Wild Beauty

by Anna-Marie McLemore

[Chelsea]

I'm not sure what to think of Wild Beauty. There were a few things I loved and a few things I didn't like. Everything else fit into the 'meh' category. By the looks of things so far I'm going to have the unpopular opinion on this one.

- There were some good things about this book. For one, the writing was gorgeous. Sadly this time around, it fell under the category of pretty writing to make up for the boring nothing that was everything else.

- The biggest thing I struggled with in this book was that I didn't feel anything for any of the characters. I wasn't rooting for Fel as he tried to remember his past or even shipping any of the characters. Nothing. I just didn't care for any of them. A giant meteor could have fallen from the sky and killed everyone and I still wouldn't care. Maybe it was because I couldn't relate to them or maybe because the pretty words didn't make me like them. It could have be either but when I don't care about the characters it makes it hard to be invested in the story. Plus we didn't even know anything about them. The mothers and grandmothers were only known as just that and the cousins all felt like they were mushed into one person.

- Speaking of the characters, a giant hooray for including a diverse cast! It was actually really refreshing to read about realistic characters for once. Plus it was mostly all female characters which is always great in my opinion.

- The next big problem I had with Wild Beauty was the plot because nothing ever happened. In the beginning a strange boy appears which I great. That starts our story off. Then in the whole middle section nothing happened until the very end where they discover this big mystery that I didn't even realize was a mystery? It just felt like this book had no purpose. The plot just bounces around between Fel just hanging out and the Briars (specifically Bay, the most forgettable character ever). Nothing fits together nicely and we're never given enough details to know what's going on at any point. The ending sort of pulled everything together but by that point I was bored and not invested in the story AT ALL.

- Going along with the plot, the world-building was lacking. Maybe it was me, I was bored enough that my eyes started skipping over sections, but I honestly had no idea what this world was. It seemed to be our modern day world except there was no technology mentioned ever. And then it seemed like it was more historical until Fel's past was brought up which just made me confused again. I also never fully understood the magic in this world. If someone came up to me and asked me to explain it to them I would come up blank. I get that it was more of a pretty whimsical story but that just didn't work for me.

I think a lot of people will like this story. Its themes of love and family were great plus the diversity was awesome. If you're the kind of person that needs action or mystery or SOMETHING going on then maybe, like me, this isn't the book for you.

* I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review *