Hunted by Meagan Spooner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love a good retelling and this is a great retelling.

It’s based on Beauty and the Beast and sticks pretty close to the original version but is a little darker with a Beauty who’s possibly even fiercer than the Beast. It’s surprisingly light on romance but absolutely full of magic and mystery and weaves in more than a few fairy tales and magical creatures.

I’ve read many, many retellings and this is definitely one of the best. I literally couldn’t put it down.

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Synopsis

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.

So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance.

Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

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Thoughts

“She moves like beauty, she whispers to us of wind and forest—and she tells us stories, such stories that we wake in the night, dreaming dreams of a life long past. she reminds us of what we used to be.

She reminds us of what we could be.”

Beauty and the Beast is probably one of the most common retellings (I can instantly think of half a dozen) but while this sticks fairly close to the original it does somehow manage to bring something new and different. Both Beauty and the Beast feel like completely new characters and there are a few key differences which add a richness and depth to the story I didn’t expect.

One of the main highlights for me was the setting, which is based on medieval Russia. Russia always seems to have the most extreme weather, with the coldest and most brutal winters and this really brought a feeling of isolation, wildness and magic to the story which really worked.

Yeva made for a wonderful Beauty and there was a lot about her that I could relate to. She longs for independence and freedom and feels guilty for wanting more than the privileged life she has. In many ways she actually doesn’t know what she wants so just has this unsatisfied and restless feeling. The only time she really feels calm is when she’s hunting, something considered unladylike.

Want is something she has in common with the Beast. He wants something and believes he needs a hunter to get it but doesn’t expect that hunter to be Yeva.

I absolutely loved the relationship between Yeva and the Beast. There’s very little in the way of romance between them especially in the beginning as Yeva wants nothing else but to kill the Beast and he will go to any means to get her to do what he needs her to. It’s a relationship full of distrust, threats and betrayal but occasionally there are moments when they realize they may have more in common than they thought.

What was also fantastic was the way the author managed to weave in other fairy tales and stories. When they are first getting to know each other Yeva tells the Beast stories (something that reminded me of A Thousand and One Nights) and these stories of magic, curses and fantastical creatures become an integral part of the story.

If I had one minor quibble with the story it was that I really didn’t like the hunting (I know it’s called Hunted). I’m not a vegetarian so I know it makes me a total hypocrite but I’m very squeamish about killing and skinning animals, something that features quite a lot. I found it difficult to reconcile the Yeva who took pleasure in killing rabbits and deer and the Yeva was devoted to her dogs. I know it was necessary to survive but it was just a little too brutal and bloodthirsty for me.

Despite this however I would definitely recommend you read this book whether like me you’re completely obsessed with retellings or if you simply want a great fantasy novel.