Jessica Mau

Of Beast and Beauty is a young adult fantasy romance novel written by Stacey Jay. Some other books Stacey Jay has also written are Juliet Immortal and Romeo Redeemed, which are of the same genre. Of Beast and Beauty is supposed to be a reimagining of the classic Beauty and the Beast…and it is indeed a reimagining. The only thing remaining is the very base plot of Beauty and the Beast; everything else is a fantastical new setting.

Earth has died, and the remnants of humanity escaped on spaceships to a new planet. While habitable, it was full of dangerous life, and the environment was harsh with relentless heat during the day and frigid coldness at night. A goddess which inhabited the planet was intrigued and charmed by the humans. Knowing that they would not survive long without any help, she used her magic to transform their bodies into something that could survive the harsh nature of the planet. She started to give them scales to protect from the suns harsh rays and to keep in the heat at night, as well as sharp teeth, claws, and a more muscular body to defend themselves with.  However, the humans weren’t happy with this—they saw the newly transformed humans as monsters. They shut themselves in the domed cities they had built to protect themselves and started pleading with the goddess to stop, promising to go to any length to keep their humanity. This incessant pleading of theirs tore the goddess in two, into what she called the Dark Heart and the Pure Heart. The Dark Heart made a bargain with those who weren’t transformed—if they would give a sacrifice and keep giving sacrifices to it, it would protect them in the domed cities from becoming monsters. The people agreed, and a contract was bound with the blood of the first queen. Roses sprouted where the drops of blood landed, becoming the eyes and teeth of the Dark Heart.

Those who were not transformed, later becoming known as the Smooth Skins, rejected the transformed, which they called Monstrous. The Monstrous, or desert people as they called themselves, became bitter and angry at those in the domed cities as they were left to fend for themselves in the desert. The Pure Heart, seeing this, took on the form of a Monstrous woman and came to the gates of the domed cities, pleading with them not to keep the covenant and accept the Monstrous. They refused, and in her anger the Pure Heart cursed the world—the Smooth Skin’s children would falls victim to deformities and the traits of the Monstrous they so hated when they were born, and the Monstrous would never be able to cry. The Dark Heart managed to protect the nobles in the city from the curse, but the common people were subjected to it. The only way to break this curse if is one Smooth Skin and one Monstrous fell in love. Weakened, the Pure Heart of the goddess disappeared from the sight of the living, dwindling away as the Dark Heart grew in power.

Already, the setting and backstory for Of Beast and Beauty pulls interest and is far different from the classic it took inspiration from. It has a unique world to play around with, allowing for things such as magic, strange creatures, and new environments not possible on Earth. Even though this was obviously a romance novel, and I knew what would happen in the end as the title almost blatantly gives it away, I was interested to see where this was going and what different path it would take.

The main setting in this story is the domed city of Yuan. One of the main characters is Isra—a blind princess whose mother died, leaving her to be the next sacrifice to the roses when the time arises. She is kept locked away in a tower, and she believes it is because she is “tainted”—born with some of the traits of a Monstrous. Her skin is rough and peeling, and every day she believes scales will form under them.

Gem is the other main character, and he is a Monstrous. He has a deep-seated hatred for the Smooth Skins, as his tribe is dying of starvation while they have more than plenty in their domed cities. He sneaks in with some others from his tribe to try and steal some of the roses, believing their magic can bring enough life back into the desert to save their tribe. He and the others are caught in the process, and after some negotiations with the Smooth Skins the Monstrous are released—except for Gem, who is given the secret task of completing their mission.

Some minor characters are Needle, Isra’s mute handmaid; Junjie, the chief advisor and captain of the guard; and Bo, the son of Junjie. Needle is Isra’s caretaker, and she has to real in the blind girl’s rash and feisty nature. She’s kind and patient, but she is knows when to put her foot down and is clever enough to outwit the guards for Isra’s sake. Junjie is a stern and no-nonsense captain who betrays Isra, wanting power for himself and his son. Bo is caught in his father’s shadow, and follows his wishes half with respect and half with fear. Bo is part of a love triangle with Isra, as she needs to get married soon after the dead of her father. Although at first Isra accepts this as it is her duty and Bo is not disagreeable, later his actions cause her to reject any thought of love.

The relationship between Isra and Gem is hostile at first. Isra hates him and his people for the death of her father, as one of the Monstrous was said to have killed her father. She lords her position as queen of Yuan over him and keeps him captive as her prisoner. Gem hates her, as she is the face of the Smooth Skins and everything they have done to his people. Isra agrees to allow him out of her cell if he promises to help her plant a garden with herbs that can help cure those who are tainted. Although no such herbs exist and were a lie planted by the other Monstrous to give Gem an excuse to be outside, he agrees and decides to try and win her over as a friend so he can learn the secrets of the roses.

The way their relationship starts as a hostile agreement between each other into a friendship is interesting. At first, they both threaten each other—Isra with her power as queen and the ability to have him locked away forever or killed, and Gem with his power to rip her throat open when they are alone. Eventually, the hostility fades away as they work on the garden together, although they are still wary of each other. Gem gets Isra to let her guard down by telling her stories and myths of his people, as well as learning some of her songs. Soon a real friendship grows between them; Isra is quite different from the rest of the nobles and is seen as eccentric, preferring to be outside and in the dirt rather than at a formal ball or dinner. She is enraptured by the thought of the world outside of the dome, as everything is stagnant and unchanging inside. Gem is surprised a Smooth Skin would be interested in the outside, and is touched by her compassion and willingness to help his people as she learns more about them.

After the first one-hundred pages, however, everything just sort of…happens. They plan a secret mission outside the dome to get the taint-curing herbs (which don’t exist), as Isra is afraid Junjie and the nobles will take away what power she has if she doesn’t do something to show her worth as queen. When they’re out there, she almost dies due to the frigid conditions at night, causing Gem to realize his feelings for her as he rushes to save her. When she revives, she realizes that she was truly in love with him too. This seemed a bit sudden and rushed, as although there were some romantic thoughts mentioned before, they didn’t seem…natural. Now the two are suddenly deeply and madly in love with each other, although they both go through the “my people would reject me” monologue later on.

After this point, the story seems to degrade. It’s not bad, but it seems extremely rushed compared to the first part. It was like the author said, “Eh, I just want to skip to the good parts” and skipped any sort of build up or journey in between plot points. Several new subplots were introduced and then dropped or never mentioned again. There’s a subplot where Junjie has actually been manipulating his son emotionally the whole time, but it is literally mentioned one time, dismissed by his son, and never brought up or shown by Junjie’s actions ever again. In fact, Junjie did a three-sixty and went from an evil and manipulative to a caring but misguided father in the last act. There was also another subplot where Isra learned that it wasn’t just the queens who could sacrifice their blood, as it was thought, but also the kings—but since one king didn’t feel like dying, it set the standard for only the queens being sacrificed. This plot literally added nothing and went nowhere, and it would have been better if it had been brought up earlier.

There was also a deus ex machina where Isra is trying to find the original contract with the Dark Heart so she can break it and end the constant bloodshed and hatred. She ends up getting trapped in her tower, and it just so happens that a journal was hidden in there the whole time explaining the contract and how to break the curse. When Gem comes back for Isra and they both realize they really did and truly do love each other, another one occurs when the curse is broken, changing and healing everyone. Although I was expecting the ending to be sappy, as it is a fairytale, this story went overboard and made it sound as if everything were perfect. The original ending leaves it where the old order has crumbled, and there is a new world to live and survive in, but the epilogue doesn’t explain in any detail how they survived and built this new order. It just says that everything was “Happily ever after” and left it at that, saying love was the most powerful thing.

There were some other issues with the book as well. The writing style was simple and easy to read without breaking immersion, but the description was sorely lacking. You don’t need to have everything explained in detail to you, but Stacey Jay almost never described anything, or when she did she used abstract metaphors and didn’t give you a solid picture. The entire time I envision the Monstrous as lizard men, tail and all, although it appears they were more human-like. Apparently the setting and people might have been Asian-inspired, but the thought didn’t even cross my mind until I saw something on an internet review about it. The biggest disappointment was except for the beginning and some of Gem’s stories about his people, there was a complete and utter lack of world-building. It might as well have been set in medieval Europe with a desert around it—it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. It has such an interesting set up and environment, and the fact that none of it was utilized hurt the story and made it a lot less than it could have been.

The way the plot was handled and the writing style the author utilized made me think that this was a story perhaps more aimed towards those in middle school. However, although there is no cursing and nothing is blatantly stated, there are some innuendo and sexual references that shows that this wasn’t aimed towards them. It’s “intended audience” is young adults, and while I believe that as long as one enjoys a story age doesn’t matter, the way this story was written seems to be too immature for its intended audience.

Despite its flaws, I would not say Of Beast and Beauty is a bad book…it just painfully falls short of what it could have been. If you want a simple sappy love story about breaking racial borders with a fantastical setting and not a lot of plot bogging it down, feel free to check it out. If you want something deeper and immersive with a world that sucks you in, I’d say look elsewhere—you can find plenty more books that do the job better.