Book Review: The Treachery of Beautiful Things

Author: Ruth Frances Long
Publication Date: August 16, 2012
Publisher: Dial Books

A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction.

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.

 

The cover of this book is absolutely breathtaking. When you look at it long enough and you realize that she is actually becoming part of the forest your mind just can’t help but wonder. Everything in the picture just looks so still, but yet there is so much that is coming to life. It is a truly fascinating cover and I know that I just had to admire it for about 5 minutes or so and even then I still flipped the cover back as I was reading! The story line sounded so full of imagination and I immediately wanted to know more about her brother, Tom, and about these so called trees that come to life.

 

 

 

 

I was so confused in the midst of reading this book. I found myself asking, which fairy tale is being retold here? We have some Midsummer Night’s Dream and a touch of Snow White. I was just thoroughly confused because so many common characters were playing into one story. This would be fine if maybe it was written better. A new character would be introduced and I would be thinking to myself, wait I just met Puck over there and now I’m jumping stories! I wish the motives of the retelling would have been made more clear to me or that some characters could have been given a little more background knowledge as I read about them. A lot of the time I found myself asking what just happened? I was constantly having to re-read certain sections and that drives me insane when I am trying to read a book.

 

On a postive note, I have to give Long credit on her vast imagination. She definitely has a brain that must work nonstop. I loved the world in which Jack and Puck lived. It was so creative and I was always longing for something else to come alive! To create places like this one is your head must be one of the best perks of being an author. Not to mention Jack, who was my favorite character! At first I questioned his motives and I actually thought the he might betray Jenny to the evil queen, Titania. Jack was really and truly of the forest as he was the guardian of it. He had such a tender heart as well and I think that is what really drew me to him as a character. I loved watching him interact with Jenny and you could tell that she was probably the first person to soften his heart in awhile.

 

Jenny was not my favorite of characters. I loved that she was on a quest to find her brother, Tom, who had been missing for seven years, but she was maybe a little naïve. Even towards the middle of the story she acted like she wasn’t getting the hang of things in the forest. She has been told to trust no one and not to wonder off, but she does all of the above and finds herself in sticky situations. She really took to Jack and I mean who wouldn’t? I was even a little jealous of her (my obvious crush on Jack is shining through!!)

 

Overall it was an decent read, but probably not something that I would pick up and ever read again.