Crazy Beautiful

Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Published 2009

208 Pages

Rating: B+

In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.

Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her.

But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering.

Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does.

(taken from back of book)

All right..where to begin. I have a lot of wonderful things to say about Crazy Beautiful, but then I also have some little bitty problems with it. But it is still B+ worthy in my book, I really enjoyed reading it!

So to set the story up for you guys there is Lucius Wolfe (kind of a bad ass name is you ask me, and I think it is really fitting to his character). Lucius is the guy with hooks for hands, he blew off his hands while he was 'experimenting' in his basement. He choose the hooks so he could remind himself every day what a 'beast' he is. He is a new student at the high school (I cant remember the name). He is the outcast, the crip, the one who scares all. There is another new student and her name is Aurora Belle, except she is the total opposite of Lucius. She is out-going, charming, beautiful, friendly, and the one person Lucius cannot stop thinking about ever since they first had eye contact. Their relationship is somewhat of an odd one, since they don't really interact a lot with one another but when they do, it has so much meaning. I found myself loving their 'relationship' if you can call it that, they both wanted to be something different and in the end, it all works out.

Okay, so onto what I thought was really good of the book! There was a lot of good in the book actually, and instead of writing and telling you about it, there are two quotes that I want to take directly from the book because I thought they were awesome, and really make you think about yourself and how you value your friendships. So without further ado:

"Then I decide I do want to do it. If he is my friend, and I believe he is, and if friendship means wanting what's best for the other person and not simply what's best for the other person in relation to you, then I have to do it. I am ethically bound." - Lucius Wolfe

Reading this made me so happy, Lucius is not the kind of guy that has a ton of friends, he actually only has one guy who he calls his friend, Nick Green. And seeing Lucius realize what it means to be a friend is truly something special. It was cute.

Next one, still dealing with friendship: "This is, I think, what it must mean to be human: to want something good for someone else." - Lucius Wolfe

Wanting something good to happen to another person is something that a lot of people dont do easily, some get jealous, and some get angry, but having Lucius say this about another person is eye-opening, since he is growing up as a teenager, he is finding what it feels like to be a friend and to want something more for another person.

Some of the parts in the book were funny, I found myself Laughing of Loud more than a few times, but I also found myself tearing up just a tiny bit. I really enjoyed reading this book. I love the idea of gaining the strength to finally put someone above yourself, because that is what Lucius does in this book, he puts Nick Green and Aurora above himself. It is very amazing to read.

Oh and my little bitty problems with the book: I wish it was longer..unless of course there will be a sequel! But I wish there was more to read, I didn't want the story to end. And the characters could have been a little more developed but I think it worked with how little you knew about them, and then as you read more they kind of just grew on you.

All in all, it was a good read, and I plan on rereading it in the future! I am crossing my fingers that there will be a sequel! That would be awesome!

Oh! And the cover!! I love it! I love the black and white, it is perfect for this book. The font is pretty awesome too! It might possibly be one of my favorite covers of this years books!

-Arielle

Dang that was a long review, ha.