways in multiple retellings, which is why I love that the curse in this novel is of a different, darker nature, Granted, Isra and Gem must fall in love, but are so many deeper, subtler nuances to this as well, For one, the curse began when the first people began to build a divide between themselves the Smooth Skins and the Monstrous, From that initial fear and hatred grew an even scarier and more deadly curse one that demanded blood, As the book unfolds, so does the full entirety of the curse and what it has done to both Isras life and Gems, It has affected everyone in different ways over the centuries and as the full implications of that are felt, it is shocking, One of my only qualms about this plot device is that the majority if not all the information about the curse is revealed in the prologue of the novel, Of course, seeing Isra discover this information and relate it to her own sheltered life is what makes the novel so intriguing, but it also manages to take away a little from the overall reading experience.
Nevertheless, I have to hand it to Jay she can build a complicated world, a complex romance, and even more twisted curse, I love it.

Of Beast and Beauty is a mustread for fans of romance, worldbuilding, and fairy tales, As a fantasy fanatic, I loved the inclusion of magic, the unique take on this classic tale, and, most of all, this breathtaking romance, Although Im a little skeptical to try Jays other works seeing the mixed reviews theyve gotten, I am eager to see what she comes up with in the future, If its as brilliant as this, you can bet Ill be clamoring after it for sure, "Beauty is wherever you find it, and Beast is there when you need to defend it, "

Im such a sap for fairytale retellings and this book gave me everything I want from one, Stacey Jay managed to maintain enough of the originals iconic moments and plotlines, while serving something fresh, inventive and beautiful, While I dont usually like to compare, this was the exact type of story I was looking for in Rosamund Pikes sitelinkCruel Beauty, but was unable to find,

Told in dual perspective with a very minor third perspective appearing now and then, it follows the story of Isra, the Princess of Yuan and Gem, a mutated man from one of the Monstrous tribes in the surrounding desert.
Isras life ticks by under the protection of the domed city of Yuan that prospers thanks to the sacrifice of a Yuan Queen every few decades to feed the magic that lurks beneath.
Meanwhile, Gem and his tribe battle through every day to survive out in the harsh and desecrated landscape the magic has neglected to care for, Each faction blames the other for their planets demise, Once Isra and Gems worlds collide, however, everything their people have known for centuries begins to crumble,

It was hard not to route for the romance in this when you throw a blind and supposedly mentally incapacitated princess of soft skin “Beauty”, and a mutated, Monstrous “Beast” from warring human factions together.
The build up and struggle of the characters in dealing with how they feel for each other was superbly captured, and one of the reasons I liked it so much.


The distinction between Beauty and Beast is fairly apparent in most versions of the story,

what I really enjoyed about this reinvention was how much the author blurred the lines between the two.
What exactly makes a person beastly, while making another beautiful In this book its all a matter of perception, often perceptions that have been ill taught and stand on a foundation of lies.
Seeing those foundations fall away was thrilling,

There was strong characterisation, interesting world building, lyrical writing, and an effective and well earned romance no instalove here!, Thats enough for it to score a solidstars, Maybe the mind of the majority is always the healthy mind, simply by virtue of its numbers, Maybe its the definition of madness to believe Im right and everyone else is wrong, to find my thoughts rational and reasonable when almost the entire world finds them damaged and flawed.
THE REVIEW

Why this book
Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairytale



What I thought
Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairytale.
So I knew I had to give this one a try, This was the most unique retelling of Beauty and the Beast I've read, and I've read many, It was captivating and beautifully written, The emotions in this book were palpable and it just grabs you, Gem's and Isra's relationship was so complicated and yet so well written it leaves you wanting more, Some parts of this book was slow, and some parts went by too fast, but all I know is that I wanted to sink all of it in, A beautiful retelling of Beauty and the Beast,
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If you are into animation movies, then I'll easily describe this as some sort of 'Shrek' meets 'Tangled' I don't know about you, but I loved them both!.
And I won't even bother with the other end of the 'if' :p

Absolutely lovely! Why didn't I know about it sooner,stars.

FULL REVIEW:

Its not a secret that I have a crush on historicalfantasy alike stories, Ever since the Lumatere Chronicles my heart roots for this type of stories, sometimes I find something that I like, sometimes the search is in vain, but there are times like this one when I love the characters so much it hurts to say goodbye to them.
Its a beautiful feeling to be this connected to a story, to its characters, It makes me happy to get to the last word, to the last page and to want to go back to the beginning and start reading again,

The thing is, I fell in love with this world some sort of futuristichistoricalfantasy, as crazy as that sounds, Its mesmerising: beautiful and horrible at the same time you know the feeling right!, . That kind of world you would like to live in, only with the condition that you can change the bad things for the good

What I said is true.
. “Of Beast and Beauty” is a beautiful mix between historical fantasy and a bit of dystopia if I come to think about it, there are a few SF elements in it too or at least some hints here and there, as the action takes place in this amazing alien world there is romance, there is this tiny connection with the original Beauty And The Beast story, there is action, there is magic, not to mention this cute battering between the characters and the sweet forbidden romance.


Isra is a strong character,
Her place in the world has been decided a long time ago, she was to be sacrificed for the wealth of the dome, but she still had the will to go on and change the things that were in her power.
Trapped under the glass walls, with her heart weighted by grieve, feeling like she was nothing to the people surrounding her, Isra found refugee in the company of her monstrous prisoner.
They started to connect over stories and hard work, Soon they became friends, even though she had her secrets and he kept his very well,

His love, his faith in me, his belief that I can be as strong and brave as he isThe way he makes me feel and think and try harder than Ive ever triedAll of it, all of him, is better than anything else.

It was great that we had Gems side of the story too, at least every now and then, Being in his mind allowed us to find out more about his own history, his intentions, his quest in saving his people, and also the way he was torn between his duty and his growing feelings.
Deep down he was a good guy, too good for a warrior, but goodwill can never save the people you love and he had to make his own sacrifices,

I had mixed feelings when it came to Bo, He lacked a bit of a a backbone, was too easy to manipulate and that gave me this strange feeling, His chapters were contradictory and you could sense his struggle, He didnt know which side to take his queen or the other people, He could have made a good king, even a good friend, if only he would have had more personality, more strength and a mind of his own,

CONCLUSION:

I was not familiar with Stacey Jay, this is my first book from her, but I assure you that it wont be the last one.

Her writing is beautiful, fluid, natural even, and her story is filled with magic and hope, I loved the balance between humour and sadness, I loved the originality of the story and theres no irony here,

It sounds strange in my own ears, but even though this is supposed to be a retelling, it is a completely different story: one in which the beast is trapped in beautys castle for a change, one in which the breaking of the curse will make for a different kind of ending.


Happy midnight reading!
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