Monstrous Beauty- Elizabeth Fama

5/5

** spoiler alert ** I almost don’t have words for the beauty of this book. First off I don’t usually enjoy mermaid books; I find them all to be too much Little Mermaid pretty pretty princess. Though aside from that last part honestly this one was too. Mermaid falls in love with a human. But this book was so much MORE than that.

It was disturbing- the mermaids were vicious soulless creatures. There was rape and death, murder and horror.

It was creative- the storyline was good, the imagery was wonderful and the characters had depth.

It was clichéd, but in a new way- The insta love was explained away in a twisted version of reincarnation. The love triangle was there, but in a soft depressing macabre kind of way. The girl doesn’t wind up with either of them in the end and it was a peaceful, quiet, deep and distraught, albeit wet, ending.
The writing was fresh- it bounced back and forth between present day and the past, letting you get hints and glimpses of the hidden secrets waiting on every page. The writing was excellent as well, especially for a YA novel. And deep breath this will probably NOT be a series YAY!!!!

The history was involved- you could tell the author did her research, the graveyard epitaphs were truthful I love cemeteries too!. The slight mythology she used was intense and as accurate as mythology can be and the pilgrim info as well as the genealogy and treatment of old books was correct as well. My BF is works for the family history library
This was an excellent book and I didn’t want to put it down, there was nothing fanciful about it. Was it paranormal? Sure. Was it fantasy? Yes…. But it wasn’t pretty. Was it romantic? Of course. But it wasn’t as much a love story as it was explaining how one act effect so many people years down the road.

If you like paranormal romance but are tired of books like Twihard, Sookie Snatchhouse and even though I like it House of Night. Then please read this hauntingly horrible book.