Today's book review is a retelling, a pretty old one in fact as Beauty was originally published in 1978. I like a good retelling, unfortunately this book didn't hit he mark for me. Find out why.
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: June 30, 1993 (first published October 25, 1978)
Format: ebook (Kindle)
Pages: 256
Source: Amazon
Genre: Fairy Tales, YA Retellings
Review Date: June 27, 2016
Rating: 2 bookmarks
Synopsis: A strange imprisonment...
Beauty has never liked her nickname. She is thin and awkward; it is her two sisters who are the beautiful ones. But what she lacks in looks, she can perhaps make up for in courage.
When her father comes home with the tale of an enchanted castle in the forest and the terrible promise he had to make to the Beast who lives there, Beauty knows she must go to the castle, a prisoner of her own free will. Her father protests that he will not let her go, but she answers, "Cannot a Beast be tamed?"
Robin McKinley's beloved telling illuminates the unusual love story of a most unlikely couple, Beauty and the Beast.
Release Date: June 30, 1993 (first published October 25, 1978)
Format: ebook (Kindle)
Pages: 256
Source: Amazon
Genre: Fairy Tales, YA Retellings
Review Date: June 27, 2016
Rating: 2 bookmarks
Synopsis: A strange imprisonment...
Beauty has never liked her nickname. She is thin and awkward; it is her two sisters who are the beautiful ones. But what she lacks in looks, she can perhaps make up for in courage.
When her father comes home with the tale of an enchanted castle in the forest and the terrible promise he had to make to the Beast who lives there, Beauty knows she must go to the castle, a prisoner of her own free will. Her father protests that he will not let her go, but she answers, "Cannot a Beast be tamed?"
Robin McKinley's beloved telling illuminates the unusual love story of a most unlikely couple, Beauty and the Beast.
Beauty is a pretty basic retelling. It's everything you'd expect of Beauty and the Beast, but not much more. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad book by any means, but there just wasn't anything special about it. There were some magical elements that could have been really cool if they were developed more. In general, I liked Beauty's character, and I liked her sisters as well. The Beast was a pretty flat character, but that was't entirely unexpected as the story was mostly about Beauty and her growth throughout the story.
There was a lot of traditional 1978-ish things going on, not very progressive at all. Beauty really thought she was plain and unattractive all the way up until the end. Meet the Beast, fall in love, break the spell, and ta-da, you are now gorgeous! I wish the message wasn't so old school, but it is what it is.
There was a lot of traditional 1978-ish things going on, not very progressive at all. Beauty really thought she was plain and unattractive all the way up until the end. Meet the Beast, fall in love, break the spell, and ta-da, you are now gorgeous! I wish the message wasn't so old school, but it is what it is.
While the pacing was a bit off for me, on the flip side, I really enjoyed the world building of the story. The castle, the village, the woods, etc. It was beautifully described and I felt that I could really imagine the locales. I liked that we got some history into Beauty's life and we find out where she and her family came from and how they found themselves living in the farm against the enchanted woods.
I believe my biggest issue with this story was the end. The plot was pretty much slow, not so slow, slow, then suddenly at the last 30 pages or so, just when Beauty realizes that she loves the Beast, it speeds up to a crazy fast pace. It's like the story pacing shifted into a hurry, hurry, hurry to the finish line pace! Experiencing that contrast in pacing made me feel that the ending was rushed. It made me wonder if the author was trying to get everything wrapped up just be done with it.
This was a book club read, so as far as discussion with a group, this made for lots of good conversation. Some of us liked is more than others. While I wouldn't recommend this title to read "just because", I would recommend it for book club. If you've read Beauty, I'd love to hear what you thought of it!
Happy Reading,
~Tamara
I believe my biggest issue with this story was the end. The plot was pretty much slow, not so slow, slow, then suddenly at the last 30 pages or so, just when Beauty realizes that she loves the Beast, it speeds up to a crazy fast pace. It's like the story pacing shifted into a hurry, hurry, hurry to the finish line pace! Experiencing that contrast in pacing made me feel that the ending was rushed. It made me wonder if the author was trying to get everything wrapped up just be done with it.
This was a book club read, so as far as discussion with a group, this made for lots of good conversation. Some of us liked is more than others. While I wouldn't recommend this title to read "just because", I would recommend it for book club. If you've read Beauty, I'd love to hear what you thought of it!
Happy Reading,
~Tamara
Get the Kindle version here:
