Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama

Title: Monstrous Beauty
Author: Elizabeth Fama
Blurb:
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.

Links:
Monstrous Beauty on Goodreads

Monstrous Beauty on Amazon

Elizabeth Fama's Website

 Kala's Review:

I don't know what I was expecting when I picked up this book.  Maybe some cheesy mermaid version of Twilight?  Something along the lines of a more well written <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12425532-of-poseidon">Of Poseidon</a>?  I don't know. 

I definitely didn't expect THIS.

This book is a masterpiece.  It was the epitome of hauntingly beautiful.  From page one I was sucked in and I couldn't put this book down all day until I finished it, which is the best possible feeling ever when reading a book (as everyone knows).

Syrenka is a monster, but you end up feeling so much for her.  By the end, by the time I really understood her, I was shattered.  Though she does some truly awful and unforgivable things, her motivations make sense by the end and you can't help but feel sorry for her and root for her.

Hester is an interesting girl.  Seventeen and an old soul who discovers the secrets of her past as she tries to figure out what the mystery surrounding Ezra and Syrenka.  I love the way she speaks - it's so realistic and, at times, amusing.  The conversation with her and the boy in the cave (the first time she meets Ezra) and between her and the boys at the village who are hitting on her were both hilarious.

My only issue with the story might be the insta-love.  While I understand why it happens, it was still a bit jarring.

While the characters absolutely shine and drive this novel into complete awesomeness, the mermaid lore can't be overlooked.  I LOVE Fama's mermaids.  There are no Ariels in this world!  The mermaids are feral and beautiful and scary and fascinating.  Her descriptions were so vivid I could imagine exactly what they looked like, and I LOVE they they're not just women with fish tails.

I can't believe this is considered young adult - it's that incredible.  I really think adults, even those who may not necessarily enjoy paranormal books, would still like this one.  It's a character driven story with some paranormal aspects.

Elizabeth Fama has written something truly incredible with this book and I will definitely be following her work from here on out.  Outstanding novel! 

5 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/381673489

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Blurb:

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Links:
Anna Dressed in Blood on Goodreads

Anna Dressed in Blood on Amazon

Kendare Blake's Website

 Kala's Review:

She turns to me. "We're in on the secret now, aren't we Cas? And it's taking us out of the world."

"That's usually the way it works," I say softly.

When I first started reading this book I was a bit apprehensive about it. I don't mind ghost stories, but I had a hard time wrapping my mind around ghosts that are tangible and 'killable' I suppose. I get the idea of banishment and spells, but stabbing with a knife? It was weird, at first.

But then I got sucked in to this story and it all made sense.

Cas is a teenage boy and this book is told from his point of view. He has inherited the job of killing murderous ghosts after his father was killed by a particularly nasty one. He and his quirky pagan/white witch mother travel around the country seeking out ghosts.

His journeys land him in Thunder Bay (Canada) where he finds out about a ghost named Anna, who was killed while wearing a white dress. The dress is now bathed in her blood which earned her the nickname Anna Dressed in Blood. Anna haunts her old house and murders everyone who enters.

Until Cas.

For some reason she doesn't kill him.


"Go," she orders, queen of her dead castle. "I don't want to kill you. And it seems that I don't have to, for some reason. So go."

Cas sets out to find out the story of Anna, and that's where this book truly shines. Along the way he meets up with a few new friends (classmates from his school) who are both interesting and fun and not the stereotypical cliche friends we get in every YA novel.

Carmel is the preppy cheerleader/popular girl/prom queen, but she's so much more than that. I'm so glad that Blake didn't turn her in to a Cordelia (from Buffy) and made Carmel a smart and funny person as well as being the popular girl. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Carmel in the sequel!

I'm not going to say anything more about the plot, because I don't want to ruin anything, but the story is just beautifully told and fun to read. It's scary, but not overly so. It's romantic, but not to the point of being sappy. The words are just not coming to me! I'll say this... it's unique. And I mean that in the good way!

Every time I open a new book I'm always hoping it will be amazing. I always want to read that next amazing book that leaves me thinking about it long after I've finished. The kind that I want to re-read as soon as I finish it. And again a few days later. And again the next week.

This is one of those books.

In a genre so full of the same cliche tropes over and over, this book truly stands out as that special something.

5 of 5 stars.


Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/387672921