The Damned
BY Renee Ahdieh

Following The Beautiful, so many things have changed - Sebastien Saint Germain has now been cursed , a war is imminent and the world has changed all for the cost of loving Celine. The world building continues to amaze me in this writing. I was enthralled with this supernatural series and found The Damned an even better read that built up from the cliff hanger. I am now a full fledged Supernatural fantasy romance junkie and I blame Ahdieh for this. Having me engrossed in this long novel unable to get up from my seat to even be bothered doing anything but for the mere task of turning those pages as my heart fluttered and caught up in Bastien and Celine's penultimate and decadent world. The glamorous world sucked me right in and I was lost in this world I loved.

Thank you to PenguinTeen for the eARC.

I enjoyed The Damned more than the first book.
I was captivated in the story and world building I couldn't stop reading. So many turns and unexpected twist. Renée Ahdieh did a wonderful job keeping the readers on our toes. And I enjoyed the characters twice as more in this one.

A fantastic follow up to The Beautiful. This story focuses more on Bastien's viewpoint, which I thoroughly enjoyed since Celine was front and center in book one. There's so much more action and world building in this story, which I was absolutely here for. I think this was a stunning conclusion to this deliciously dark duology.

As always, Renee Ahdieh’s writing is beautiful! Unfortunately this book didn’t really work for me. After that cliffhanger of an ending in The Beautiful, I was expecting this book to start off strong and with a much faster pace. I was so excited to dive back into this world. Instead, it felt like nothing happened the first half of the book and I struggled to get through it. The series took a different direction than I had been anticipating and unfortunately lost most of the things I loved about The Beautiful. I also thought this was a duology, so the ending of this book caught me off guard.

Changing between so many POVs at the beginning with each of them feeling mostly like monologues was not something I was a fan of. I loved Bastien’s POV in The Beautiful, but it fell flat for me in The Damned. He was no longer this mysterious and ominous character, instead his chapters dragged for me. The memory loss for Celine really changed so many of the things I loved about her in The Beautiful. I enjoyed getting to see more of the fantastical side of this world in this book, I just wish that more happened in the first part of the book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

READ THIS BOOK ASAP. Only after you read the first one obv :)

It was so good and beautifully written, high recommend.

Unfortunately this one just really didn’t do it for me. I thought all of the characters were a bit annoying and I just couldn’t get into. Thank you netgalley for sending a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

"It was never about seeking the truth from others. It was always about finding it within herself."

Ah, such a great follow-up to <i>The Beautiful</i>. <i>The Damned</i> is a great book, and a great addition to the series. I'm not a huge supernatural fan, but I really enjoy this series. There's love, loyalty, and conflict from both of those. The ending was unexpected, but well done.

All in all, this really is a great sequel. <i>Twilight</i> fans definitely need to read this series. Ahdieh's storytelling and writing is great!

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Best For: 14 and up, fantasy/supernatural fans and those that read <i>The Beautiful</i> first.
# of Pages: 448
Clean Read: Mostly. Some violence and a sex scene, but no details were given.
Worth a Check Out: Yes.

Full review here:
https://culturess.com/2020/07/18/5-reasons-renee-ahdiehs-damned-supernatural-sequel-read-july/

I got 15% into this but I simply have to dnf

Bastien is annoying beyond all belief and I personally cannot stand paranormal stories where a person becomes a vampire/werewolf/etc and then spends the whole time complaining about it. It's just not fun and I cannot imagine reading a whole book full of Bastien's incessant whining

I am one of those who generally love the sequel even more, and that case is definitely true in this series. So many twists and turns I was on the edge of my seat and just couldn’t not put this down.

I loved how we delved more into the characters and the curtain was pulled back to the world that lays beyond that of our mortal eye.
Watching Celine & Bastein both overcome the circumstances of the situation, was flawlessly done. I really enjoyed that this book focused more on the supernatural realms, and we got to really know some background on more of the characters and meet some interesting new characters as well. I can’t wait to read what comes next.

“The Beautiful” and “The Damned,” Renee Ahdieh

Renee Ahdieh sets her lush, immersive vampire story in 19th-century New Orleans. Seventeen-year-old Celine flees Paris and settles in the Crescent City during Carnival season, linking her future with mysterious Sébastien, who leads the underground La Cour des Lions. Bastien has some secrets to hide (fangs), and the new sequel “The Damned” follows the pair as they grapple with warring supernatural factions, New Orleans’ chief detective and lost memories. Originally planned as a duology, Ahdieh’s publisher recently announced that there will be two more titles in the series, expected in 2021 and 2022. (First two books out now)

This book was just okay. I really love the author and her writing so I wanted to push through and try out the next in this series.

I found myself not really caring for a majority of it and then get really invested towards the end. I have to say that the ending did make me want to read whatever comes next in this world.

Celine is my favorite character but I was a little confused about how the whole vale and fae came into the story. It felt displaced and I wish it had just focused on the vampire aspect.

In this sequel to The Beautiful, we follow the lives of all the characters from book one. I actually enjoyed getting to see inside the side characters’ lives although it did make the story progress a little slower.

I really loved how this book established the love triangle between Céline, Bastien and Michael more than it did in book one.

I really loved Pippa and hope that there are more Pippa scenes in the next one and I need her backstory! The little Corgi was my favorite!

I loved the plot twist with Céline! I really hope there is a third book where they delve into that more! I absolutely adored the world building in this one! I wish that there would have been a little more action in this book. I felt it got lost in the characters’ backstories.

The ending of the book caught me by surprise. I hope book three comes out soon because I need answers!

As a big fan of The Beautiful, I went into The Damned expecting to be blown away once again. And, I was. However it took me a while to really get into the story. I felt it was a slow start, with a lot of point of views I didn't care for. Some of them became integral to the plot, and others grew on me.

This was one of those stories where the author drops breadcrumbs throughout the novel without you really knowing or understanding, until it all comes together in one final exciting climax. This book gave me The Vampire Diaries vibes, and I absolutely loved it. There were some fantasy elements that were introduced to the story, more background to the world we were introduced to in the first book, and I found it very fun and exciting, and given to us in a way I wasn't confused or pushed into an unknown world. I'm excited to see more of it and where the tale goes.

My only complaint is that the romance between Celine and Bastien just...is too insta-lovey for me. I didn't feel like their relationship was well developed in The Beautiful, so it was hard to root for them in The Damned.

Overall this was a pleasant surprise and I'm very much invested in continuing this story.

3.5/5 Stars

This is the second book in the Beautiful series.

I liked that we got more of a focus on Bastien in this one. It was interesting getting more of his backstory as the story went on. I also enjoyed the multiple POVs in this and how it gave us glimpses into other characters' heads, other than just Celine and Bastein. My biggest complaint is the "love triangle" between Bastien, Celine, and Michael... it just seems so unnecessary in my opinion and definitely could be left out because Michael doesn't even stand a small chance against Bastein and everyone knows it.

I am intrigued to see where the story goes from here, as we were left on a bit of a cliffhanger.

The Damned
4 stars
Wow such a magical read that was a perfect sequel to the first book. It answered all my questions and gave me more! I loved diving into the monstrous but beautiful world and learning more about the characters. I fell in love with them all over again. I am so excited that there is going to be a third book!!!

I really enjoyed The Beautiful but dang, y'all, this was just BAD for reasons I can't really put into words. I don't think I'll be picking up the inevitable follow ups to this series. There is nothing I can particularly point out that strikes me as awful, I just ... didn't enjoy my time here.

The Damned is the sequel to The Beautiful and details the events immediately following the big reveal at the end of its predecessor. Like The Beautiful, it’s a slow burn, but unlike it, The Damned focuses mostly on Bastien Saint Germain. We actually don’t see much of Celine for the first half of the book as Bastien is forced to reckon with the fact that his older sister, Emilie, is secretly a werewolf and was behind the serial murders in the first book. I love werewolves almost as much as I love vampires, so I was really excited to learn about Emilie and how werewolves fit into the New Orleans underworld. I was not let down: some of the chapters are told from Emilie’s POV (albeit in the third person). In The Damned, we get a peek into the minds of some supporting characters from The Beautiful too, including Pippa and Odette. Meanwhile, Celine is dealing with the aftermath of the events at the end of the first book in her own way. She’s dealing with physical injuries from it and also the fact that her memory of that night is fractured, which is where her and Bastien’s stories once again converge. We get a glimpse into the tentative friendship between Celine and detective Michael Grimaldi, and also how the strong friendship between him and Bastien broke years prior. A love triangle of sorts between Celine, Bastien, and Michael forms, but it’s mostly Bastien becoming jealous from rumors that Celine and Michael have become romantically involved. I’ve written before about how I feel that love triangles are overdone in YA fiction (even if I don’t hate them), so I’m glad that Ahdieh chose to bypass this potential one in favor for some romantic tension.

The Damned is far from the only vampire YA book that I’ve been looking forward to recently, but still it stands out. There are so many good elements going on in both this book and The Beautiful: complex characters, sultry romance, mystery. I’m so excited to see where this series will go in any others sequels that come out, and I definitely recommend that you continue on with The Damned if you liked The Beautiful!

I think if you like The Beautiful, then you’ll definitely love this sequel. (Don’t worry, no spoilers - I won’t say too much, since this is the second book).
The Beautiful and The Damned are hauntingly atmospheric fantasy books that feature this little band of misfit characters that give me such strong squad vibes! They’re beautifully written, uniquely crafted, and set themselves apart from similarly themed fantasies. Definitely suggest to fans of VE Schwab and Renee Ahdieh’s previous works.

~slight spoilers below~
For my own personal tastes, I find them a little slow-paced. I finished the first book, thinking the second would win me over. And now I’ve finished the second book, hoping the next will? I think maybe, if I had realized that this wasn’t the end, then I would have enjoyed The Damned a little more. But as I was expecting resolution, being left with more questions than answers, again, I found myself wanting more from this book. But overall, an enjoyable read that I think most fantasy readers would enjoy.

Initial Thoughts

I was SO excited to read this book. I really enjoyed The Beautiful and when Penguin Teen offered me the chance to review this one early, I was like YES, PLEASE!

Some Things I Liked

Different POV. I just loved that Bastien was the first person POV in this book and I really loved how that matched the title. Celine was “the beautiful” and the first person POV in the first book, and Bastien is now “damned” so he’s the main POV in this book. I also liked that we had chapters that followed other characters throughout the story.
BAHHH the love story. Ok, BAHHH is not exactly an articulate way to describe something. But, it’s me basically word vomiting all over this post because I loved it so much. Celine and Bastien are just so perfect and so stubborn and they made for such a great romance read.
Poor Michael. Yes, I list this in things I liked. Michael is ok but, Bastien > Michael all day every day. I hope Michael finds a nice lady in the next book, not Celine. Celine is spoken for. But, I do feel bad for him.
ODETTE – yes, all caps for Odette and how much I loved her as a character. She deserves a series all to herself. She’s so tragic and self-loathing and I love her for it. Where’s her person? Renée Ahdieh, please give Odette a love story!

Series Value

If there is not another book in this series, I do not know what I will do. The ending was so ridiculously open-ended, there can’t not be more. However, I really like the poetry of the names as just “The Beautiful” and “The Damned” – what would Renée Ahdieh even call the next book?

Final Thoughts

I liked The Beautiful but I loved The Damned. The twists, the POVs, Bastien as the primary narrator. The pages literally oozed with drama and I can’t wait for more. Although more is unconfirmed, I will continue to wish for more!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommendations for Further Reading

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh – if you liked the dramatic writing style and the rich descriptions, try Renée’s other series.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness – if you liked the supernatural elements of The Beautiful and the various types of beings described, definitely give The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness a read.