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Hunted
Hunted
Hunted
Audiobook9 hours

Hunted

Written by Meagan Spooner

Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld and Will Damron

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

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?

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateMar 14, 2017
ISBN9780062661685
Author

Meagan Spooner

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

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Reviews for Hunted

Rating: 4.0927152317880795 out of 5 stars
4/5

453 ratings50 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this book in about 6 hours, almost one sitting. It was quite compelling, and I enjoyed the take on Beauty and the Beast. However, the characters were not as rich as I was hoping they would be. The world described was just kind of meh as well. The woods were really cool, but I found I wanted more from the descriptions and the world building. I liked that Yeva was a hunter, and that she could fend for herself. I did find though, that the way the author tried to tie in reading and books, was really weak.

    Overall, it was a fun book, but not my favourite retelling.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It took this book 201 pages to finally get to the real deal: magic. It was clearly dragging, though I enjoyed the romantic bits here and there. But as soon as it picked up, it was excellent! Everything happened in a whirlwind of magic, love, friendship, and loyalty! I loved the ending - so much that I now need Hunted on my own shelves. Although I don't like hunting, I thought it was really well depicted and fitted this story. As for the heroine, Yeva (Beauty), she has such a strong will, yet has her heart in the right place. I had heard she was a strong heroine and I saw it for myself! I also liked how we sometimes saw things from the Beast's POV as in a secret diary only we could read.In conclusion, I didn't think much of the first 200 pages of the story (except for the great heroine and the emotional relationships she has with her family and prospect husband), but if you can push through it, I promise you the ending is mind-blowing. And if you're like me, someone who has a deep want in life (though you don't know for what) for something more, this book will hit right home. Because it did with me. I hope it does with you for never had I seen such a flawless description of that burning want.This is a retelling of the beloved tale of Beauty & the Beast and it does its job as a ''new'' fairy tale fantastically.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Really slow book and ALOT like others I have read. It was clean and an ok retelling of beauty and the beast.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    fantastic retelling of Beauty and the Beast The Firebird - intense, dramatic, and stunning, with the usual spectacular writing I expect from this author.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a retelling of Beauty and Beast with an obvious Russian influence. Yeva is the youngest of three sisters and is the most beautiful. As a young child she run the through the forest and hunt with her father. Now that she is a young women she is being sent to court as one of the baronessa's ladies, but Yeva would rather be out hunting. Eventually, Yeva's father loses his fortune and moves the family to edge of town that borders the woods. Yeva's father is convinced there is a "beast" in the woods and goes out to hunt him one day and never returns. Determined to get her father back, Yeva sets out to find him and hunt the beast. And she succeeds in tracking the beast back to the desolate valley he lives in. In the valley Yeva discovers a ruined castle and creatures she's only hear about in fairy tales. True to Beauty and the Beast tales, Yeva is captured by the beast and must figure a way out of the predicament. Along the way she is forced to interact with the surly beast and learns of his curse. Now she is determined to help him break it and return home to her family.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a lovely retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The setting seems to be somewhere in Russia. Yeva is the youngest of three sisters of a man who is now a merchant but who was once a famous hunter. When he loses his fortune in a risky venture, they go back to his long-abandoned hunting cabin deep in the forest. He resumes hunting but is losing his mind because he feels he is being watched. When Yeva, called Beauty inside her family, goes out to look for him she finds herself captured by a Beast who has the need of a hunter. During her imprisonment she shares stories so that she can hear the sound of a human voice and has Beast as her mainly unseen audience. Her stories recall his human side which had been getting lost in the Beast.I loved the language in this story. I loved that Beauty was always someone looking for something else -- that she never felt comfortable in any situation because she was always looking to the horizon for more. Beast was the same way which led to him being cursed by the elusive firebird. I loved the interludes when the Beast is the narrator. It is easy to see the conflict in his dual nature. Even if you know the story, this version is well worth reading for the twists and turns Ms. Spooner adds and the wonderful, descriptive language and the nuanced characters. I highly recommend it to all lovers of fairy tales.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I bought this book for the dedication, and I'm happy to say the story lived up to it's promise. This is an excellent fairy-tale retelling that beautifully fleshes out and breathes life in the old, familiar story. This is my first work by Meagan Spooner, but will not be my last.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The story really kept me guessing even though I love Beauty and the Beast retellings and have read quite a few. This retelling was very unique. Some parts were pretty gory, which is not my taste and why I gave it 4 stars, instead of 5 stars. The author's note at the end was 5 stars. The message of the book was great though I feel spoiler-ish in writing it out so I'd better add a spoiler alert- Don't waste your life looking for a happy ending but instead focus on living your life happily.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A unique, beautiful re-imagining of Beauty and the Beast which also incorporates elements from Russian tales like The Firebird and Vasalisa the Beautiful. Absolutely lovely.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    very good.love it. mysterious. very much recommendable dkdksodhc jdjdj Fjdj

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really enjoyed this book. It stayed true to Beauty and the Beast even if it had darker depths. I’ve heard a lot of people thought it was slow in the beginning but I really enjoyed the relationships built with the “Gaston” character. I loved how the beast fought between his own self and the “we” perspective. I would have wanted more romance but I also understand the storyline prevented the characters from really opening up to that from where they were at. The firebird part was interesting, but I loved when her deepest desire was shown as that. The longing to be somewhere different was told REALLY well. It’s different from most of the light happy fairytales I have read, but I appreciated the depth.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The narrators were really good I almost feel bad for giving it a 3 star.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In short, I really enjoyed it! It has a really interestingly dichotomy that it tends touch on even within the narrative by giving examples like the duality between beast and man in one body, fairytale and reality in one world, this last one really being emphasized in the end. Its's an attempt to ground readers in real people with real feelings and thoughts while indulging in the fairytale archetypes of the characters they are based on. I think all these themes hooking into one another are excellent to the books credit. My one quibble which is more of just a personal thing is that at first when the characters were just people, their own individuals, I thought that if the beast had attempted to use the mind games of 'I'll make you want to kill me by saying i killed your father and threatening your family so you'll stay and help me' would have ABSOLUTELY driven any other character that was not Beauty to hate him more than ever, but that's also the weird magic of this book. It feels like 'doomed by the narrative', but instead, it's 'destined by the narrative'. Was it a long shot the narrative did exactly what it did? Sort of, if I'm being honest? But as a reader much like the 'music' pulling characters to each other and other magical things, it makes perfect sense why out of all the characters in the books universe, these two managed to come together as they did.

    For the most part their victories do not feel easily won, and taking on the almost philosophical dip into the unchecked want (leaning into greed) of humanity and its search for fulfillment by placing vaguely historical characters inside their fairytale counterparts feels very familiar, similar to the characters in c.s. Lewis's 'until we have faces' where the author attempts a glance at religion and god through the greek myth of eros and psyche, another beauty and the beast adjacent story of all things! I feel the story's main themes are perfectly encaptured by Flannery O'Connor's quote "picture me, with my ground teeth, stalking joy- fully armed too for its a dangerous quest". The violent nature of 'stalking with ground teeth' much like the hunter Beauty or her beast, alongside their inner desires, their quest of always searching for what will fulfill them- bring them joy
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The writing style is exquisitely magical! It really felt like reading a fairy tale however, the plot seems to lack a proper climax. It was enjoyable still!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I listened to the audio book, I'm certain I would not have finished this novel had I read it. I had a hard time getting into the story.

    My favourite bit were the Russian fairy tales that were woven into the story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved this take of beauty and the beast! Can’t wait to read more!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I Listened to the Audiobook and really enjoyed this unique version of Beauty & the Beast. It's clean with no swearing and zero sexual content which I appreciate. I feel those things are not needed to make a great storyline. I highly recommend this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Well written. I was dubious about a retelling of a classic but was pleasantly surprised that it still kept you on your toes - never quite knowing what might happen next. And instead of comparing the narratives you embraced the familiar details of the classic plot like a friend, and that quite cleverly made you feel more endeared to the story. And helped to create the pictures in your mind more vividly. Overall good but I wished the ending was more detailed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is actually my new favorite fairy tale retelling. It’s just so unique and well written.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    3.5 stars

    It’s a lovely retelling of beauty and the beast, with well thought out characters and plot. My main complaint is that it was too slow for me. It could of been a slimmer book but I understand the author wanted to truly build the understanding of the fairytale and curse. Enjoyable
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I like the twist of the story. It is a good book keeps you interested. Liked the readers voice!!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The book was so magical and the writing was insane!

    4.7

    REVIEW WILL BE UP SOON
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a really good classic fairytale retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The characters are believably human and have complicated relationships with each other. And despite being a very classic version of the fairytale, there is not a lot of romance, it's more centered on the characters development of themselves then their relationship with each other.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was a really slow start, a decent middle, and a little bit of a quick end. Nice book to listen to while getting things done but not my favorite.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not that great but passes the time. It was okay.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have liked Meagan's writing ever since i read Sherwood, how ever i was a bit distracted when i was listening to this book... the pace was a lot slower and even though there were no word dump it felt long... still it grabbed me enough to make me want to know how it will end.. and boy that ending saved this book from the 3 stars i originally planned to give.
    This is a book that i would keep for those days that i just want to get lost in my own head and keep reality away.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    “She wept because she did not know what she wanted, and because she wanted everything.”Yeva has never been comfortable living among the town aristocrats but instead dreams of the stories her father would tell her when she was younger; of the forest and the magic contained within. When her father loses his fortune and they are forced to move back to his lodge in the woods, Yeva could not be more content knowing she can spend her days familiarizing herself once again with the woods even though she knows it’s not a reasonable way for her to spend her life. Her father also begins spending his days and nights in the woods, mentioning hunting a beast and when he fails to come home after weeks of being gone, Yeva sets out to help him only to be captured by the beast that her father was hunting.“She moves like beauty, she whispers to us of wind and forest—and she tells us stories, such stories that we wake in the night, dreaming dreams of a life long past. she reminds us of what we used to be.She reminds us of what we could be.”Hunted is told primarily from Yeva’s point of view but is interspersed with short snippets from the Beast, showing the constant battle between his animalistic side while he fights to retain a hold of his humanity. Yeva is kept in a cell for weeks on end, telling him stories of Ivan and the Firebird to the one on the other side of her cell door who brings her food every day, having no idea that he is also her captor. The Beast finally shows himself to her and reveals that he captured her for a purpose: she must train to be a more superior hunter than she already is because she’s the only one that can kill the creature responsible for cursing him.Hunted is a combination of the classic Beauty and the Beast fairy tale with the Ivan, the Firebird, and the Gray Wolf Russian fairy tale and it’s a slow to unfold type of story. There’s also a disassociation from any sort of emotional connection that was key in my own connection with the story. I found it to be a beautiful story in essence of a young girl not knowing what to do with her life, wandering aimlessly, and I really wanted to feel her adversity but I never quite felt like there is much at stake for our young heroine. The significance behind the Firebird plays a huge role in this tale, as well as storytelling in general, and the romantic building blocks were left feeling incomplete in the attempts at focusing on the bigger picture. There is a note at the end Spooner includes regarding the origins of this story and the lengthy process it took to come to fruition was a heartwarming story. Her dedication to all of her readers was unbelievably touching and made me wish I had loved this story more than I did.‘Male or female, young or old, if you’re reading this book, then you’re also that child reading by flashlight and dreaming of other worlds. Don’t be scared of her, that inner Beauty, or her dreams. Let her out. She’s you, and she’s me, and she’s magic.There’s no such thing as living happily ever after — there’s only living. We make the choice to do it happily.’
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wanting leads to more wanting. Desire is a fire that is never satisfied. What is your fire bird?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love it! I love beauty and the beast retelling. and this was beautiful.
    I feel many things for this and I'm glad I picked it up again. I like the fairy tales references in this.
    the romance was rather slow and I love it! her relationship with the beast was well developed and make my heart swoon.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    this was good for a retelling I enjoyed it. The narrator was great