Professional Reviews for Monstrous Beauty
1. Kirkus
Excerpt: "Fama's lush language makes the past seem as immediate as the present-day scenes...This stylish fantasy mesmerizes."
Full review:
A mermaid's attraction to a man begets both love and evil in the waters off Plymouth, Mass., where these exotic creatures have always lived and will live forever.
The romance between Syrenka and her beau, Ezra, in 1872 leads to a particularly disturbing murder-suicide, and the pact she makes with Noo’kas, the queen of the mermaids, has repercussions that reach into the present. In modern times, Hester puzzles over her family history; her female ancestors have tended to die young for generations, her mother included, making her decide to swear off love and maybe have a chance to survive into old age. Fama's lush language makes the past seem as immediate as the present-day scenes. Fantasy elements are incorporated seamlessly, so despite knowing about the mermaids from the first, readers will only gradually comprehend the extent to which they have influenced the lives of those around them. The sense of foreboding grows as Hester learns more and more about the past and struggles to find answers to her questions about her own future. The blend of history and fantasy enhances both storylines as the narrative shifts between past and present, gradually doling out clues. Dilemmas and choices are complex, providing much food for thought.
Not so much romance as suspense, this stylish fantasy mesmerizes. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
2. Publishers Weekly
Excerpt: "...a chilling and original story....[Syrenka's] plight tugs at the same heartstrings as that of another monster, Frankenstein's."
Full review:
Seventeen-year-old Hester Goodwin has already decided to be celibate: “Love. Sex. Loss. It was safest to avert the whole sequence.” Her mind is on the deaths in her family—new mothers withering within days of childbirth, generation after generation. She is determined not to add to this macabre pattern, but she can’t stop wondering about it. When an apparent coincidence brings an old murder-suicide to her attention, Hester soon finds it’s connected with her family history, and the deeper she delves, the eerier the echoes with her own life become. In a chilling and original story, Fama (Overboard) alternates chapters between Hester and Syrenka, an ancient mermaid with a penchant for human men. Syrenka is no Ariel—to gain human lungs, she eats a pair—but her plight tugs at the same heartstrings as that of another monster, Frankenstein’s. The alternating narrative device can make for stutters in the momentum, and there are stretches (notably when genealogy is rehearsed) where the plot trudges. The horror and humanity are adroitly handled, however, and Fama never lapses into cliché. Ages 12–up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger. (Sept.) (Reviewed on 07/09/2012)
3. School Library Journal
Excerpt: "...a riveting tale that is both sensual and unsettling. History buffs, fantasy lovers, and mystery fans will all finds something to please them in this engrossing story about a family curse and its cure."
Full Review:
Gr 10 Up–Seventeen-year-old Hester has already decided that love and children are not part of her future. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to her, and her family has a long history of women dying mysteriously after childbirth. At a party, Hester escapes to a beach cave accessible only at low tide and encounters a mysterious man to whom she is inexplicably drawn. Separate chapters tell the story of a mermaid named Syrenka who, more than 100 years earlier, exchanges eternal life in the ocean for life on land because she falls in love with a human. The narration travels back and forth between Syrenka and Hester, eventually establishing how the two are linked. Hester begins to investigate the mystery of the deaths of the women in her family and discovers a way to put the past to rest and free up her future. Mermaid lore and New England history are combined in a riveting tale that is both sensual and unsettling. History buffs, fantasy lovers, and mystery fans will all find something to please them in this engrossing story about a family curse and its cure. A rape scene and some of the other depictions of violent acts make this most appropriate for mature readers.–Kathy Kirchoefer, Prince Georges County Memorial Library System, New Carrollton, MD
4. Booklist
Excerpt: "...a beautifully written, romantic ghost story with an artful construction...Fama does not shy away from the big issues: love, death, longing, lust, fear, and revenge all play out through her complex and multidimensional characters."
Full review:
Fama (Overboard, 2002) delivers a beautifully written, romantic ghost story with an artful construction that incorporates a murder mystery and detailed historical fiction. The unusual setting includes graveyards, church crypts, and the starkly beautifully North Atlantic shore. Fama’s mermaids are powerful, creepy, and unsentimental, more akin to Barrie than Disney. Parallel stories follow 17-year-old Hester in 2002 and the ageless mermaid Syrenka in 1872. Hester is an only child who works at Plymouth Plantation (a historical reenactment site) and fears dying in childbirth, like her mother and the four preceding generations. Syrenka falls in love with a young naturalist, Ezra, and devours the lungs of a fisherman to become human and join Ezra on land. Gradually, the two stories weave together for a compelling and satisfying finish. Fama does not shy away from the big issues: love, death, longing, lust, fear, and revenge all play out through her complex and multidimensional characters.— Debbie Carton
5. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Excerpt: "The bittersweet story is threaded with unresolved tragedy, making it compulsively readable.
Full review:
In 1872, Syrenka forsakes her life as an immortal mermaid and joins the human world to be with her lover. Their union is short-lived, however, ending in his death, her rape, and a curse that haunts Syrenka's descendants for generations. More than a century later, seventeen-year-old Hester is convinced that if she falls in love (and more significantly, has sex and then gives birth) she will die—like her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother. A chance meeting with a handsome stranger has Hester rethinking her stance on abstinence, but as her investigation into her family's history reveals only more misfortune, Hester is certain that even if she can lift the curse, she will end up alone. The bittersweet story is threaded with unresolved tragedy, making it compulsively readable. Chapters shift their focus between Syrenka and Hester, but, as Syrenka's actions serve as the story's catalyst, she is the far more compelling protagonist—she is indeed, as the title suggests, a monstrous beauty, both seductive and dangerous, and her well-intended but ultimately selfish choices have repercussions beyond her imagining. Bearing the brunt of these consequences is Hester, whose need to dispel the ghosts of her past before she can build a future will resonate with teens. Though not as stylistically sophisticated as Margo Lanagan's The Brides of Rollrock Island (BCCB 9/12), this explores similar themes of love, possession, and fate. (Kate Quealy-Gainer)
6. VOYA
Excerpt: "For those who are looking for a book a cut above the rest of the genre, this is the one to get."
Full review:
4Q • 3P • S
This stand-alone paranormal story has mermaids, ghosts, curses, reincarnation, and romance set in Plymouth--both in 1873 and today. The tragic tale of Syrenka, a mermaid who becomes human for her love, slowly unveils as Hester begins to research her family’s history. Her family’s women have always died a few days after childbirth, so Hester has decided not to ever have relationships. But after being drawn to a strange man at the beach, Hester begins to discover the issue is curse driven rather than medical. While the story is cumbersome to quickly describe, it is accessible to readers and flows well, with chapters alternating between the past and present. The story slowly unfolds, allowing readers to enjoy the intrigue of the past, the mermaids, the love stories, and the present as they begin to intertwine. Most of the side characters are interesting, but just above one dimensional. Hester’s voice rings true, especially in the moments she discusses her mother. With its beautifully detailed mermaid world and romance at its core, this will find fans of paranormal romance without a doubt. For those who are looking for a book a cut above the rest of the genre, this is the one to get.—Kristin Fletcher-Spear.
7. Book Page
Excerpt: "Monstrous Beauty packs a serious, sexy wallop."
Full review:
Monstrous Beauty combines horror, romance and fantasy in an affecting and creepy tale. In 1872, a mermaid named Syrenka falls in love with the naturalist who has been sketching her. Trading her tail for life on land is not as easy as she'd hoped, and the consequences of her decision pay forward for more than a century. In the present day, Hester, all of 17 and certain she's doomed to a life alone due to a family curse, meets a beautiful stranger who seems to be the answer to her prayers. Funny how wrong first impressions can turn out to be.
Author Elizabeth Fama (Overboard) gives Monstrous Beauty style and punch. For a book aimed at readers 12 and up, the violence (including a graphic sexual assault) comes as a shock, but it raises the stakes for all the humans, mermaids and other creatures involved in the unfolding story. After two episodes that would put most of us out of commission for a week, the hits just keep on coming: “Before she could react, [Hester] was tackled to the ground and being clawed and punched by a raving madwoman.” But when Hester sees that her future isn't etched in stone after all, her insecurities give way to a plucky willingness to try anything.
Modern day crashes into late-19th-century morals when the story looks back at the town's church, which condemns things they can't understand (kind of forgivable in the case of mermaids, but still). The Puritan attitudes fire up the tension between good versus evil, giving the book's finale more oomph. Not that it needs it! Monstrous Beauty packs a serious, sexy wallop. (Heather Seggel)
8. Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2012 (a summary of most of the 2012 mermaid books) by Meghan Cox Gurdon:
Excerpt: "Compelling (and gory)..."
Full review:
...Teen readers will have to wait until later this year for two of the most compelling (and gory) mermaid offerings....Elizabeth Fama's Monstrous Beauty...is by far the most sophisticated but also the most mature in its treatment of the consuming loves and violent deaths wrought by mer-folk. The story begins in 1522 when the mermaid Syrenka accidentally murders her mortal beloved. Three centuries later, she renounces her fins and tail for the love of another human man, but the exchange comes at a terrible price. Nor does her transformation go unnoticed: A local woman's suspicion of Syrenka leads to a scene of Grand Guignol that will send ghastly effects down to the present day and into the life of a teenager named Hester.
9. USA Today Books Blog
Excerpt: "...this author knows what the YA audience likes, and she delivers."
Full review:
What it's about: Hester knows her family is cursed: None of the women in her family can fall in love. This curse goes back to 1872, when a man named Ezra had a beautiful monster, Syrenka, fall in love with him. Syrenka was a mermaid, and when she gave up her fin for a life above the sea, it came at a great price. It's dark, it's haunting and it's beautiful.
Why you should read it: The YA genre is swimming with mermaid (and merman) romances this year, and yet Monstrous Beauty doesn't get lost in the school (hah — fish joke). Fama did her research, and her mermaid novel spans the course of generations, and her setting is absolutely haunting. Her debut YA, Overboard, was named a 2003 best book for YA by the American Library Association, so this author knows what the YA audience likes, and she delivers.--Jessie Potts
1. Kirkus
Excerpt: "Fama's lush language makes the past seem as immediate as the present-day scenes...This stylish fantasy mesmerizes."
Full review:
A mermaid's attraction to a man begets both love and evil in the waters off Plymouth, Mass., where these exotic creatures have always lived and will live forever.
The romance between Syrenka and her beau, Ezra, in 1872 leads to a particularly disturbing murder-suicide, and the pact she makes with Noo’kas, the queen of the mermaids, has repercussions that reach into the present. In modern times, Hester puzzles over her family history; her female ancestors have tended to die young for generations, her mother included, making her decide to swear off love and maybe have a chance to survive into old age. Fama's lush language makes the past seem as immediate as the present-day scenes. Fantasy elements are incorporated seamlessly, so despite knowing about the mermaids from the first, readers will only gradually comprehend the extent to which they have influenced the lives of those around them. The sense of foreboding grows as Hester learns more and more about the past and struggles to find answers to her questions about her own future. The blend of history and fantasy enhances both storylines as the narrative shifts between past and present, gradually doling out clues. Dilemmas and choices are complex, providing much food for thought.
Not so much romance as suspense, this stylish fantasy mesmerizes. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
2. Publishers Weekly
Excerpt: "...a chilling and original story....[Syrenka's] plight tugs at the same heartstrings as that of another monster, Frankenstein's."
Full review:
Seventeen-year-old Hester Goodwin has already decided to be celibate: “Love. Sex. Loss. It was safest to avert the whole sequence.” Her mind is on the deaths in her family—new mothers withering within days of childbirth, generation after generation. She is determined not to add to this macabre pattern, but she can’t stop wondering about it. When an apparent coincidence brings an old murder-suicide to her attention, Hester soon finds it’s connected with her family history, and the deeper she delves, the eerier the echoes with her own life become. In a chilling and original story, Fama (Overboard) alternates chapters between Hester and Syrenka, an ancient mermaid with a penchant for human men. Syrenka is no Ariel—to gain human lungs, she eats a pair—but her plight tugs at the same heartstrings as that of another monster, Frankenstein’s. The alternating narrative device can make for stutters in the momentum, and there are stretches (notably when genealogy is rehearsed) where the plot trudges. The horror and humanity are adroitly handled, however, and Fama never lapses into cliché. Ages 12–up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger. (Sept.) (Reviewed on 07/09/2012)
3. School Library Journal
Excerpt: "...a riveting tale that is both sensual and unsettling. History buffs, fantasy lovers, and mystery fans will all finds something to please them in this engrossing story about a family curse and its cure."
Full Review:
Gr 10 Up–Seventeen-year-old Hester has already decided that love and children are not part of her future. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to her, and her family has a long history of women dying mysteriously after childbirth. At a party, Hester escapes to a beach cave accessible only at low tide and encounters a mysterious man to whom she is inexplicably drawn. Separate chapters tell the story of a mermaid named Syrenka who, more than 100 years earlier, exchanges eternal life in the ocean for life on land because she falls in love with a human. The narration travels back and forth between Syrenka and Hester, eventually establishing how the two are linked. Hester begins to investigate the mystery of the deaths of the women in her family and discovers a way to put the past to rest and free up her future. Mermaid lore and New England history are combined in a riveting tale that is both sensual and unsettling. History buffs, fantasy lovers, and mystery fans will all find something to please them in this engrossing story about a family curse and its cure. A rape scene and some of the other depictions of violent acts make this most appropriate for mature readers.–Kathy Kirchoefer, Prince Georges County Memorial Library System, New Carrollton, MD
4. Booklist
Excerpt: "...a beautifully written, romantic ghost story with an artful construction...Fama does not shy away from the big issues: love, death, longing, lust, fear, and revenge all play out through her complex and multidimensional characters."
Full review:
Fama (Overboard, 2002) delivers a beautifully written, romantic ghost story with an artful construction that incorporates a murder mystery and detailed historical fiction. The unusual setting includes graveyards, church crypts, and the starkly beautifully North Atlantic shore. Fama’s mermaids are powerful, creepy, and unsentimental, more akin to Barrie than Disney. Parallel stories follow 17-year-old Hester in 2002 and the ageless mermaid Syrenka in 1872. Hester is an only child who works at Plymouth Plantation (a historical reenactment site) and fears dying in childbirth, like her mother and the four preceding generations. Syrenka falls in love with a young naturalist, Ezra, and devours the lungs of a fisherman to become human and join Ezra on land. Gradually, the two stories weave together for a compelling and satisfying finish. Fama does not shy away from the big issues: love, death, longing, lust, fear, and revenge all play out through her complex and multidimensional characters.— Debbie Carton
5. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Excerpt: "The bittersweet story is threaded with unresolved tragedy, making it compulsively readable.
Full review:
In 1872, Syrenka forsakes her life as an immortal mermaid and joins the human world to be with her lover. Their union is short-lived, however, ending in his death, her rape, and a curse that haunts Syrenka's descendants for generations. More than a century later, seventeen-year-old Hester is convinced that if she falls in love (and more significantly, has sex and then gives birth) she will die—like her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother. A chance meeting with a handsome stranger has Hester rethinking her stance on abstinence, but as her investigation into her family's history reveals only more misfortune, Hester is certain that even if she can lift the curse, she will end up alone. The bittersweet story is threaded with unresolved tragedy, making it compulsively readable. Chapters shift their focus between Syrenka and Hester, but, as Syrenka's actions serve as the story's catalyst, she is the far more compelling protagonist—she is indeed, as the title suggests, a monstrous beauty, both seductive and dangerous, and her well-intended but ultimately selfish choices have repercussions beyond her imagining. Bearing the brunt of these consequences is Hester, whose need to dispel the ghosts of her past before she can build a future will resonate with teens. Though not as stylistically sophisticated as Margo Lanagan's The Brides of Rollrock Island (BCCB 9/12), this explores similar themes of love, possession, and fate. (Kate Quealy-Gainer)
6. VOYA
Excerpt: "For those who are looking for a book a cut above the rest of the genre, this is the one to get."
Full review:
4Q • 3P • S
This stand-alone paranormal story has mermaids, ghosts, curses, reincarnation, and romance set in Plymouth--both in 1873 and today. The tragic tale of Syrenka, a mermaid who becomes human for her love, slowly unveils as Hester begins to research her family’s history. Her family’s women have always died a few days after childbirth, so Hester has decided not to ever have relationships. But after being drawn to a strange man at the beach, Hester begins to discover the issue is curse driven rather than medical. While the story is cumbersome to quickly describe, it is accessible to readers and flows well, with chapters alternating between the past and present. The story slowly unfolds, allowing readers to enjoy the intrigue of the past, the mermaids, the love stories, and the present as they begin to intertwine. Most of the side characters are interesting, but just above one dimensional. Hester’s voice rings true, especially in the moments she discusses her mother. With its beautifully detailed mermaid world and romance at its core, this will find fans of paranormal romance without a doubt. For those who are looking for a book a cut above the rest of the genre, this is the one to get.—Kristin Fletcher-Spear.
7. Book Page
Excerpt: "Monstrous Beauty packs a serious, sexy wallop."
Full review:
Monstrous Beauty combines horror, romance and fantasy in an affecting and creepy tale. In 1872, a mermaid named Syrenka falls in love with the naturalist who has been sketching her. Trading her tail for life on land is not as easy as she'd hoped, and the consequences of her decision pay forward for more than a century. In the present day, Hester, all of 17 and certain she's doomed to a life alone due to a family curse, meets a beautiful stranger who seems to be the answer to her prayers. Funny how wrong first impressions can turn out to be.
Author Elizabeth Fama (Overboard) gives Monstrous Beauty style and punch. For a book aimed at readers 12 and up, the violence (including a graphic sexual assault) comes as a shock, but it raises the stakes for all the humans, mermaids and other creatures involved in the unfolding story. After two episodes that would put most of us out of commission for a week, the hits just keep on coming: “Before she could react, [Hester] was tackled to the ground and being clawed and punched by a raving madwoman.” But when Hester sees that her future isn't etched in stone after all, her insecurities give way to a plucky willingness to try anything.
Modern day crashes into late-19th-century morals when the story looks back at the town's church, which condemns things they can't understand (kind of forgivable in the case of mermaids, but still). The Puritan attitudes fire up the tension between good versus evil, giving the book's finale more oomph. Not that it needs it! Monstrous Beauty packs a serious, sexy wallop. (Heather Seggel)
8. Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2012 (a summary of most of the 2012 mermaid books) by Meghan Cox Gurdon:
Excerpt: "Compelling (and gory)..."
Full review:
...Teen readers will have to wait until later this year for two of the most compelling (and gory) mermaid offerings....Elizabeth Fama's Monstrous Beauty...is by far the most sophisticated but also the most mature in its treatment of the consuming loves and violent deaths wrought by mer-folk. The story begins in 1522 when the mermaid Syrenka accidentally murders her mortal beloved. Three centuries later, she renounces her fins and tail for the love of another human man, but the exchange comes at a terrible price. Nor does her transformation go unnoticed: A local woman's suspicion of Syrenka leads to a scene of Grand Guignol that will send ghastly effects down to the present day and into the life of a teenager named Hester.
9. USA Today Books Blog
Excerpt: "...this author knows what the YA audience likes, and she delivers."
Full review:
What it's about: Hester knows her family is cursed: None of the women in her family can fall in love. This curse goes back to 1872, when a man named Ezra had a beautiful monster, Syrenka, fall in love with him. Syrenka was a mermaid, and when she gave up her fin for a life above the sea, it came at a great price. It's dark, it's haunting and it's beautiful.
Why you should read it: The YA genre is swimming with mermaid (and merman) romances this year, and yet Monstrous Beauty doesn't get lost in the school (hah — fish joke). Fama did her research, and her mermaid novel spans the course of generations, and her setting is absolutely haunting. Her debut YA, Overboard, was named a 2003 best book for YA by the American Library Association, so this author knows what the YA audience likes, and she delivers.--Jessie Potts