So I bought this on a whim some time ago because after really loving Torment by Lauren Kate and hearing that this book was something different. I do enjoy seeing other work by authors I’m interested in because it’s nice to dip into other worlds from the same mind as one’s you all ready have fun existing in. Plus, Lauren Kate’s books always have the most ‘to die for’ cover art around and after seeing this divine cover with the oh so pretty purple dress on the model I just wanted to steal it and dance around my flat wearing it. I do like a nice evening dress even if I have nowhere to wear one too.
Natalie Hargrove is a bitch. I won’t lie because there is no getting around this point. She’s a flat out mean girl, schemer, self centred and only thinks of problems and situations in terms of ;how will this affect me and my life’ rather than ‘how does my life reflect on the world around me’. This is because Natalie thinks the world does revolve around her quite frankly and thus it should bend to will.
As intriguing a story this was and I seriously thought the plot was well paced and cleverly thought about, it was hard to get over the fact that this girl considered no one else unless it meant she could get ahead or protect herself. It made reading hard at times but you continue on because you hope against hope that she is a character that finds redemption or is “saved” from her ways. What gradually unfold are the foundations of her background and her makings of one of the elite members of the elitist school she attends.
Natalie is a popular girl at school and all she wants to do before the year is over is be crowned Prince and Princess Palmetto alongside her boyfriend Mike. She has built up this dream and carefully plotted plan to this moment and nothing is going to change her plans to get the crown and have the life she thinks she deserves but it all starts to unravel when fate and a drunken party leads to death and lies for Natalie and her world becomes sand in her hands and slowly slips between the gaps.
What I did like about The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove was the a real step away from Lauren Kate’s previous books and we have a lead character that isn’t so heart warming and inviting and yet you felt compelled to like her in a way. She wants to rise above her past and change her life for the better but her end goal has become her only focus and she loses sight of why she wanted to change from her old life on the wrong side of the tracks. She wanted to be a better person and better herself but she just changes her circumstances and environment but doesn’t strive to change the person she is. She fits the mould she thinks leads to success but can’t factor in things like real life and her old life creeping in on her plans.
The story was well built and did want me to carry on until the dramatic end but I don’t think that if this had been part of a series that I would have wanted to read the next book. I enjoyed the build up and haunting nature of the old Natalie that lingers over Natalie’s dreams and aspirations to be crowned Queen. Clear references to Macbeth can be drawn but it never over powers the story-telling skills of Lauren Kate’s writing or the characters and their problems that almost become too much for them to handle as Natalie and those her life and lies touches.
A fine read for someone that likes their murder mysteries and thrillers, but I wouldn't expect to be rooting for a clear good guy and booing the baddie because the lines are very blurred and the only hope for these subjects is to come out of these events with a little damage as possible.
Rating: 6.5/10
I hated Natalie with a passion :D I thought it was a good rec for english to develop the character of Lady M :D
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