Monstrous Beauty

By: Elizabeth Fama

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences.

Almost 140 years later, 17-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect...or a curse?

With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean - but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.

©2012 Elizabeth Fama (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

• Odyssey Award Honor Book, "Best Audiobooks for Children and Young Adults", 2013

Intricately Woven

The story involves two time periods. I usually don’t like this because it takes skill to do it in a way that doesn’t seem contrived, isn’t confusing, or isn’t done just for the gimmick. This author manages to weave in the two time periods effortlessly. They are both necessary for the story and I adore figuring things out before our main character because the author still manages to hold things back. You figure things out, but still don’t have all the pieces. It’s done in a natural way so that things remain surprising.

I enjoyed the story and must acknowledge the masterful work of the voice actress. She did a fantastic job!

loved this book

I was completely sucked in and obsessed until I finished I love mermaid and this book is one of my favorites in a long time well written and narrated made me feel like I was looking at the story on fold beautiful I love the mermaid language and

a unique take on the mermaid story

usually I start with the overview of the story itself, but I think I need to talk about the audio voice narrator.

Katherine Kellgren was phenomenal in the voicing of this story, her emotions the different dialects, making each person sound different was outstanding. Just for this alone I think one should listen to the story.

this is an interesting take on the mermaid story. The author did a interesting job of weaving past and present stories to coalesce into the final confrontation of what had been done in the past, in order to fix it now in the present.

just because it's an interesting take I do recommend the story. There were elements I did not like, and some of them dealt with souls and such. It's my personal opinion which is why I suggest you read it.

(note I did not go into rewriting the blurb of the heroine who is Hester and her friend Peter plus her love interest Ezra. I did this because I wanted to write a review based on my impressions and I didn't want to give too much away because I do think it's worth listening to.)

This is no ordinary Mermaid story!

This was an amazing story! I started this without knowing truly what it was about. I knew it was about mermaids and it was different.... and wow! It really was different!! Different and good. These are not your typical mermaids, just like this is not your typical mermaid love story. This was a mystery story, mixed with fantasy, love, twists and turns, and what I loved more: A great ending!
Some books have an amazing 3/4 story and then it all goes to the ground in the last 1/4. Not this one. This story will keep you on the edge of your seat. As you progress in the story, you will want to know more and you’ll start making your own predictions. “This is what happened!” “No, this is what happened” and so on.
I would totally recommend this book for those who love fantasy, mysteries and just a plain good story.
So.... what are you waiting for?? Go ahead and give this a try! You will not regret it ;)

Implausible, with flat characters

This book tries to tell two stories - one in the past, and one in the future. The story in the past is the only one worth reading, and it's so frenzied and complicated that it can be a bit confusing. The story in the future is driven by a protagonist with no personality. Her character is comprised of two things - not wanting to fall in love (for a really, really dumb reason - she doesn't want kids - because she's never heard of getting her tubes tied) and being obsessed with history. Both things serve only one purpose: for her to research the story from the past. She exists only as a medium through which we can understand the past storyline. Nothing about her makes her interesting as a character on her own. She has a brother who pops up twice in the book, and both times their dialogues are pointless and flat. She tries to conjure up familial feelings between them but it doesn't work.

The woman who reads the book is too old to read this book (I feel). She does the mermaids' voices very well, but when she narrates a teenage girl, it sounds like an older aunt or grandma reading you a bedtime story badly. This doesn't help to make her sound like a realistic character.

It was an interesting-ish take on mermaid lore, and entertaining enough if you can get the book for free from a library. But I dislike that I paid for it.

GREAT Fodder for Fans of Enchantment- YA and Above

This was recommended repeatedly in forums I found while trying to find good, new, adult mermaid-centric fiction, and now I TOTALLY get why. This is not only a great story (rated YA I believe, but perfectly suitable for adults as well), but the narrator is absolutely MARVELOUS. Katherine Kellgren is on point from beginning to end, and since so often the narrator can make or break a story (even the best ones), this was s double delight. (And I am PICKY about my narrators. ;))

The writing was thoughtful, the plot interesting and unraveled at a good pace, the characters were interesting, palpable & believable, and overall the whole book was both smart AND heartfelt, which doesn't always happen together in fantasy stories. I think my only criticism would be that I can't remember if/where the main character (Hester) was described, but.. that may be my crappy memory, or something deliberately left out by the author. Either way, I loved the thought-provoking, truly immersive way this book was written, and now just can't wait to read more by Ms. Fama, as well as hear more by Ms. Kellgren. -Thanks to "Monstrous Beauty," you may henceforth officially consider me a devoted fan of both. :) ♥

Mounstrously bad

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I'm not sure, people who like horror stories and don't mind a very predictable plot. The concept was interesting enough, but I so hated the characters.

What could Elizabeth Fama have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Have more enjoyable characters.
- Ezra: flat character that is the love interest (result of an insta-love).
- Hester: boring main character (she spins around in a circle and is just really undeveloped)
- Lynny: the most annoying kid in the world
- The pastor: the only useful character in the book (still didn't like him)
- Olaf's wife (forgot her name) - most hateful woman alive or dead...
- The sea witch: crazy fat hag
So, yeah, the story had potential, but the stereotypes totally killed the mood.

Would you be willing to try another one of Katherine Kellgren’s performances?

God no. I hate her performances. She keeps on screaming in my ear. She ruined the Ashes series for me and here it was even worse because I didn't even like the story.

What character would you cut from Monstrous Beauty?

All of them except Syrenka.

Any additional comments?

Again, I hate the way Katherine Kellgren performs. don't know who told her it would be a good idea to scream while narrating. Really, I'm listening to this on my headphones and her voice goes right to my brain and slowly kills it. If it wasn't for the narrator I might have enjoyed this more. Not sure, but probably...