Shea Ernshaw’s The Beautiful Maddening is a mesmerizing blend of magic, mystery, and tragic love, drawing readers into a world where beauty comes at a devastating price. From the first page, Shea crafts a haunting atmosphere that lingers long after the book ends, as she explores the intricate complexities of love, family, and the curses that bind us.

At the heart of the novel is seventeen-year-old Lark Goode, a girl desperate to escape her family’s dark legacy. The Goode name is cursed, dating back to the Dutch tulip mania of 1636, when Lark’s ancestor stole the last of the precious tulip bulbs, unknowingly planting the seed for generations of madness. In the present, the family’s curse causes anyone who comes into contact with the Goodes to fall hopelessly in love—love that leads to obsession, madness, and heartbreak. While Lark’s brother embraces the strange power, Lark is determined to break free, to escape the small town of Cutwater and the madness tied to her bloodline.

But when Lark meets a boy who seems immune to the curse, the walls she’s built around herself begin to crumble. The romance that sparks between them is both beautiful and tragic, as Lark finds herself drawn to a love she’s spent her life avoiding. Yet, with every blossoming feeling, the town around her begins to unravel in a sickness tied to the very curse she’s trying to escape.

Shea’s lyrical prose captures the eerie beauty of the tulips and the dangerous allure of love, as well as the deep emotional struggle Lark faces. The small town of Cutwater is as much a character as the people who inhabit it, with its sense of isolation and quiet menace heightening the novel’s tension. The tulips themselves are a powerful symbol of both destruction and desire, their delicate petals hiding the madness they unleash.
As Lark’s journey unfolds, the novel explores themes of sacrifice, fate, and the fine line between love and madness.

Shea paints a rich, emotional landscape where family bonds and personal desires collide, leading to a heart-wrenching climax that will leave readers questioning the true cost of breaking a curse. The conclusion is both bittersweet and profound, resonating with the idea that in the Goode family, love—while beautiful—is ultimately destructive.
The Beautiful Maddening is a spellbinding read for those who crave stories of magic, love, and sacrifice.

Shea’s evocative storytelling and compelling characters will captivate fans of dark romance and fantastical tales, leaving them with a hauntingly unforgettable experience.

Twin teenagers Lark and Archer Goode live in Cutwater, a small swampy town where generations ago a Dutch ancestor of theirs settled. Their house is rundown, set on stilts over a glacial creek, with a dark field behind it that every spring comes to life with hundreds of white tulips, slashed with red stripes, that their great-great-etc grandfather smuggled out of the Netherlands during Tulipmania in the 1600s. The bulbs have been multiplying and growing to extraordinary heights — their pollen also brings a love madness to the town, which was unexplained. During the bloom period, people fall instantly in love with anyone carrying Goode blood. Archer takes advantage of this, receiving trinkets, money and more from admirers, but Lark just wants to be left alone long enough in order to graduate high school. Just a short period of time more, but unfortunately during drunk love tulip season.

Their parents are absent: a faraway father pays for groceries and utilities; their mother walked out three years ago. Lark hopes to do the same and escape Cutwater. But two things are different this year: some classmates have realized that it’s the tulips spreading love potions, and Lark has met someone totally unaffected by her, while her other school friends try to woo and possess her and demand tulip petals. In fact, it’s become a zombie apocalypse of sorts — Lark is almost crushed in the mayhem, but Oak — the unaffected one — saves her.

For a girl who can have anyone love her, albeit briefly and tragically, Lark is obsessed by the one person immune to her magical charms. She realizes she must be feeling what the others do. “I am afraid I am a girl who will only know false love.”

Shea Ernshaw has created an intense book about unrequited love, false love, and maddening love. The author keeps the characters off balance with the constant fear of the Goode family curse — is it real? Can it be escaped? A very lyrical book that will tear up the reader’s emotions. A great YA book! 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Oak has bottle green eyes, as does the appropriately named Olive. Mom had blue-green eyes. Randy also has green eyes. It seems like the whole town has green eyes….
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): YES The book is about magical tulips, like the “broken” tulips of Tulipmania. The red streaks are caused by a virus that eventually weakens the bulbs and are currently illegal in the Netherlands (striped tulips of today have hybridized instead of relying on aphids to infect them). In real life, the original bulbs from the days of the 17th century have all died out and would not have lasted for 400 years. But, these are magical ones and they thrive and multiply!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

This was a beautifully done fantasy romance and worked with the overall feel of the world. The concept worked overall and enjoyed the plot of this story. I enjoyed the way the characters were everything that I wanted and enjoyed how they felt like they belonged in this universe. Shea Ernshaw has a strong writing style and can’t wait for more.