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A review by readsforlove
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley
2.0
This is my first book that I'm reading in a long line of books that I will hate, but I'm doing it for the research.
No one can accuse me now of not doing my research, haha.
So. As adaptions go, this is just a rewrite of the original story. The writing is lush and beautiful (which is why it's 2 stars, not 1) and the magic is enchanting and mesmerizing. I loved Beauty's horse (though I don't remember its name). And I feel that it is in Beauty's horse that we see just how problematic the source material of this novel is.
Beauty is forced to agree to stay in a magical castle with a monstrous beast, or else her father will be murdered. Later we learn that the beast didn't actually plan on killing the dad, but talk about manipulation.
I'm not going to rant more about the problems of the source material. We all know the story. And McKinley wrote a beautifully written novel with very little character development (seriously, what was with that ending? What was Beauty supposed to have learned, when her story ended like that? Pissed me off almost more than the Stockholm Syndrome). I was oddly riveted, but I think that was a combination of the narrator and the quality of the writing.
Anyway. If you like Beauty and the Beast, then this is a great way to read the OG story. Don't expect any new twists and turns. This really is just a novelization of the fairytale.
No one can accuse me now of not doing my research, haha.
So. As adaptions go, this is just a rewrite of the original story. The writing is lush and beautiful (which is why it's 2 stars, not 1) and the magic is enchanting and mesmerizing. I loved Beauty's horse (though I don't remember its name). And I feel that it is in Beauty's horse that we see just how problematic the source material of this novel is.
Beauty is forced to agree to stay in a magical castle with a monstrous beast, or else her father will be murdered. Later we learn that the beast didn't actually plan on killing the dad, but talk about manipulation.
I'm not going to rant more about the problems of the source material. We all know the story. And McKinley wrote a beautifully written novel with very little character development (seriously, what was with that ending? What was Beauty supposed to have learned, when her story ended like that? Pissed me off almost more than the Stockholm Syndrome). I was oddly riveted, but I think that was a combination of the narrator and the quality of the writing.
Anyway. If you like Beauty and the Beast, then this is a great way to read the OG story. Don't expect any new twists and turns. This really is just a novelization of the fairytale.