Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

A Spoiler Free Review

I quite enjoyed Monstrous Beauty. It’s a departure from my recent readings of vampires and witches. In fact, aside from the mermaids and ghosts, there’s not really a lot of magic in this. That’s not a bad thing. It definitely works as story mostly grounded in our reality.

I thought Hester’s job was interesting. Or at least, getting to see some behind the scenes on that job was interesting. Interpreting historical characters definitely isn’t a job many people are familiar with and very few have. I certainly haven’t read many characters with such a different job.

I thought Hester and Ezra’s love story was handled fairly well, especially coupled with the Syrenka/Ezra story and the inkling I had about Hester. Turned out I was right, so that’s fun. I don’t have any real feelings about Hester and Peter as a couple. Peter seems sweet enough but is also blank enough as a character that I’m just kind of shrugging in his direction.

Eleanor and Noo’kas as antagonists were alright. I feel like Eleanor was more fleshed out than Noo’kas, who I originally thought was some kind of mermaid god at first. I definitely didn’t like either of them, but I felt more dislike for Eleanor. Noo’kas was introduced as an antagonist too late in the game, I think was most of the problem with her. Well, that and those Jaba the Hutt type characters never end up winning so… yeah.

I think that’s in on this one. Not a whole lot to discuss without getting into spoilers. Monstrous Beauty was pretty good and definitely worth a read.