The
Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long
Release
Date: 8-16-2012, On Shelves Now
Published
by: Dial Books
Thank you
Jen Fisher for letting me borrow it!
The Sisters
Say: A darkly tragic tale of love and
betrayal
The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.
When I first
read the synopsis of this book, I didn’t know if I would enjoy it or not. I found the idea of getting swallowed by a
tree a bit weird. However, after reading
the rest of the blurb, I became intrigued by the idea of a world beyond our
own, a world full of beauty and magic but laced with poison. As the weeks went by, I sort of became
obsessed with wanting to read it; so I was super duper excited when Jen Fisher
told me she had a copy I could borrow!
YAY!
I’m so glad
that I jumped on that opportunity. The Treachery of Beautiful Things is a
bit Labyrinth, a bit Alice
in Wonderland, but wholly and uniquely its own. I was drawn straight into Ruth’s world, from
the moment the trees attacked. I loved
watching this dark fairy tale unfold, full of frighteningly beautiful
creatures, as deadly as they are enchanting.
You will never see fairy princesses and knights in shining armor the
same again!
While I
enjoyed many of the characters in this book, my favorite part was still the
world. Ruth wrote it out perfectly—every
frightful and mesmerizing detail. I felt
like I was watching a movie in my head.
I could see the graceful and child-like Folletti flying around with
their bow and arrows—their faces twisting with their trickery. I could see the peaceful river that would
seduce you to enter, only to pull you to its depths and claim you as its
own. I could see the watchful eye of the
sun slowly sinking from the sky to surrender you to the darkness. Chilling and addictive, her world is like a
drug!
Jenny is the
heroine of the story—stuck inside this fantasy world full of temptation and
riddles. She wants nothing more than to
find Tom and bring him home—or so she thinks.
But as she pushes through the forest with the aid of Jack and Puck, she
starts to discover that Tom is not the only one who needs saving from this
world. There were times I really liked
Jenny, but other times that I thought she was childish. She could stand up and be firm and strong,
but then she would give in to a temper tantrum.
I wanted to see more of the adult Jenny—the one driven by desire and
passion and a need to do the right thing.
Unfortunately, we tended to see the Jenny that needs protection and
sheltering than the girl that won the heart of the forest.
My favorite
character (of course) is Jack. Just like
every creature in the Realm, he has both a light and a dark side. He struggles against his vows to the King and
Queen, wanting to help Jenny as much as he can; but he, like all the creatures,
must bow to his oaths. I really enjoyed
seeing his struggle between light and dark, good and evil. You could see the struggle in his face, the
hard lines on his forehead, in the way he walked and in the way he talked. Ruth did a great job of building up his
character, making him more than believable.
I wanted to save him—to reach straight into the book and scoop him
out. Of course, I always like the
troubled characters—the broken boys that struggle to find the good in a sea of
evil.
I really
wish we could have seen more of the King and Queen. They were great characters—full of evil, and
I think they could have made the story so much more suspenseful. However, they weren’t in the book very much
until the very end. I would have loved
to see more of them throughout the story.
I kept picturing Oberon like the Goblin King in Labyrinth—one that
tricks and deceives using mind control and dreams. There is even a scene in the book that is
reminiscent of the masquerade ball in the movie. These are the scenes where I would have loved
to see more of the treachery that was deeply rooted in these two characters.
While it did
have its flaws, I found myself enjoying the storyline and rushing through to
see how it ended. There were times when
the story dragged with Jenny’s naïveté and childish demeanor, but not enough of
them to really frustrate me.
Overall,
this story was darkly entertaining. Ruth
creates a world where beauty is danger, where a kiss can destroy you, and a
heart can be your undoing. Open this
book and let the trees swallow you whole—you might just not want to find your
way back out.
