TL;DR a slightly convoluted mermaid mystery
(finished 7/17/15)
I just realized that Elizabeth Fama also wrote Plus One. The entire time I was reading I was trying to figure out why her name sounded familiar. It's because she wrote a book I read less than half a year ago. Oops. This is why the internet helps.
Monstrous Beauty is a really intriguing mystery book. I'm not really one for mysteries, but I've been on a mermaid YA kick recently. I'm not quite sure how to comment on the mystery aspect of the book considering I rarely hunt those kinds of books out, but there's enough information given that you'll figure everything out before Hester does. Take that as you will. (I guess it's normal to know more than the character? Maybe? I'm not sure.)
Hester was an okay character. A little slow, maybe, but that might also just be from an outsider's opinion. Syrenka was pretty interesting but she only comes into play in the flashbacks. Out of everyone, I think I liked the Scottish pastor guy the most (but not enough to remember his name OTL).
It was really fun watching the whole mystery unfold. The chapters generally alternated between what Hester was doing and what Syrenka had done in the past, so it was kind of like getting both ends of a story and working your way to the middle. (A little. Or starting at two different points on intersecting lines.) Everything worked out a little too well, but I think that's to be expected as a standalone.
I would actually be really interested in a story simply about Syrenka and her sisters (friends? Are they actually all related?). The most interesting part to me was the climax, but of course that didn't last very long. I want to know more about the mermaids and their culture and that really old one that rules over everything and sounds kind of like an Ursula.
TL;DR I liked it. I don't have all that much to say about it, tbh, but it was good.
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