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itsnour's review against another edition
5.0
I'm astounded by the author's unique imagination, this book has an amazing construction and a vicious heroine that you can't help but to root for, it's the kind of book that i knew i loved it from the first 20 pages. the haunting atmosphere, the amazing writing and the intriguing plot made this book everything i want and more.
i think the author excels at writing strong minded and morally grey heroines, and of course, charming, wicked, villains.
i think the author excels at writing strong minded and morally grey heroines, and of course, charming, wicked, villains.
writings_of_a_reader's review against another edition
4.0
Rosamund Hodge is most certainly a brilliant writer. I loved her Cruel Beauty, and this one I loved too, although not quite as much. There were actually a couple of times while reading when I wasn't so crazy about this book, but by the time I got to the end and all the pieces were in place I couldn't help but love it.
Just like Cruel Beauty, this one is about redemption. The characters are flawed in this one too, and we get to see Rachelle struggle with her weaknesses. I loved how the forestborn was so beguiling. To me there was quite a lot of allegory in this. I'm not sure how much of it was truly meant to be that way, but I enjoyed it very much.
I was not completely surprised when a certain someone's secret is revealed closer to the end of the book. I suspected it from the beginning, but I liked the way it was right under Rachelle's nose the whole time and she couldn't see it. Actually there were quite a few things right under her nose the whole time that she couldn't see. That could have ended up being a bad thing character-wise and made her a really weak character but in this case it doesn't. Instead it lends to the story and the character building rather than taking away from it. Sometimes we just can't see the forest for the trees.
Crimson Bound was inspired by Red Riding Hood. It does have elements of that story, but it goes way beyond it to tell a complex and completely different tale with multilayered characters. There are no wolves in this book, but instead we get Fae-like creatures called the forestborn. There wasn't a lot of detail that went into describing them when they were in their true form, which I found a little disappointing.
There are very few things I would change about this book. I think the main thing that I wish was different is the amount of time we get in the beginning of the book with Rachelle and Erec when they are working together as bloodbound. I think I would have understood the conflicted feelings she had for him a lot better if we had actually spent more time there. A lesser complaint would be the whole makeup and beauty thing with Amelie. I felt like it was a little frivolous for the rest of the story.
I think at this point I will read anything Rosamund Hodge writes. I'm looking forward to reading whatever she comes up with next.
Just like Cruel Beauty, this one is about redemption. The characters are flawed in this one too, and we get to see Rachelle struggle with her weaknesses. I loved how the forestborn was so beguiling. To me there was quite a lot of allegory in this. I'm not sure how much of it was truly meant to be that way, but I enjoyed it very much.
I was not completely surprised when a certain someone's secret is revealed closer to the end of the book. I suspected it from the beginning, but I liked the way it was right under Rachelle's nose the whole time and she couldn't see it. Actually there were quite a few things right under her nose the whole time that she couldn't see. That could have ended up being a bad thing character-wise and made her a really weak character but in this case it doesn't. Instead it lends to the story and the character building rather than taking away from it. Sometimes we just can't see the forest for the trees.
Crimson Bound was inspired by Red Riding Hood. It does have elements of that story, but it goes way beyond it to tell a complex and completely different tale with multilayered characters. There are no wolves in this book, but instead we get Fae-like creatures called the forestborn. There wasn't a lot of detail that went into describing them when they were in their true form, which I found a little disappointing.
There are very few things I would change about this book. I think the main thing that I wish was different is the amount of time we get in the beginning of the book with Rachelle and Erec when they are working together as bloodbound. I think I would have understood the conflicted feelings she had for him a lot better if we had actually spent more time there. A lesser complaint would be the whole makeup and beauty thing with Amelie. I felt like it was a little frivolous for the rest of the story.
I think at this point I will read anything Rosamund Hodge writes. I'm looking forward to reading whatever she comes up with next.
thecrazyreader's review against another edition
2.0
2 stelle!
Questo libro non mi è piaciuto molto, è stato molto noioso.
C'erano parti noiose, parti che non si capivano e poi quelle decenti... Pochissime.
Le ultime 100 pagine sono le migliori, quelle dove finalmente c'è un po' di movimento e in cui finalmente si capisce qualcosa, ma non riescono a risollevare il mio voto sul libro.
I personaggi non mi sono piaciuti, è come se la scrittrice ce li abbia tenuti nascosti, che non volesse che noi ci avvicinassimo a loro e per questo non mi sono affezionata a loro e non li ho neanche compresi.
La protagonista non l'ho capita e sinceramente non mi sono piaciute molte sue scelte che non sono giustificabili, perché ci possono essere scelte che non mi piacciono ma che hanno una motivazione dietro, ma le sue non ce le avevano... Sembrava che si alzasse una mattina e facesse una cosa, per poi alzarsi la successiva e farne il contrario... Non che questo mi abbia cambiato la vita, perché non mi è piaciuta come personaggio e neanche gli altri, tranne per Amelie e Armand, unici da salvare.
Il mondo di questo libro l'ho trovato caotico e poco chiaro per uno che ci entrava... La scrittrice tratta il lettore come se avesse sempre vissuto lì dentro, peccato che non sia così!
La fine è la solita fine della Hodge e cioè una non fine... Al contrario di Bellezza Crudele questa è meno confusa e più chiara, ma lascia ancora tutto da vedere... Cosa che non faremo mai perché è uno standalone.
In conclusione ho preferito la storia di Bellezza Crudele, più semplice e comprensibile e a mio parere meglio costruita ed interessante. La trama di questo libro era interessante, ma il libro non si è dimostrato alla sua altezza.
Questo libro non mi è piaciuto molto, è stato molto noioso.
C'erano parti noiose, parti che non si capivano e poi quelle decenti... Pochissime.
Le ultime 100 pagine sono le migliori, quelle dove finalmente c'è un po' di movimento e in cui finalmente si capisce qualcosa, ma non riescono a risollevare il mio voto sul libro.
I personaggi non mi sono piaciuti, è come se la scrittrice ce li abbia tenuti nascosti, che non volesse che noi ci avvicinassimo a loro e per questo non mi sono affezionata a loro e non li ho neanche compresi.
La protagonista non l'ho capita e sinceramente non mi sono piaciute molte sue scelte che non sono giustificabili, perché ci possono essere scelte che non mi piacciono ma che hanno una motivazione dietro, ma le sue non ce le avevano... Sembrava che si alzasse una mattina e facesse una cosa, per poi alzarsi la successiva e farne il contrario... Non che questo mi abbia cambiato la vita, perché non mi è piaciuta come personaggio e neanche gli altri, tranne per Amelie e Armand, unici da salvare.
Il mondo di questo libro l'ho trovato caotico e poco chiaro per uno che ci entrava... La scrittrice tratta il lettore come se avesse sempre vissuto lì dentro, peccato che non sia così!
La fine è la solita fine della Hodge e cioè una non fine... Al contrario di Bellezza Crudele questa è meno confusa e più chiara, ma lascia ancora tutto da vedere... Cosa che non faremo mai perché è uno standalone.
In conclusione ho preferito la storia di Bellezza Crudele, più semplice e comprensibile e a mio parere meglio costruita ed interessante. La trama di questo libro era interessante, ma il libro non si è dimostrato alla sua altezza.
sherwoodreads's review against another edition
It's interesting that two fantasies have come out within a few days of each other that contain such similar elements that I wonder if we're about to see a resurgence in pastoral fantasy. Because I do not think that Rosamund Hodge and Naomi Novik know one another--for all I know they haven't even read the other's work.
But I'll do a post about that aspect later, because this is a review for this book.
Rachelle is a seventeen year old peasant girl studying under her aunt to become a woodwife in a small village on the edge of the great wood. Her aunt warns her against the dangerous Forestborn as well as the even more dangerous bloodbound (which for the first few chapters I read as bloodhound, and it worked that way, too) as she teaches her history and mythology, specifically the story of the Devourer who might come again to plunge the land into darkness.
Rachelle, being seventeen and determined to make her mark in the world--convinced she is special--sees a sinisterly handsome Forestborn, and is intrigued, and excited, and, well, she learns what too many seventeen year old girls learn when they believe they are special and that the rules don't apply to them because attraction and will are so much stronger.
She loses. And the resulting violence is something she must live with for the rest of her life.
Three years later she is someone very different, outcast from her village, bound to the king at the cost of her life, forced to do what she is ordered. She loathes herself, and lives as one already damned--and yet still struggles to cleave to goodness, beauty, love and trust, while hating herself for doing so, and well as despising herself for her stupidity. But of course you can never go back.
Ordinarily I don't get much into symbolism. I mostly don't read that way--I am too much a visual reader to suss out the symbolism game. But I think that those opening pages are an extended metaphor for exactly what happens to a teenage girl who mistakes lust for love: Rachelle drops her protections deliberately, one by one, the way a teenager drops her clothes when she confidently thinks that this first, overwhelming encounter with the handsomely dangerous bad boy is going to tame the beast because she's special, right? And love conquers all?
Because the rest of the novel resonates so deeply on the emotional level as Rachelle fights her own nature, and skews her worldview while trying to impose trust and love over attraction and laughter, while trying to discover what friendship means. And this is what, I think, makes the love triangle interesting here: the emotional confusion, when anger and attraction are so strong, impels the characters into a dance of dazzlement, danger, promise and pain that rings so true.
It's not only questions of love and its attendant emotions that drive the novel, but also a deft and fascinating look at faith versus superstition, myth versus truth, and all the many layers to belief. Here, the fairy tale France functions as the perfect setting, right down to the nascent printing press and minor saints movements of seventeenth century France--that strange amalgam of medieval thinking and modern all fighting for dominance. While at the center dances the court and the king in their beautiful setting, and around them the tale teller, La Fontaine, spins her own distinctive web of magic.
For those who like badass heroines, Rachelle is right up there with the best of them. Duels there are aplenty, and in the dashing mode of Dumas; the story is chockablock with the Wild Hunt, creepy critters and masked assassins and battles. While not losing sight of female friendship, and the power of simple human touch--and appreciation of little gifts, even if they aren't of the sword-swinging variety.
But I'll do a post about that aspect later, because this is a review for this book.
Rachelle is a seventeen year old peasant girl studying under her aunt to become a woodwife in a small village on the edge of the great wood. Her aunt warns her against the dangerous Forestborn as well as the even more dangerous bloodbound (which for the first few chapters I read as bloodhound, and it worked that way, too) as she teaches her history and mythology, specifically the story of the Devourer who might come again to plunge the land into darkness.
Rachelle, being seventeen and determined to make her mark in the world--convinced she is special--sees a sinisterly handsome Forestborn, and is intrigued, and excited, and, well, she learns what too many seventeen year old girls learn when they believe they are special and that the rules don't apply to them because attraction and will are so much stronger.
She loses. And the resulting violence is something she must live with for the rest of her life.
Three years later she is someone very different, outcast from her village, bound to the king at the cost of her life, forced to do what she is ordered. She loathes herself, and lives as one already damned--and yet still struggles to cleave to goodness, beauty, love and trust, while hating herself for doing so, and well as despising herself for her stupidity. But of course you can never go back.
Ordinarily I don't get much into symbolism. I mostly don't read that way--I am too much a visual reader to suss out the symbolism game. But I think that those opening pages are an extended metaphor for exactly what happens to a teenage girl who mistakes lust for love: Rachelle drops her protections deliberately, one by one, the way a teenager drops her clothes when she confidently thinks that this first, overwhelming encounter with the handsomely dangerous bad boy is going to tame the beast because she's special, right? And love conquers all?
Because the rest of the novel resonates so deeply on the emotional level as Rachelle fights her own nature, and skews her worldview while trying to impose trust and love over attraction and laughter, while trying to discover what friendship means. And this is what, I think, makes the love triangle interesting here: the emotional confusion, when anger and attraction are so strong, impels the characters into a dance of dazzlement, danger, promise and pain that rings so true.
It's not only questions of love and its attendant emotions that drive the novel, but also a deft and fascinating look at faith versus superstition, myth versus truth, and all the many layers to belief. Here, the fairy tale France functions as the perfect setting, right down to the nascent printing press and minor saints movements of seventeenth century France--that strange amalgam of medieval thinking and modern all fighting for dominance. While at the center dances the court and the king in their beautiful setting, and around them the tale teller, La Fontaine, spins her own distinctive web of magic.
For those who like badass heroines, Rachelle is right up there with the best of them. Duels there are aplenty, and in the dashing mode of Dumas; the story is chockablock with the Wild Hunt, creepy critters and masked assassins and battles. While not losing sight of female friendship, and the power of simple human touch--and appreciation of little gifts, even if they aren't of the sword-swinging variety.
cgreaderbee's review against another edition
5.0
This was a strong, beautifully written book that deserves no less than 5 stars. It isn't necessarily my favorite book ever that I will swoon over for days to come, but the strength of the characters, the plot and the backstory, and the writing demand every last star.
I will definitely be reading all other works from this author.
I read this book in hand rather than on my kindle, and therefore will have to skim back through to find some of my favorite quotes. There were many of them.
There were times I felt Nyx, the protagonist in the first book Cruel Beauty, didn't make sense and just fit the mold needed in order to complete the storyline, her personality not consistent with her actions. However in this book, Rachelle was a more developed, complex character whose history and beliefs drove the story, rather than the other way around.
Another important difference between the two was the romance. The romance was a significantly larger factor in Cruel Beauty, whereas in Crimson Bound it was sprinkled and more subtle. I found that more enjoyable.
Overall, I highly recommend this book and this author and I am very pleased to be adding it to my library.
I will definitely be reading all other works from this author.
I read this book in hand rather than on my kindle, and therefore will have to skim back through to find some of my favorite quotes. There were many of them.
There were times I felt Nyx, the protagonist in the first book Cruel Beauty, didn't make sense and just fit the mold needed in order to complete the storyline, her personality not consistent with her actions. However in this book, Rachelle was a more developed, complex character whose history and beliefs drove the story, rather than the other way around.
Another important difference between the two was the romance. The romance was a significantly larger factor in Cruel Beauty, whereas in Crimson Bound it was sprinkled and more subtle. I found that more enjoyable.
Overall, I highly recommend this book and this author and I am very pleased to be adding it to my library.
emleemay's review against another edition
5.0
Her dreams were a tangled mess of blood and shuddering trees.
This book is damn near perfect.
I just don't know how to review this wonderful, creepy, gory, clever, twisty fairy tale and be able to do it justice. How do you sell a book to people when it does so many different things and does them all marvelously? I just cannot wait for [b:Cruel Beauty|15839984|Cruel Beauty|Rosamund Hodge|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371652590s/15839984.jpg|21580669] fans to read this.
[b:Crimson Bound|21570318|Crimson Bound|Rosamund Hodge|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413217438s/21570318.jpg|40902835] is a story full of villains who are allowed to love and heroines who are allowed to murder and be selfish. Rosamund Hodge does not do simple characters - they are all tangled up in a bizarre web of friendship, fear, love, hate, desire and loyalty. You can never quite be sure which characters are trustworthy - if, indeed, any of them are.
If you like fairy tale retellings to stay close to the originals, then Hodge's imaginative new worlds and mythology may not be for you. I, however, love it. This tale is woven with nods towards the Red Riding Hood story we all know but it wanders far from it into brand new, extremely creepy territory. There are no wolves in this story, at least not in the literal sense, but there are things far far worse.
In the darkest shadows of the wood stands a house. The walls are caulked with blood. The roof is thatched with bones. Within that bloody house lived Old Mother Hunger, the first and eldest of all forestborn.
As with [b:Cruel Beauty|15839984|Cruel Beauty|Rosamund Hodge|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371652590s/15839984.jpg|21580669], this book is marketed as YA but I would stress that it is probably for the older end of that age group or adults. There are plenty of gruesome battles, sexy scenes and things younger teens might find disturbing.
Now for the story; but I cannot tell you too much because you deserve to discover everything in this book on your own. Anyway, the story is about Rachelle who carelessly strays from the forest path and meets a forestborn who marks her. The rules are thus: a marked human has three days to kill someone and become a slave to the forest's power or else die. Rachelle makes her choice and will spend the rest of her life paying the price.
Every day for the last three years, she had thought she deserved to die. She still didn’t want to. She wanted to live with every filthy desperate scrap of her heart.
Now older, Rachelle is haunted by her guilt and propelled by the dark power of the forest and the evil Devourer that hides at its centre. Feeling like she has nothing left to lose, she will do anything to stop the Devourer from seizing control of the human world with his darkness. Little does she know that there is always something left to lose.
It's just wonderful. She's just wonderful. And complex and selfish at times, but always badass:
“Speechless?” asked Erec. “Don’t be ashamed. I bring all ladies to that state sooner or later.”
“Too bad for you,” she said, “I’m not a lady."
The book twists about all over the place, never letting you guess how it's going to end. The tension never leaves and the author is just evil enough to convince you that any and every character you love might die.
I swear my heart was literally racing for the last quarter... so much awesome, so many perfect quotes that I won't put in this review because they should be discovered at exactly that point in the story. It feels like I've been waiting forever for this book and it was oh so worth it.
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This book is damn near perfect.
I just don't know how to review this wonderful, creepy, gory, clever, twisty fairy tale and be able to do it justice. How do you sell a book to people when it does so many different things and does them all marvelously? I just cannot wait for [b:Cruel Beauty|15839984|Cruel Beauty|Rosamund Hodge|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371652590s/15839984.jpg|21580669] fans to read this.
[b:Crimson Bound|21570318|Crimson Bound|Rosamund Hodge|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413217438s/21570318.jpg|40902835] is a story full of villains who are allowed to love and heroines who are allowed to murder and be selfish. Rosamund Hodge does not do simple characters - they are all tangled up in a bizarre web of friendship, fear, love, hate, desire and loyalty. You can never quite be sure which characters are trustworthy - if, indeed, any of them are.
If you like fairy tale retellings to stay close to the originals, then Hodge's imaginative new worlds and mythology may not be for you. I, however, love it. This tale is woven with nods towards the Red Riding Hood story we all know but it wanders far from it into brand new, extremely creepy territory. There are no wolves in this story, at least not in the literal sense, but there are things far far worse.
In the darkest shadows of the wood stands a house. The walls are caulked with blood. The roof is thatched with bones. Within that bloody house lived Old Mother Hunger, the first and eldest of all forestborn.
As with [b:Cruel Beauty|15839984|Cruel Beauty|Rosamund Hodge|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1371652590s/15839984.jpg|21580669], this book is marketed as YA but I would stress that it is probably for the older end of that age group or adults. There are plenty of gruesome battles, sexy scenes and things younger teens might find disturbing.
Now for the story; but I cannot tell you too much because you deserve to discover everything in this book on your own. Anyway, the story is about Rachelle who carelessly strays from the forest path and meets a forestborn who marks her. The rules are thus: a marked human has three days to kill someone and become a slave to the forest's power or else die. Rachelle makes her choice and will spend the rest of her life paying the price.
Every day for the last three years, she had thought she deserved to die. She still didn’t want to. She wanted to live with every filthy desperate scrap of her heart.
Now older, Rachelle is haunted by her guilt and propelled by the dark power of the forest and the evil Devourer that hides at its centre. Feeling like she has nothing left to lose, she will do anything to stop the Devourer from seizing control of the human world with his darkness. Little does she know that there is always something left to lose.
It's just wonderful. She's just wonderful. And complex and selfish at times, but always badass:
“Speechless?” asked Erec. “Don’t be ashamed. I bring all ladies to that state sooner or later.”
“Too bad for you,” she said, “I’m not a lady."
The book twists about all over the place, never letting you guess how it's going to end. The tension never leaves and the author is just evil enough to convince you that any and every character you love might die.
I swear my heart was literally racing for the last quarter... so much awesome, so many perfect quotes that I won't put in this review because they should be discovered at exactly that point in the story. It feels like I've been waiting forever for this book and it was oh so worth it.
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notrealytea's review against another edition
3.0
It was.... average. The romance wasn't compelling the plot was... Okay. Not terrible but not anything special.
dreamwritten's review against another edition
3.0
I really couldn't decide what to rate this. At first I wasn't very impressed with it and was even a bit bored, and I was thinking about giving it a 2. But the last third or so of the novel really picked up and left me feeling pretty emotional. I'm thinking a 3 is fair.
jos13readingdiary's review against another edition
3.0
Rating: 2/5
The book just didn't meet my expectation. I loved Hodge's debut Cruel Beauty and was expecting an epic story just like it. The first few chapters were amazing, but then.... well.
The book just didn't meet my expectation. I loved Hodge's debut Cruel Beauty and was expecting an epic story just like it. The first few chapters were amazing, but then.... well.