Hunted

by Meagan Spooner

Overview

New York Times bestselling author Meagan Spooner spins a thoroughly thrilling Beauty and the Beast story for the modern age, expertly woven with spellbinding romance, intrigue, and suspense that readers won’t soon be able to forget.

Beauty knows the Beast's forest in her bones—and in her blood. After all, her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering its secrets.

So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters out of their comfortable home among the aristocracy and back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman.

But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. The Beast.

Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange creature back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of magical creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin, or salvation.

Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062422293
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	02/12/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	83,452
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	1000L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Meagan Spooner grew up reading and writing every spare moment of the day while dreaming about life as an archaeologist, a marine biologist, or an astronaut. She graduated from Hamilton College in New York State with a degree in playwriting. She’s traveled all over the world, to places such as Egypt, Australia, South Africa, the Arctic, Greece, Antarctica, and the Galápagos Islands, and there’s a bit of every trip in every story she writes. She currently lives and writes in Asheville, North Carolina, but the siren call of travel is hard to resist, and there’s no telling how long she’ll stay there. She’s the coauthor of the award-winning Starbound Trilogy (These Broken Stars, This Shattered World, Their Fractured Light) and the Skylark Trilogy (Skylark, Shadowlark, Lark Ascending) as well as this “Beauty and the Beast” retelling. In her spare time she plays guitar, plays video games, plays with her cat, and reads. www.meaganspooner.com

Editorial Reviews

★ “Unlike the cardboard heroes of fairytales, Yeva is a very human girl who must discover the meaning of the deep yearning that has always been within her. The author’s depictions will keep the reader spellbound.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)

Elements of Russian folklore thread through this revision of “Beauty and the Beast,” and the smooth storytelling effectively creates atmosphere and mood as well as relaying the tale. Much time is spent on details… they all work to create a richly immersive and creatively fresh world for a familiar story.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Elements of Russian folklore thread through this revision of “Beauty and the Beast,” and the smooth storytelling effectively creates atmosphere and mood as well as relaying the tale. Much time is spent on details… they all work to create a richly immersive and creatively fresh world for a familiar story.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

01/09/2017
In this standalone tale from Spooner, coauthor of the Starbound trilogy, a merchant named Tvertko loses his fortune and moves his daughters—Lena, Asenka, and Yeva—to a remote cabin. Once a legendary hunter, Tvertko has difficulty finding prey and comes to believe that a fearsome Beast is scaring off the other animals. Tvertko ventures into the woods to slay the creature but fails to return. Yeva strikes out after him and is captured by the Beast, who imprisons her in a castle. As Yeva fights for survival and escape, she learns that the fairy tales of her youth are more grounded in reality than she ever imagined. After a slow start, Spooner’s take on Beauty and the Beast finds its groove when Yeva (also known as Beauty) finally encounters the Beast. Yeva’s narration is interspersed with snippets from the Beast’s perspective, adding depth, and while the plot is largely predictable, this emotionally complex story satisfies. Spooner writes eloquently about magic, her world building is excellent, and the book’s characters are nuanced and well drawn. Ages 13–up. Agent: Josh Adams, Adams Literary. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

★ “Spooner creates a detailed world populated by complex characters… An elegant, classic, and vivid fairy tale.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

★ “Unlike the cardboard heroes of fairytales, Yeva is a very human girl who must discover the meaning of the deep yearning that has always been within her. The author’s depictions will keep the reader spellbound.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)

“A haunting and romantic exploration of love and what sacrifices come with freedom.” — Marie Lu, author of the Legend and The Young Elites trilogies

“Haunting and graceful, with an edge that draws blood when you least expect it, Hunted is a masterpiece. Spooner deftly weaves together fairytale with fantasy, bringing to life an immersive, unforgettable world, a heart-wrenching romance, and a badass heroine.” — Amie Kaufman, New York Times bestselling author of Illuminae and The Starbound Trilogy

“Elements of Russian folklore thread through this revision of “Beauty and the Beast,” and the smooth storytelling effectively creates atmosphere and mood as well as relaying the tale. Much time is spent on details… they all work to create a richly immersive and creatively fresh world for a familiar story.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

From the Publisher

A haunting and romantic exploration of love and what sacrifices come with freedom.

Marie Lu

Haunting and graceful, with an edge that draws blood when you least expect it, Hunted is a masterpiece. Spooner deftly weaves together fairytale with fantasy, bringing to life an immersive, unforgettable world, a heart-wrenching romance, and a badass heroine.

Amie Kaufman

Elements of Russian folklore thread through this revision of “Beauty and the Beast,” and the smooth storytelling effectively creates atmosphere and mood as well as relaying the tale. Much time is spent on details… they all work to create a richly immersive and creatively fresh world for a familiar story.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

★ 2016-11-23
A rich, Russian-influenced retelling of "Beauty and the Beast."Bored by her comfortable life in town, Yeva (Beauty) longs for the woods. But when her merchant father loses their fortune and retreats to the wilderness with Yeva and her older sisters, Lena (Light) and Asenka (Grace), Yeva must remember her woodcraft in order to protect her family. Preferring solitude to her persistent suitor, Solmir, and a brewing love triangle—Asenka is drawn to Solmir—Yeva hunts, first for game, then for the Beast. Blaming the Beast for her father's absence, Yeva becomes his captive, then his would-be assassin—trained to kill for him but also hoping to kill him—yet struggles to reconcile his violence and humanity. Building upon a familiar tale, Spooner creates a detailed world populated by complex characters, with medieval household mundanities and retellings of Russian folk tales anchoring the later fantastic elements. No Disney heroine, white, red-haired Yeva is also—appreciably—not an instantly lethal, superpowered heroine, although she is single-mindedly bent first on survival, then on revenge. Love blooms slowly, but this is an old-fashioned romance reminiscent of Robin McKinley's and Patricia McKillip's novels, concerned with the power of stories. An elegant, classic, and vivid fairy tale. (Fantasy. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews