Bookcomet

Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

Publication date: September 1st 2010

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Number of pages: 464

Series: Dead Beautiful (1#)

Genre: YA Paranormal

Source: Received in exchange for review. This is my honest opinion.

Goodreads synopsis:

On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she'd ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder.

After the funeral Renée’s wealthy grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious boarding school in Maine, where she finds herself studying subjects like Philosophy, Latin, and the “Crude Sciences.”

It’s there that she meets Dante Berlin, a handsome and elusive boy to whom she feels inexplicably drawn. As they grow closer, unexplainable things begin to happen, but Renée can’t stop herself from falling in love. It’s only when she discovers a dark tragedy in Gottfried’s past that she begins to wonder if the Academy is everything it seems.

Little does she know, Dante is the one hiding a dangerous secret, one that has him fearing for her life.

Dead Beautiful is both a compelling romance and thought-provoking read, bringing shocking new meaning to life, death, love, and the nature of the soul.

Review:

“Just one kiss will take your breath away”

I am ridiculously thankful for finding this book. I actually learned a lot from it and really didn’t expect much. I basically read it in a day and was so into it the whole time.

I’m really into Latin and all that stuff, so I am incredibly jealous of the classes that the main character in this book gets to take. Seriously. This is her schedule:

“Elementary Latin I

Ancient Civilisations

Imaginary Arithmetic

Horticulture Philosophy

The Arts Crude Sciences”

Are you jealous? I was pretty jealous. I don’t really understand how arithmetic can be imaginary, but it sounds like an improvement. I would loooove to take Latin, Philosophy and Ancient Civilisations though.

I’d say the word ‘cool’ sums this book up pretty accurately. There was so much history, language and mythology woven through it that I thought my head may explode from how much awe was building up inside me. The author must have done so much research, or at least must have spent a lot of time devising a world as intricate as that one.

This isn’t going to be the best of reviews because I don’t remember a terribly great amount about it. I read it almost two months ago and have been sitting on this review ever since, struggling to convey my feelings appropriately so that I can do it justice. Now, here we are, months later and I’ve forgotten a lot. Brilliant.

Ah. One thing I do remember especially is that I found myself comparing Dead Beautiful to the Twilight saga a lot. If you read my Goodreads status updates I think you’ll find at least one where I mention a comparison. Especially a certain scene involving the science lab. That was almost just…uncanny.

I really liked the characters and considering that Dead Beautiful was one of the only two books I finished in November (and that says something, usually when I’m in a reading slump I don’t always finish what I start).

I would totally and wholeheartedly recommend this. If you love divine mystery and mythology, served with great characters and intrigue, then what are you waiting for?

5/5 comets

Bye, bye Earth! Out of this world!

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Goodreads author bio:

Yvonne Woon grew up in Massachusetts. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction from Columbia University. She lives in Manhattan.