Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin Mckinley Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
Book Review: An enchanting re-telling of the beloved fairy tale
Summary: 4 Stars
Ever since I first saw the Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast," I fell in love with it. To this day, it is still my favorite Disney movie as well as one of my favorite fairy tales. "Beauty" is a well-crafted re-telling, one that made me fall in love with the story all over again.
The book follows the original story of "Beauty and the Beast" very closely; so unfortunately, we don't have our friends Lumiere and Mrs. Potts providing commentary. Beauty and her family are very well to do until her father's ships are lost at sea, and with it, their fortune. They are forced to move to a small country village and begin a new life on the edge of an enchanted forest. One day, her father gets lost in the woods and encounters the hospitable Beast, whom he angers by picking a rose for Beauty. He is told that he has a month to decide whether he will remain with the Beast and die, or send one of his daughters in his place. Of course, we all know that Beauty talks him into letting her go...and so on and so forth.
While I really enjoyed this book, it was a bit repetitive with the constant message of "beauty is only skin-deep...what really matters is what's on the inside..." which is of course the message of the whole story in the first place. However, it is forced down your throat a bit much; Beauty, in the first place, is not beautiful at all. The Beast is, after all, a beast, and Beauty refuses to wear any of extravagant dresses in her wardrobe, preferring simpler ones instead. The characters are all a little bit flat; there is no villain or really any troublesome character at all. Even the Beast is a perfect gentleman, one aspect I was a little bit disappointed at. Beauty has no chance to "tame" him, as was her mission in the first place, because he is already "tamer" than most guys I know. All of her family and friends are sweet and good-natured, and it would've been nice to have had a little bit more antagonism. The beginning is also quite slow, a lot of "My family did this, and this, and this...then I did this, and this, and this...and here's a description of a flower, oh why don't I describe all the flowers...and this is what the dark, enchanted forest is like, I know I've already told you about it quite a few times..."
All in all, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it. (I definitely prefer it to McKinley's "Rose Daughter", another adaptation of Beauty and the Beast) It is an enjoyable re-telling of my favorite fairytale. 4 1/2 stars.
Kelli
Future Star
Book Review: Lackluster
Summary: 2 Stars
Mercedes Lackey got me into the wonder that is fairtale retelling. After reading The Black Swan and Fairy Godmother, I figured Beauty and the Beast was the way to go, but everyone recommended McKinley's retelling over hers. So, of course, this was the one I had to buy.
The first surprise was that it is a children's book, or at most pre-teen, only about 250 pages long. This I didn't mind; I adore children's books. However, the book only disappointed me.
The book is about Beauty, a not-so-beautiful teen who lives in the city with her two beautiful, kind and loving sisters and her father. When they lose their fortune they retreat to the country. One day, the father comes home and tells his girls of the horriblke pact he has made with the Beast, beauty realises she must try to 'tame the Beast' and free her father.
From the start, the first-person narrative is lacking and gartes on the nerves. The endless "I did this, I went there, they did that" gives the feel of a kid narrating a story in a boring, repetitive way. Similes abound, and while they are creative, not EVERYTHING has to be 'like a small child' and 'like a touch of silk' and 'like a breath of fresh air'. Similes are attatched to nearly anything they can be attacthed to. And while the descriptions are fanciful and pretty, the overall style of the narrative and writing technique is lacking. Not terrible, but enough to disturb your enjoyment of the story.
The characterisation suffers. The characters are flat and the dialogue lacking. Her sisters are 'good' and 'kind', Beauty is 'smart' and their father is 'indulgent', etc. But Beauty, beyond her book-smarts has no real intelligence to speak of. The fact that she isn't 'beautiful' is continuously shoved down your throat. Also, the fact that she is 'smart' is also repeated many times. Its like a treatise on 'Beauty is only skind deep, it is better to be intelligent that beautiful, see how wonderful Beauty is because she is smart, she is better than her sisters'.
Some things are better left unsaid; the 'show don't tell' philosophy could have done this book wonders. Also, when Beauty is in the castle, she continues to refuse to wear beautiful gowns, always searching for the plainest ones, yet another treatise for us. I know what I would do in her place, and that would be wear all the pretty things I could.
The Beast was an enormous disappointment, lackluster and boring as a character. Sure, he's moody and enigmatic, but how can Beauty possibly tame a beast that is already quite, quite tame? I didn't want to compare this to Disney's Beaty and the Beast, but in the Disney version, the Beast was truly a beast who became good through Beauty's (or Belle, in this case) influence. And Belle was an intelligent, over-curious bookworm. Anyone at all could easily fall in love with the Beast here because he is so obviously human.
The other that bothered me was the way Beauty takes her father's place. It goes something like this:
Father: (tells story)
Beauty: I must take your place
Father: No, you musn't
Beauty: I always get my way.
Father: Oh, yeah. Well, in that case, let's go.
0.o Yeah, right. If I'm supposed to belive that a man would come home, tell his daughters the Beast wants his life in a month and then accept his daughter's offer with only a few 'but's, than you got something else coming. And after losing all respect for the supposedly wonderful father I lost most of my hope for the story.
Anyway, for a child's story its alright. There's much worse. I can't for the life of me understand how such a lacking remake of the wonderful Beauty and the Beast could do so well and have such wonderful reviews, but there you have it. The story is didactive, preachy and boring. Not to mention that the firs half of the book is spent setting it up, telling us what happened, without anything really happening and no one getting anywhere. I would recommend Mercedes Lackey anyday over this story, for better prose, fleshed-out characters and a little more to the story.
Book Review: Eh... lands a little flat
Summary: 2 Stars
I found this book while casually browsing through a bookstore and bought it because I had seen great reviews of it online and I really loved the Disney version of this classic fairytale.
However, halfway through the book I found myself uninterested with the cardboard-like characters who all seemed to have the same personality. This book also could have been much shorter - McKinley, I felt, went too overboard with the description. For example, she spent two long paragraphs describing dark woods EVERYTIME one of the characters went into it. It was very tedious to read this book and it neither tickled my imagination nor made me feel any inspiration or love of the book like so many other books made me feel.
I actually find myself wishing I had spent my time reading another book rather than this one. I do not recommend purchasing or reading this book.
Book Review: very good read
Summary: 5 Stars
this book is another one of those books that once you pick it up, it is very hard to put down. Robin uses wit and talent to make an old fairy tale fresh with new life. I first read this book in high school,and it has been one of my favorites ever since. If you love the classic tale of beauty and the beast with humor, and a fresh charm, you'll love this!Book Review: A favorite!
Summary: 5 Stars
It's beauty and the beast but yet it seems fresh. This is my favorite retelling, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves the fairytale. It's a beautiful retelling in first person point of view.