Beastia by Zoe Cruz. puts a unique spin on the old familiar Beauty and the Beast story. Here the beast character is a female. Rebekah Austin was not the nicest girl particularly to Jo-Ann who used to be her friend and suddenly wasn't good enough for her anymore. Then, Rebekah's Dad dies, and she gets kidnapped and deformed by a mad man, and her life turns upside down. This book with its fast moving short chapters is a really quick read. It should be required reading for all teenage girls (or any girls) who think that all they'll ever need to get by is their looks, and therefore how they treat other people doesn't matter.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book. It was all about surviving trauma and learning how to live life after something horrible has happened. It's about learning to love the you after something terrible has happened.

Bea looks on the outside how any survivor of trauma feels on the inside. Scarred, ugly, worthless, unloved, unwanted. But she learns throughout the story that if she lets the right people in and builds the right supports, she can learn to live with the new her. This story shows that while you can't always fix the scars or erase the trauma, you can learn to live with it. You can learn to cope. Like Bea's scars and tattoos, the trauma will always be there, but you don't have to let it control the rest of your life. It really is a wonderful story.

There's also a touch of thriller/mystery to keep things exciting and a nice little love story for the hopeless romantic.

If I had one critique? I'm all about the quotes at the start of the chapters, however I felt some of them were inappropriate and didn't suit the tone of the chapter (like there would be a light-hearted quote from a comedian, but most of the book was quite dark so it just wouldn't really fit). However, this is me being nit-picky and it really doesn't take away from the story!

Highly recommend this one! It's worth it!

Beastia had me from the start. I could not put it down. From the description, I thought I would really dislike the main character, but instead I found myself really drawn to her. This is a really fast-paced, dark YA Novel. I enjoyed every minute.

I really like how well this book was written I actually read it twce in a row

If you do not know, I love Beauty and the Beast. I love the retellings of that fairytale. This was advertised as a Beauty and the Beast if it was flipped around genderwise. It was kind of like that but very on the surface retelling. It was much more of a thriller/mystery book and didn't really follow the story of Beauty and the Beast. I did enjoy it but I don't think it could be advertised as a retelling.

This is a brilliant Y.A. thriller.  A real shocking Beauty and the Beast story. Rebekah is very superficial, everything about her is false. Beautiful yes, she truly is. but only on the outside really,  like a lot of her friends. It is how they judge each others status. Being beautiful, having the right clothes and car, not who they really are just how good they look. Even her family is the same. It is all about how others see them. She hates her life, especially at home, but no one knows. She feels ugly inside.
When tragedy strikes and the lies fall away. Rebekah gets more then a taste about how important her family were to her not just what they could give her. She has to get out, feel as normal as she can but when her friend goes off with a boy at a party no one notices that Rebekah  has  disappeared. She has been abducted and over weeks of being captive she is tortured daily, cut, pinned and tattooed everywhere. Until someone mysteriously dumps her on the street among rubbish. The psychopath is still out there and Rebekah is grossly changed so much that she is impossible to mend and put back together. With a new identity she forges a new life, she is now Bea.
I was truly fascinated with this story where I really began to root for Bea, to see her for who she was becoming inside, the true beauty of her. The story had a really good pace through out that kept me on my toes, continually wondering if it was the psychopath that had come back in her life ever time someone new came into the story. It was edgy without being frightening. I loved seeing Bea change over time. Brilliant conclusion to the story. It really does make you realise how superficial people are.

Beastia is a fast paced, relatively short YA thriller.
The story, revolving around Rebekah who is attacked and "transformed" into a beast, is an interesting one.
The characters are likeable though I would have liked to have seen more development of the others as it is clear that Jo-Ann and Will have troubled pasts too.
I enjoyed reading Beastia.

Thank you to netgalley for letting me read this.

Thank you to Smith Publicity who provided an arc of the book via net galley in return for an honest review.

This could have been a great book that examined how important beauty is in society and what we will forgive a beautiful person, even if he or she is ugly on the inside. And on the flip side how beauty can incite feelings of lust and hatred in others.

The quotes that start each chapter are interesting and reflect the themes that are touched on on the book, but unfortunately these themes are not given chance to develop or grow. Everything is dealt with in a very superficial manner and the book is very much about "telling" rather than "showing". Coupled with the fast pace, I never stopped to pause or consider any of the characters emotions or actions as I would with a more nuanced approach.

The book really glossed over Rebekah's alleged mean girl status, which really seemed to consist of her spreading a rumour about a girl on Facebook, shoulder slamming her in the school corridor and ignoring someone who used to be her friend. Similarly, her realisation (post attack) that she used to be ugly on the inside is ridiculously sudden.

The serial killer angle is very much a tired trope - the wall full of photos recording his kills? check. The "complicated" issue with Mummy? check. The heroine trapped with him on her own at the end? check.

The three friends; Bea (as Rebekah becomes known), Will and Jo-Anne all have troubled backgrounds and even this felt like such a cliche.

On a more positive note the book is very fast paced, is a lot darker than other YA books in the genre, and does have a rather wonderful cover.

This was a better-than-average YA book. The horrific things that Bea went through might have stretched credulity a little, but the author still made it very convincing. I enjoyed the fact that Bea was a complicated person even before her abduction - bit of a bitch at school but a lost little girl at home. The denouement was gratifying, and I never even suspected the eventual culprit.

My only (mild) complaint is the love story, but I'm a cynical old person who prefers action over relationships!

Beastia is a great YA book! The plot and characters are spot on and the book's pace kept me entertained. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter complement the story very well and the characters are likable. I really recommend this to young adults and older adults alike. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the amazing opportunity to review this stand out book. This is the first book I have read by Zoe Cruz but after having read this I will
read more by her.

Beastia
Zoe Cruz
Book Review: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
This book was very interesting I'm not quite sure what genre I would characterise it as. It's not light-heart. I would say it's closer to the dark side however it has a bit of everything, and it's not scary. It's a story of finding your way in the world and seeing your inner beauty. I was hoping for the Disney fantasy ending, but I guess I don't live in the real world. This book does have the happy ever after and a good moral fibre.

Rebekah has a perfect life. The beautiful face, the rich spoilt family and the mean girl personality to match. In one day her life changed forever. She lost everything including her beauty. Now it's time to start living and discovering there is more to life than plastic.

I loved the quotes at the beginning of every chapter.

4 stars out of 5.

*I received this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Paperback , 230 pages
Expected publication: March, 14th