Hunted is hands down one of the best retellings I have read in a long, long time. It was just such a refreshing read! I know that the character-driven plotline might not call to all readers but I found myself absolutely mesmerised by the exploration of identity and relationship dynamics in this story. It dismissed the use of all the tropes I dislike the most - hallelujah - delivered a story that was completely unique and enthralling. Yeva’s story wormed its way into my heart and stole it. I could not - for the life of me - put this book down last night and I am so glad I decided to give it a read this month.

Yeva was such an amazing protagonist. I very, very rarely adore the protagonists of stories - even of books I love - so I wish I stress how complex and multi-layered and amazing she was but it is going to be so difficult to do that without spoilers… so bear with me. One of the best things Spooner did with Yeva’s character was that she avoided the whole badass hunter, I’m the next Katniss Everdeen trope. Yeva was just a girl who was more interested in hunting than societal gossip. She had no more or less ability than any other hunter who had trained their whole life and I loved this fact more than I probably should have. Too often protagonists are the chosen ones or the prophesied ones - they are better at whatever they do than anyone else has ever been or they have more power etc. Although there were elements of that in this story, Yeva was - at her heart - just an ordinary girl caught up in this adventure. She had a strong personality but this didn’t just make her better to the other town girls - like badass female fantasy female are often written - just interested in different things. In fact, Yeva’s strong personality and stubbornness often resulted in consequences or hindered her. Best of all? She actually learnt from this! How often do we read about female characters that are praised for being more “masculine” than the female secondary characters? All the time in fantasy so it was a relief to see a realistic balance between these personality traits. Yeva was also fiercely intelligent and loyal and also a little bit selfish but at the core of it, flawed. Like I said, Yeva was a complex and gritty character who had so many layers to her personality. I loved that she didn’t fit into any typical moulds and stood out from other female protagonists because she was so realistic. I honestly admired her so much.

Another thing that this book does incredibly well is the retelling aspects. We all know that as soon as anyone hears the words “Beauty and the Beast retelling,” they groan. This fairytale has been retold sooo many times now that there is very little you can do with the story now that makes it unique… and somehow Spooner did that. Maybe the trick was combining the BatB elements with a Russian folk tale? Whatever the answer may be, the author managed to explore all of the complicated aspects of the original story - namely the Stockholm Syndrome complaints - with ease, all while making her story stand out from all the other books in the genre. The new lore - or at least, new to me - was fascinating. I also loved how Yeva’s relationship with the Beast was developed and explored. There was only a hint of romance in this story. It is very much about the Yeva learning to see past the Beast’s exterior but not in a way that I found cliched, preachy or problematic. Their relationship was just so well-paced out and realistic. They went through many stages of emotions as the story progressed and the nature of their relationship shaped to fit their situation. Beast was similarly a complex and three-dimensional character and seeing how he came to understand their relationship dynamics was fascinating as well. I think the thing that really sold me on it the most was how little romance there really was - I swear to god, it was more about their actual relationship than anything - and the fact that the characters openly talked about abusive relationships. The fact that the Beast had held Yeva captive was a massive issue and they didn’t let it slide. I just… I’m in awe of how complex and well-written their relationship was written.

The one thing that I wished for was that we had gotten to see more of Lena and Asheka. However, Yeva’s relationship with her sisters was such a prominent aspect of the story and they had such good, healthy relationship that I really should not complain. I particularly loved how Yeva and Asheka’s relationship evolved as they processed some really difficult and trying situations together. Spooner managed to really capture the subtleties of sisterly relationships and I’m so glad it remained crucial to the story.

Overall?

I am more than merely impressed by this story, I am in awe of how much I enjoyed it. It took such a different direction to the other retellings in the genre and it did an amazing job of creating a rich, realistic set of characters. Yeva was an incredible protagonist - one of my favourites of all time, I have a feeling - and her relationships with her family and the Beast were similarly incredible. I would recommend this book to all fans of character-driven stories that like to get to the heart of a story and avoid all unnecessary tropes and drama. Spooner has done an amazing job of creating an incredibly rich retelling that you’ll be sorry to have missed out.

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.