Author: Ruth Frances Long
Pub Date: August 16, 2012
Publisher: Dial Books
384 pages
Author website: www.rflong.com
ARC provided by author/publisher and DAC Tours
From GoodReads: A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction. The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.
The Treachery of Beautiful Things first caught my attention with the cover. Absolutely gorgeous! The dress, the flowers, the light cutting in through the trees.
The trees. How can trees consume a person? Did it happen? Did Jenny imagine it? Is her brain making an excuse for something else that happened? Seven years after her brother Tom disappears, she decides that it is time to go look for him again. And then she hears it-a flute, much like Tom used to play before he disappeared. And with that, Jenny's whole world gets turned upside down.
Treachery, lies, betrayal, love. This is the novel in a nutshell. Out of a nutshell? Beautiful. Just an absolutely beautiful and elegantly written story. At times, the folklore was confusing, but it was also so nicely wrapped together in one package. We have Titania, Puck, Mab, Oberon, the Green Man, dragons, and fairies. There are even some mythical creatures that I've never heard of before!
- Foletti
- Nix
- Leczi
With everything going on, at times I had a little trouble staying under the thrall of the story. But in the back of my mind, it was always there, whispering to me. Midway through, there was a turning point. I could not stop reading the book! At this turning point, I was completely lost to Jenny's story. Unfortunately there is one aspect of the book that I was not too fond of, but it is a personal preference more than anything else. Because keep in mind, I still really liked the story! Jenny was such a confusing character. She was strong enough to go into the forest to hunt for her brother. But then she became a damsel in distress. (I don't like distressed damsels.) She was always being rescued by either Jack or Puck. But then she will also be defiant, or face down dragons, etc. So odd..and let's not forget that Jenny also gave a kiss to some strange man-come on. You're there in fairy world-DON'T KISS ANYONE! So yeah, if not for the confusing behavior of Jenny this book would have been damn near perfect.
Okay. Now on to my favorite quotes from the book!
"Stubborn and impossible, not beautiful, but...compelling. And with that, more beautiful than any I had ever seen."
"She was like the sun, the thing he needed, like earth beneath his feet. She was breath and strength, everything."
So. Something that very rarely happens. In fact, I can count on one hand how many times this has happened. I was 120% COMPLETELY satisfied with the ending. It was perfect. Thank you Ruth for a perfect book ending!
"They're only trees."
No comments:
Post a Comment