Review - "Ensnared"

Ensnared
by Rita Stradling
rating: ☆
published: 18th December 2017
spoilers? a few

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

To be blunt, if I could rate this book zero stars, I would. I wouldn't even give it half a star - it does not merit it.

Let's start with the premise. It's a good one, a futuristic retelling of Beauty and the Beast, right? But the rose is not a rose, instead a robot named Rose. And the Beast is not a beast but a heavily facially-scarred man. At this, we get to the first sticking point. In the original, the beast is a man who is cursed to look like a horrific monster. So, is the author comparing the looks of a scarred man to those of a horrific monster? Apparently so. And if you follow that thread, then the curse appears to be either child abuse at the hands of his mother (which, I will come to later), or his terrible immune system which means he can't leave the house (in itself, framed as a result of his abusive mother never letting him leave). What seems like a good premise quickly turns into a mess.

So the premise is a problem. But perhaps the writing can solve the issues.

Not so. To begin with, the writing itself is tedious and the story drags immensely. I actually ended up skimming long scenes just because nothing was happening.

Secondly, Lorccan (the "beast") is a controlling and manipulative arsehole. I have numerous quotes saved related to this, but in the interests of keeping this review short, here are a choice few.

"You will come to the dining room every day at six exactly. If I am not in there, you will wait for me until I am. If I do not come, you will leave the dining room at seven." "Yes, sir." "You will not call me sir. You will call me Lorccan or Lor." "Yes, Lorccan" "And you will never come out of your room at night, ever." This he almost yelled.

"I cannot ingest food," Alainn told him. "I was assured that you could. That you could ingest it, then clean it out of your system by bringing the food back up," he sounded almost angry as he said it.

"You can go to your room," he said in a low voice. Alainn nodded. "Okay." "Go straight there. Once you are inside, you will be locked in for the night."

"Where are you?" she asked. "I am in my office, but I can see you." His voice sounded no less annoyed as he answered.

"What is going on?" he yelled. "I have... important computations to do. My systems are telling me my computations are more important than eating food with some man in the dark." He said nothing but after a second, his footsteps approached the bed. She swallowed hard and scooted to sit on the edge. "You will come to dinner." He was close, a hulking shadow directly before her.

So yeah. And this is the relationship I am supposed to be rooting for. There's absolutely no character development whatsoever either. Also, when she refuses to do as he is ordering her to, he gets upset and asks why she is so insistent on upsetting him. Tell me how this isn't a prime example of an emotionally abusive relationship.

Alainn, for about half the book, is pretending to be a robot for Lorccan. And it's during this first half of the book that they start a sexual relationship and apparently fall in love (though where that development is in the text defeats me). Which is terrible, because this is a huge deception, and Alainn is perfectly happy just keeping it up while also flirting with Lorccan. Don't you think Lorccan deserves to know not everything is as he thinks it is before you start up your relationship, Alainn? The first sex scene also happens immediately after Lorccan wakes up after a nightmare. I don't know about you, but on waking up from a nightmare, I feel pretty disorientated and not at all sure of what is going on. Lorccan, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have this problem. And there's no residual fear from the nightmare either. Alainn vaguely expresses not wanting to take advantage of him while he's vulnerable, but she doesn't seem like she's actually going to not have sex with him if he says he is.

There's also the whole thing where Lorccan's nightmares (and presumably his inability to go outside - though this is never explained, and if it is supposed to represent the curse, never resolved either) turn out to be a result of horrific abuse by his mother, which his father helpfully tells him is because his [Lorccan's] scars upset her. And there's never anything in the narrative to point out that this is abusive and victim-blaming in itself. And the abuse is genuinely only mentioned once. One time. All it does, is tell you what Lorccan's nightmares are about. And then it's abandoned. The true definition of using abuse as a plot device.

And then there's the point this review makes well. That Alainn does not care about Lorccan until she sees his scars and realises that she wants to help him. Which is framed as her "hero complex". Just when you thought this couldn't get messier, it does.

Also, there's hardly any evidence of a so-called "hero complex" anyway. More like Alainn's reckless with her own life, and others'. And then there's the whole 'her best friend was killed in a kidnapping' which a) why was she kidnapped? Because of her father's debts? Not made clear, and b) she appears to have suffered no effects as a result of the trauma. Maybe that is realistic, but if I'm supposed to believe that bringing up her best friend, as the robot does at one point, it doesn't make sense for her not to be thinking about her at least once besides this moment. Another thing that seems like a plot device just thrown in as an afterthought.

TL,DR; why didn't I dnf earlier.