#rosamund hodge

[asoftepiloguemylove]

i wanna make you fall in love as hard as my poor parents teenage daughter / she'll be the best you ever had if you let her

Sylvia Plath from a letter to Ann Davdiow-Goodman written 1951; Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume I: 1940-1956 / Jeanette Winterson excerpt from Lighthousekeeping / Rosamund Hodge excerpt from Cruel Beauty / unknown / image: Angelica Alzona Intimacy (2012) words: The National Daughter of the Soho Riots (2005) / Tathève Simonyan A Prayer / @/FAUNTHEKiD (pinterest) / Victoria Chang Foghorn; Six poems / image: unknown words: Richard Siken excerpt from Crush / Hala Alyan I'm Not Speaking First

i. Sylvia Plath, letter to Ann Davdiow-Goodman

[ "I know I'll always think of you with something like hurt and nostalgia - and a great deal of love." ]

ii. Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping

[ "This is not a love story, but love is in it. That is, love is just outside it, looking for a way to break in." ]

iii. Rosamund Hodge, Cruel Beauty

[ "You fought and fought to keep all the cruelty locked up in your head, and for what? None of them ever loved you, because none of them ever knew you." ]

iv. unknown

[ "and you've cried once more because recognition feels like forgiveness, which is a burning furnace that can't stand on its own. love is a feast but you've learned to abstain. there is a sickness that follows the shame of giving with love only to be met with slaughter." ]

v. Angelica Alzona, Intimacy / The National, Daughter of the Soho Riots

[ Surrealist painting of a man and a woman kissing as their faces blend together. Red outlines of hands reach up around them. "BREAK MY ARMS / AROUND THE ONE I LOVE" ]

vi. Tatheve Simonyan, A Prayer

[ "Rage, that is love - rotten! / Rage, that is desire - rotten! / Rage! - like a prayer, unanswered, ricocheting from your ceiling and landing right onto your eyes, never quite reaching where it was meant to." ]

vii. FAUNTHEKiD

[ "being in close proximity to you / is being led to the slaughter / if that the lamb is aware is alive is accepting / if that the slaughter is love love love" ]

viii. Victoria Chang, Foghorn

[ "The great mystery / is whether I love you or / I just love mourning. / The absence of a laugh just / gone, and the air that fills it." ]

ix. unknown/Richard Siken, Crush

[ Silhouette of a boy looking downwards. Red streaks from the background spread outwards from the middle. "I'll be your / slaughterhouse, / your killing floor, / your morgue / and final resting" ]

x. Hala Alyan, I'm Not Speaking First

[ "Nothing's Freudian anymore. A cigar's a cigar. I want to love something / I want to love something without having to apologize for it. Please don't tell." ]

#web weave #poetry #literature #on love #on heartbreak #on emotion #on loneliness #text #quote #words #writing #sylvia plath #letters of sylvia plath #jeanette winterson #lighthousekeeping #rosamund hodge #cruel beauty #algelica alonza #intimacy #the national #daughter of the soho riots #tatheve simonyan #a prayer #victoria chang #foghorn #six poems #richard siken #crush #hala alyan #i'm not speaking first

[lunamond]

In light of my recent post about Acotar, I wanted to gush some about my favourite Beauty and Beast and Ballad of Tam Lin (and a sprinkle of Bluebeard) YA retelling.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge ❤️

This is mostly going to be a gush fest and recommendation for anyone who was also excited by the idea of meshing Beauty and the Beast with Tam Lin and ended up utterly disappointed with Acotar.

Some very mild spoilers (mostly Worldbuilding)

Cruel Beauty is a fun and easy read: YA Fantasy Romance with plenty of popular tropes and archetypes, like the arranged marriage, forced proximity, enemies to lovers, etc

This book still manages to engage in such interesting ways with the original tales it's based on.

Instead of stealing the aesthetic of the Og fairytales and other folklore and mythology like in Acotar.

Any defining fae feature of Sjm's characters is immediately removed in the very beginning of Acotar (the lieing, the iron, etc), turning the characters in what amounts to hot magic people. Even their supposed long lifespans barely impact their behaviour or culture.

Cruel Beauty continuously builts on its roots, making them an intrinsic part of its narrative.

In Acotar outside of the very shallow narrative skeleton of the Beauty and the Beast tale, you could strip away the faerie and folklore elements, and you're left with the same story. The only changes you might need to make are to find a new name for Tamlin (while not that serious, I considered it quite offensive when I first read this series as a teenager that Sjm would take that name and then turn that character into an abuser).

In Cruel Beauty, however, both the defining elements of the Beauty and the Beast story and the Tam Lin story are crucial to the development and resolution of its plot.

The Beast of the story is cursed, as are the inhabitants of his castle. Nyx, our Beauty character, is offered in exchange for a mistake her father made. As she is unknowingly about to break the curse, the Beast lets her go back, but when she returns, it's too late to break the curse.

This is when the story morphes into the Ballad of Tam Lin, and Nyx has to win her lover back from the Faerie Queen in much the same manner as Janet did in the ballad, even saving him from a very similar fate.

The Bluebeard elements, which to me always seemed more like references than an actual retelling, are still really apparent and well integrated.

The representation of the fae is also great in this book. This is especially remarkable due to the fact that the actual words fae or faerie are never used once.

Instead, they are referred to as the Kindly Ones.

However, they are clearly trickster folk who make bargains with unwitting humans that always end up going wrong in cruel ways. They are fair, never directly lie, and always keep their end of the agreement. They place a lot of importance on names, are otherworldly, eerie, etc.

Basically, they actually seem Other, instead of talking and acting like frat bros from the 21st century.

This book differs from a lot of other Fae Fantasy, however, in the way it mixes Greco-Roman Myths with more Celtic Germanic Folklore. It creates a really fun interplay between these cultures, both in-world as well as on a meta level.

First of all, there are some other (in my opinion, more mediocre books) that do throw a lot of mythologies together. CB sets itself apart with the fact that it does so with a lot more purpose than others do.

In many people's minds, different cultures and mythos tend to be viewed as very separate. However, just looking at the Greek and Roman myths, it's already pretty clear that every time cultures clashed, so would their myths and stories.

This is a well studied phenomenon. The romans especially were well known to basically mash up their deities and myths with those of every new culture they interacted with.

And CB uses this brilliantly. The story is set in an alternate timeline, in which, after the fall of Rome, a kingdom known as Arcadia was created by former Roman generals/nobility. This mirrors actual history, during which many early medieval kingdoms would seek their legitimacy in their connections to the Roman Empire (see the Holy Roman Empire aka Germany).

But in CB, the fantastical elements are meshed up in this as well. This allows Rosamund Hodge to create an interesting interplay between the Greco-Roman Mythology imported by the elite in Arcadia and the more Celtic/Germanic Folklore elements native to the land and its population.

So, yeah. Go read Cruel Beauty, please.

#cruel beauty #rosamund hodge #acotar critical #acotar #anti acotar #anti sjm #sjm critical #pro tamlin #i guess #the ballad of tam lin #beauty and the beast #Tam lin #ya fantasy #book recommendations #I actually had whole bit about comparing the characters of Cb and Acotar #but it was a lot #that said Nyx actually has the complicated sister relationship #like Nyx and Astraia hate each other #but they love each other #they would kill for each other #and they do #Nyx is literally ready to murder the love of her life for her sister #sjm could never

[laylaslibrary]

Rosamund Hodge, Cruel Beauty

#quotes #literature #poetry #aesthetic #books #poem #lit #love quotes #dark acadamia quotes #dark acamedia #rosamund hodge #cruel beauty

[im-not-the-one-youre-looking-for]

Hi so I read What Monstrous Gods on the plane

And Ms. Hodge

It would be faster

If you just stab me next time

Like seriously you woke up and chose violence

Also the Shakespeare/Hopkins/other references cracked me up. It’s like Ah yes. Dominican.

#every time I read one of her books I’m like #lol this feels familiar #the Dominican education curriculum is just very specific ok #and idk if she even followed anything like that I know she was homeschooled and then went to UD #which ALSO cracks me up because this is also very on brand for that group #I say lovingly to my one mutual I know went there #anyway the first book I read from her I was like Wait #rosamund hodge #what monstrous gods

[books-in-a-storm]

March 2024 JOMPBPC: Day 30 Read In March

#justonemorepage #jompbpc #booklr #bookblr #books #funko pop #funko and books #cruel beauty #rosamund hodge #book nerd

[maud-heroine]

Cruel Beauty, Rosamund Hodge // Anatomy, Kenzie // Forugh Farrokhzad in a letter to her father // You Don't Know Me, David Klass

#web weaving #quotes #rosamund hodge #kenzie #forugh farrokhzad #david klass

[suzannahnatters]

HEY GUYS I'M COMING TO THE US LET'S MEET UP ~ Book Signing Event!!! ~ WHERE: Barnes & Noble Polaris in Columbus, Ohio WHEN: June 11th from 2-5 PM WITH: RJ Anderson, W.R. Gingell, Rosamund Hodge, and Joanna Ruth Meyer!

Let me just rave about my chums for a minute - - R.J. Anderson, who writes wonderful, old-school YA fantasy about fairies and faith! (Try KNIFE, I couldn't put it down)

- W.R. Gingell, author of beloved Aussie urban fantasy series THE CITY BETWEEN (my fave is BETWEEN WALLS but you have to read the whole thing)

- Rosamund Hodge, author of dark and bittersweet parables of sin, redemption, and stabbing things (if you haven't read CRIMSON BOUND what are you even doing with yourself)

- Joanna Ruth Meyer, author of heartfelt and evocative YA fantasies (INTO THE HEARTLESS WOOD is the cottagecore tree siren story you never knew you needed).

- And ME, your favourite author of ridiculously over-researched historical fantasy!

(- Also possibly a sixth MYSTERY AUTHOR watch this space)

IF you want to purchase books, you can snag a copy of DARK CLOUDS on the day, or if there's a specific title you want, be sure to call B&N Polaris at [phone] and ask them to order it in for you.

11 June! Please come! Bring any books you want signed! It will be SO thrilling to meet you!

#rj anderson #rosamund hodge #suzannah rowntree #w.r. gingell #joanna ruth meyer #into the heartless wood #cruel beauty #crimson bound #the city between #watchers of outremer #miss sharp's monsters #miss dark's apparitions #echo north #wind daughter #faery rebels #flight and flame trilogy #ya fantasy #ya fiction #author event #book signing

[good-books-to-read]

Beauty & the Beast

A curse so dark and Lonely (ACSDAL) by Briged Kemmerer

Of beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Of curses and kisses by Sandhya Menon

A Court Of Thorns And Roses (ACOTAR) by Sarah J. Maas

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

#beauty and the beast #booklover #booklr #books #booksbooksbooks #booknerd #book recommendation #bookish #theme #acotar #a court of thorns and roses #sarah j maas #sjmaas #brigid kemmerer #a curse so dark and lonely #acsdal #of beast and beauty #stacey jay #rosamund hodge #cruel beauty #of curses and kisses #sandhya menon

[scoutingthetrooper]

You fought and fought to keep all the cruelty locked up in your head, and for what? None of them ever loved you, because none of them ever knew you.

— Rosamund Hodge, Cruel Beauty

#words #text #quote #book #cruel beauty #rosamund hodge #fight

[rapha-reads]

To the person who recommended to me Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge as an amazing Beauty and the Beast retelling, thank you so much. I just finished it, an afternoon in the sun in the park, spring is here, and it was spellbinding and mesmerizing and absolutely marvelous.

For reminder these are the B&tB rewritings I've read and will work on for my thesis:

- The Beast's Heart, Leife Shallcross

- Beast: a Tale of Love and Revenge, Lisa Jensen

- A Curse So Dark And Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer

- Once Upon A Time: Belle, Cameron Dokey

- Uprooted, Naomi Novik

- Cruel Beauty, Rosamund Hodge.

#rapha reads #cruel beauty #rosamund hodge #beauty and the beast #beauty and the beast retellings #fairy tale retelling #books #i still need to reread lisa jensen's beast but i think cruel beauty just took first place on my list of b&tb rewritings #i'm still taking recommandations by the way - if there's more b&tb rewritings that have escaped my notice send them my way #rapha's obsessions

[thatwritererinoriordan]

New books have appeared in my tiny street library!

#books #nora roberts #susan mallery #rosamund hodge #maeve binchy

[asoftepiloguemylove]

hi! can i request a web weave about wanting to hurt someone first so you don’t get hurt? thanks <3

i hope you're doing okay <33

Larissa Pham Abject Permanence / unknown / The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) dir. Stephen Chbosky / Federico García Lorca Blood Wedding and Yerma / Sufjan Stevens Fourth of July / Rosamund Hodge Cruel Beauty / Tara French In the Woods / boygenius Bite the Hand

#on loneliness #on love #on loss #web weave #web weaving #poetry parallels #poetry compilation #literature #larissa pham #abject permanence #the perks of being a wallflower #stephen chbosky #federico garcia lorca #blood wedding and yerms #sufjan stevens #fourth of july #rosamund hodge #cruel beauty #tara french #in the woods #boygenius #bite the hand #poem #spilled poetry #spilled thoughts #words #spilled ink #dark academia #poetry #dark academia poetry

[just0nemorepage]

August Just One More Page BPC 📚 // Day 12 ➜ Retelling.

↳ A Beauty and the Beast retelling - and one of the more stunning covers I know of ✨

#jompbpc #justonemorepage #day 12 #book photo challenge #books #cruel beauty #rosamund hodge #jomp photography #jomp original

[nzbookwyrm]

#on the tbr #what monstrous gods #rosamund hodge

[books-in-a-storm]

Happy Canada Day!!!

#mybooks #booklr #bookblr #funko pop #funko and books #kelley armstrong #leigh bardugo #marie lu #rosamund hodge #july 2023

[catedwrites]

What Monstrous Gods by Rosamund Hodge

Bear in mind, whatever else I say in this review, I finished What Monstrous Gods in about 3 hours. 1 to begin in the evening, and then 2 straight hours of reading the next morning. So. Take that how you will (positive. You should take that positively). The world Hodge has created is lush and magical, deadly and treacherous. The magic is interesting and the vague parallels to our own world offering tantalising possibilities. Lia is a wonderfully dynamic and true-to-life protagonist, with flaws and doubts that make her quite human; we are so closely fitted inside her mind throughout the story that her journey is one we take as well. But this intense closeness to Lia’s perspective means that a) some aspects of world building remain confusing and unexplored and b) all other characters feel much fuzzier and vague. While not necessarily a huge downfall, it was, at least for me (an adult reading YA lit, to be fair) a hindrance. It meant that the romance was much less engaging than it, by all rights, should have been. It also meant that the world and magic isn't well-explained until about 40-50% of the way through the book. If you can wait it out, it's worthwhile, but it is frustrating as a reader to feel like you "missed something," only to realise that it's not you, it's the book itself.

A note: I did not realise before reading the book that it is, at minimum, a Reylo ”inspired” book. Now that I know that, upon reflection, I feel stupid I didn’t see it before, as the fingerprints are all over the characters. I just thought others should know because it...changed my thinking about the book afterward. I won't say more than that at this point. Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, Balzer + Bray for the ebook ARC. All opinions are mine alone.

#miss cait reviews #books #book review #ya #fantasy #what monstrous gods #rosamund hodge