Review: Crazy Beautiful

Crazy Beautiful

By Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Publication date: 2009

My review:

In this modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Lucius Wolfe and Aurora Belle meet on their first day at a new school. Lucius is still adjusting to having hooks for hands-the result of an explosion he caused that destroyed his family's home. He uses his hooks to push his classmates and family away. Aurora may be welcomed with open arms by the popular students at her new school but inside she is grieving the loss of her mom. From the moment she sees him, Aurora is drawn to Lucius and he is likewise drawn to her. What they have could be special if his past doesn't get in the way. Can these two hurting people help each other to heal?

Crazy Beautiful is told in alternating chapters from the viewpoint of Lucius and Aurora. While I did like Aurora it is Lucius who is my favorite character from the book. He made a really bad decision and he is paying the price for it. Lucius is also dealing with a lot of anger and being picked on by the jerks at his school. Lucius isn't really a beast though. He may try to portray himself as tough but he does care about his fractured family relationships and about the people in his life. Lucius feels a lot of guilt about what he did to his family and he sees the difficulties that he faces with his disability as a punishment that he deserves. It is because of Aurora that Lucius begins to be involved in life again. I enjoyed seeing Lucius grow over the course of the novel. Unfortunately Aurora was not as well developed a character as Lucius. She is sweet and she reminds me a little of Jamie from A Walk to Remember.

This is a short novel. Some of the chapters only have a few sentences which is reminiscent of Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver although the content and writing style are more in line with the books of Simone Elkeles. I reviewed this book for Body Image and Self Perception Month.

Readalikes: Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles, Beastly by Alex Flinn