Review: Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen

Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen (Feb. 2015)
208 pages
Genre: Middle Grade/Fairy Tale Retelling
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Source: I received a free eARC from the publisher via Netgalley. This did not affect my honest review.
Purchase: Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Amazon
My Rating:

Goodreads Summary: Sarah has always been on the move. Her mother hates the cold, so every few months her parents pack their bags and drag her off after the sun. She’s grown up lonely and longing for magic. She doesn’t know that it’s magic her parents are running from.

When Sarah’s mother walks out on their family, all the strange old magic they have tried to hide from comes rising into their mundane world. Her father begins to change into something wild and beastly, but before his transformation is complete, he takes Sarah to her grandparents—people she has never met, didn’t even know were still alive.

Deep in the forest, in a crumbling ruin of a castle, Sarah begins to untangle the layers of curses affecting her family bloodlines, until she discovers that the curse has carried over to her, too. The day she falls in love for the first time, Sarah will transform into a beast . . . unless she can figure out a way to break the curse forever.

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My Review

The cover of Beastkeeper is breathtaking. All of the tiny amazing details blew me away. This is why I decided to read this book. The second reason, it is a fairy tale retelling where the girl is the beast. It's different, and I love different.

I am so glad I chose to give Beastkeeper a chance. It was a sad story, yet very charming. It wasn't a story full of laughter or cute things, it was one full of sadness and pain. I was expecting more of a fun story since this book leans toward being middle grade, but I'm not complaining. It was well written and I had no trouble falling into the complex wonderful magical world that the author created.

The characters in Beastkeeper are rather interesting and enjoyable to read about. Sarah is a strong young girl who is doing her best to get by when her mother up and leaves her and her dad. Sarah then finds out what love means, what family should mean, and how far back curses and magic can go. Even though my time with her was short I grew really fond of her. The other minor characters in the story were great too, but Sarah was my favorite.

Full of family secrets, curses, and beasts, Beastkeeper is a unique fairy tale. It isn't all rainbows and unicorns, but much more. This was a nice magical tale that I think is worth reading. I apologize for the short review, but it was a short book.