Review of Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

After Renee Winters discovers her parents lying dead in California’s Redwood Forest in what appears to be a strange double murder, her grandfather sends her off to Gottfried Academy in Maine, a remote and mysterious high school dedicated to philosophy, “crude sciences,” and Latin: the Language of the Dead. It’s here she meets Dante, a dark and elusive student to whom she feels inexplicably drawn.
As they get to know each other better, Dante can’t seem to control his attraction either, and their desires gradually deepen into a complex and dangerous romance. Dangerous because Dante is hiding a frightening secret. A secret so terrible, it has him fearing for Renee’s life.
Dante’s not the only one with secrets, though. Turns out Gottfried Academy has a few of its own... Like, how come students keep disappearing? Why are the prefect-like Monitors creeping around campus during the night? And what exactly are the Headmistress and Professors really up to? Renee is determined to find out why.

~ Add To Your Goodreads Shelf
~ Buy From Amazon UK
~ Buy From Amazon US  

The cover of this is beautiful. I love how gothic it looks with the moths flying around and the woods behind the model, who looks like a younger Karen Gillian. The moths are also flying around the chapter headers too, which I think looks really pretty.

Dead Beautiful would be the book you'd end up with if you got Twilight, Fallen and Harry Potter, threw them into a pot and gave it a really good mix. The storyline isn't the best, although I enjoyed the mystery through it and the setting I found the ending disappointing - it felt quite rushed and I was rather confused.

As for Dante, I didn't like him, there was too many moments where he acted like Edward Cullen. I prefer a love interest that's actually realistic. There's a few moments in this where he saves her even though he's nowhere near her and this is never explained - I think the Author just wanted to copy parts of Twilight. Renee's character is better but quite annoying at times, she's a strong character but when it comes to Dante she just acts like all the other pathetic YA girls. After snubbing Dante for a week or two she has the nerve to complain when he snubs her back! Her character was steadily less likeable throughout the book, at the end I couldn't actually give a damn whether she died or not.

The ending. I honestly have no idea what happened. After writing 470 pages of the book, the ending was rushed and the last two chapters weren't really explained. After reading that amount of rubbish I was hoping for some reward, an ending I could actually remember instead of sitting around and thinking, 'Wait... what just happened?'

2/5