Reviews of The Curse Girl

In this novella based on Beauty and the Beast, teenage Bee (Beauty) has heard the stories about the Beast and his nightmare of a magic house--all of the stories sound impossible, and none of them give her the slightest confidence that she won't be harmed by the Beast inside. Bee's father has made the ultimate mistake of trespassing on the Beast's property, and Bee is the one who has to pay for the mistake by living with the Beast. When the Beast shows himself, Bee discovers that he's nice-looking except for the scar that marks one side of his face, and he's not particularly frightening, except for his disdainful, snobby attitude. His real name is Will and he lives in the house with his younger sister Rose, and his named-for-what-they-do servants Housekeeper and Butler. He's under a curse and needs Bee to help him break it, but he doesn't know how she can help, and Bee's barely convinced that she wants to help such a nasty person.

She tries to use her wits to escape from the magic house, but the doors refuse to open and the windows are unbreakable. And the house truly has an eerie Gothic vibe, from the smiling statues in the Hall of Regret to the underground Labyrinth, to the dead conservatory. The setting really contributes to the mood of the story, and it's clear that while Bee might not be in any life-threatening danger, any number of weird, impossible things could happen in this place. And weird things do start happening, especially after Bee discovers a certain chained-up prisoner in the labyrinth.

We might not know much about Bee's background, but she's still a strong and sympathetic character who's acting brave in the midst of a bad situation. There's some really rough emotional issues between Bee and her dad because, lets face it, he has sacrificed his own daughter to who-knows-what in order to save himself from the magic that marks him as a trespasser. We expect this sort of bizarre abandonment to happen in dark old faery tales, but when it happens in modern fiction, you experience the full weight of a parental betrayal that's impossible to justify. In Alex Flinn's Beastly, she made Beauty's father be a drug addict, to explain why'd he'd willingly hand his his own daughter to a dangerous stranger. In The Curse Girl, the father seems like he's just very thoughtless and weak, and Bee resents him for it, but his mistake allows her to find out what she's really made of.

The romance starts as a near-enemies relationship, like you'd expect. Will and Bee exchange a lot of verbal barbs because she automatically distrusts him and he's immediately dislikes her, though he needs her to break his curse. I really like this version of the Beast--not a brawny monster like in the Disney version (though I love him, too) and not really the standard handsome-guy-turned-ugly guy either. He's intelligent and caustic and he's trying to figure out the rules of his own little supernatural world, just like Bee is. In another upside, he's not some stalker that demanded that Bee's father hand her over to him--getting Bee wasn't really even his idea, so he's still a bit of a brat but he's no kidnapper. I like the gradual development of Bee and Will's relationship. It's halfway through the story before they've even established a good, tense friendship and their struggles to connect are fantastic to watch. The end of the story definitely made me smile.

With a strong heroine, a well-layered mystery, and a truly great setting, The Curse Girl makes for a very solid paranormal read. It's a really compelling take on Beauty and the Beast, and I'll be looking forward to seeing what Kate Ellison comes up with in the future.

I love loved loved this book!
I was really taken aback from how much I came to care about both Will and Bee. They really were a beautiful couple.

When Bee agreed to sacrifice herself for the well-being of her family, due to her father's stupid mistake, all she could feel was terror. Everyone knew about the Cursed house and the beast that lived in it. Some said the Beast even ate children. Some said it was a real beast, a terrible, appalling creature of cruelty and hideousness.

But what Bee saw in that place was a haughty, bad-tempered boy,Will, who had lived in the curse and misery too long to still have feelings or care about anything.
She tried to warm up to everyone else in the house, his sister Rose, the Housekeeper, the Butler...but life inside the house seemed dull and well...lifeless.

She needed to go out, get back to her boyfriend, Drew, and her friends, but Will wouldn't cooperate.
Her only consolation was making origami (something her grandmother had taught her) and Liam, a man trapped from the curse of the house as well. Lonely and in pain. In so much pain that she had to hold his hand throughout the night, in the dark, not even knowing what he looked like.

It takes days, months to finally warm up to Will and get his help to break the curse. Months that, to her horror, could translate into years to the outside world....
She gets to know the Land of the Fey, magic, spells, the trickery of elves and so much more. Plus the romance and its development was quite plausible and sweet.

There were like 6-7 spelling/gramm. mistakes throughout but it didn't deprive from the story.
Totally worth your time.
I can't wait for her next book "A Sky Without Stars" to come out. It has a bit of a dystopia feel to it and I think I love it already! XD