At One's Beast by Rachel Barnard

Ugh.

That really sums up this book. Brace yourselves for the most negative review in the history of pandas.

Every girl and boy in the village of Frey fears the beast who lives in the forest. Ten years ago, the beast was formed from the town’s rage -- and the evil that lurks inside all people in moments of weakness. Every year since, the townspeople have sacrificed one of their own to appease his anger. This year the sacrifice does not go as planned. A young man saves the chosen girl from fate. She is torn between doing her duty and untangling the identity of her savior and captor. The young man grew up with thoughts of revenge on the town that turned their backs on him, but when he is close to the girl, he is reminded of who he used to be. From once upon a time to happily ever after, the people of Frey will have to rally together to rid the town of evil once and for all, but in the process will they destroy everything that is good in their world?

I wish i could say that At One's Beast at least started off good... but that would be a big lie. So, basically this novel evolves around the city of Frey. But there's some kind of "evil" lingering in the town? That's the first point of how bad this book was. The author gave no explanation whatsowever about this evil or how it got into Frey in the first place. She didn't explain why this Well was so important! Like... why? Why was this evil there, you can't just say EVERYBODY IS EVIL MWUAHHAHAHA and then just go along with that. NO, you can't. it ruined the book, darling. One of the main characters is Zosimos or "Zos" if you will, he fell into the "evil well" that i mentioned above. But that whole scene was so vague that i didn't understand what was going on at all. He heard "voices"in his head that compelled him closer to the well? WHY. Rachel, you need to give explanations, not leave open ends everywhere! It just made the whole reading a pain in the behind because nothing made sense.
Also, after Zos got pulled out of the well, he was covered in black stripes or something. Like tattoos ,i assume, that ran across his body.

Okay Bee, take a deep breath.

Also, i didn't connect to the characters at all. Whenever something happened that brought danger upon any character i just... got bored. I didn't care at al about Alcina, the female main character. The love triangle didn't affect me, because i couldn't be bothered to care about both boys. Alcina just claimed that Aethon was her childhood best friend... but we never saw any real interaction between them.

Hmm, oh. So another infuriating thing about this book is that Zos was supposed to be "the beast" of whom the villagers were all afraid of. But... i don't get WHY they were afraid of him. Because yes, when living in the woods he did raid some shops. But that's it. He didn't kill anyone. a as far as I know he hadn't seen any human for years... so why were the villagers still making a big deal out of him? He was living peacefully in his little house in the woods, nobody had even seen him. So there you have that question again. WHY. Nothing made sense.

I could rant on forever, but i think this is enough negativity for today. 

Okay, maybe just one last thing ;)

the ending... god. Spoiler alert right here.
So it's a happy ending. The people of Frey suddenly accept Zos because he saved some random girl. ... i don't.... WHAT?! For YEARS they were afraid of him. for YEARS they repelled him. And he saves one girl. i repeat, ONE GIRL. And he is welcome back with open arms? No. Fuck that. Also, for some magical reason the stripes on his skin vanish, except for one black tear streak on his cheek.

what

the

fuck

people.

No, just no. I dreaded reading this book. I kept procrastinating and just didn't want to read it -.-
I don't recommend this book to you. And Rachel, if you read this, please consider rewriting your book.
This awful novel deserves no stars at all. But am i allowed to do that? Whatever. 0 stars for At one's Beast.

Lots of Luck,
Bee