A quick hour-2 hour read, but very good. I consumed it in one sitting, then spent 5 minutes at the end staring blankly at the wall going over the ideas in my mind.
This book is on the subject of beauty, and our society's obssession with it. It links this very nicely into the fairytale setting, so you get both the fantasy intrest and the values behind it.
It also has a very attractive cover, and yeah, I do judge books by their cover :3

Beauty is like a modern fairy-tale with a mixture of all the princess stories.

Ana is a really beautiful princess. Ana wants to be very ugly. She has tried ever since she was twelve and could see her mother's hatred when someone complemented her beauty. Now she doesn't bathe, brush her hair, doesn't trim her nails, and eats nothing but nasty food and pastries. The way she eats has left her body looking fat and her face blemished. She is happy because this pleases her mother. But it still makes More...

Ana wants to be ugly. She has worked very hard at it, ever since she was twelve years old. Ever since the day a man complimented her on her beauty and she saw the look of hatred, jealousy, and anger in her mother's eyes. Now she doesn't bathe, doesn't trim her toenails, doesn't brush her hair, and eats nothing but pastries, bread, and moldy cheeses. Her nutrition has left her body pudgy and her face blemished. She is happy because she seems to have her mother's favor; however, staying ugly takes More...

I have a weakness for fairytale retellings, and I really like what Nancy did with Beauty. She took the story of Mirror, Mirror / Snow White and gave it her own touches, and spin. I have loved Snow White since I was young, and Nancy's Snow White is a little different than the one I grew up loving. In Beauty we get to see the relationship between Ana and her beautiful mother Queen Veda. While the Queen looks more like the classic Snow White than Ana, Ana does have her own beauty, and it's one she More...

This was a very interesting loose version of Snow White. Great writing, great story, I just wish it were a little longer.

This book could have used more character development. I definitely like Princess Academy by Shannon Hale much more!

I REALLY liked this book! It was an extremely good read!!
(Ms Mellington, I recommend you read it!)

Not the most well-written book, though the the idea itself is intriguing.
The cover is beautiful though.

Beauty isn't worth dying for!

A short but enjoyable read.

There are enough teen books kicking around these days that do a really good job of exploring some really interesting ideas that I had high hopes for this one. It seemed like a take on Snow White that could have some good strong female messages about outer beauty vs. inner beauty, sacrificing yourself for someone else, and stepping out of others' shadows as you find your own true self. And to be fair, it did have all that. It just presented it in such a superficial way that I was left pretty unfu More...

I thought the plot was good and I thought the theme was that people will do anything to be beautiful even if it means hurting others. The reason why I only gave it four stars was because I did not like how the author made Queen Veda's character I thought it was too much even with the theme of the story pretty much being lust for beauty. She did not love her daughter just because of her lust to be the most beautiful person in Ran. I kept thinking to myself she is just to cruel. I also did not lik More...

I like this book beauty because it teaches me to live my life and not try to live others because they look better than me. This book tells you at the end that your still yourself and nothing could change your looks or even who you are.This book also tought me not to change myself to meet others standers or to make people happy I will always be myself. This book was about a young girl who would do anything to make herself ugly so her mother would love her, her mother wanted to be the only beautif More...

Reviewed by Karin Perry for TeensReadToo.com

Ana wants to be ugly. She has worked very hard at it, ever since she was twelve years old. Ever since the day a man complimented her on her beauty and she saw the look of hatred, jealousy, and anger in her mother's eyes. Now she doesn't bathe, doesn't trim her toenails, doesn't brush her hair, and eats nothing but pastries, bread, and moldy cheeses. Her nutrition has left her body pudgy and her face blemished. She is happy because she seems to have her More...

2005- I'm a big fan of fairy tale retellings, and that's what I thought I was getting when I picked up this slim book. Instead, I got a story that seems to take about 3/4ths of the book to set up, and then wraps up so quickly you wonder if pages have fallen out of your copy. Ana is the daughter of a vain, beautiful mother, who only seems to love Ana if she is not a threat to her beauty. To gain her mother's love, Ana gains weight, doesn't wash her hair, and picks up other icky habits. Then Ana's More...

In this book, Queen veda of ran doesn't believe on growing old. Because the queen does not believe this, she shuns everything that she believes that would make her look or feel old. In other words, she believes that if she shuns her daughter, that she wouldn't feel or look old. Yet her daughter has both beauty and intelligence.So basically, Ana her daughter knows what the queen is up to.

I have a connection with Ana. You see what ana is facing is basically jealousy. I once faced jealousy with my More...

I agree with a previous commentor, there is a lot of set-up in this book (yay!) but not a lot of pay-off (boo!). I like the nods to Snow White, although Ana is way more active in this and the wicked queen has some character motivation. It kinda felt like it was trying to push a Message about either drugs being bad or caring too much about your appearance being bad, but didn't want to commit to it.

... I actually kinda have a problem with the fact that most of the girls in the academy are presente More...

at first I didn't want to read this book, but there was nothing else to read. But right when you jump into the book it catches your attention because there are a lot of things happening that you don't know about so you want to keep reading to figure them out. the book is so fasinating, because it's fantasy but you have to just catch up pwith it in a way because it doesn't explain why certain things are the way they are.i found the book really interesting because the whole concept of beauty throw More...

Review in 75 words or less: Beauty is a lovely read with a fairy tale feel to it. The novel is beautifully written and filled with varying emotions. Characters in this novel are top notch. And readers cannot help but to instantly relate or sympathize with the main character, Ana. She is one of those characters that you just want to hug. Amazing novel, but could have been better if the ending was not so rushed.

Final Verdict: I really enjoyed this novel. Although I saw no mention of it being a Sno More...

This is the same book as Beauty by Nancy Butcher. Are they the same author!? Here is the other book's link. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25...

This is actually the original edition published in 2005. I discovered today that it is being re-issued as Beauty under the name Nancy Ohlin.

Beauty

The new version is slightly longer too so I'm assuming it's been reworked. I preordered the new edition without even being aware that I had the original out from the library. It doesn't really seem to be mentioned anywhere so if you've read Beauty/Mirror Mirror be aware that they are (almost) the same book. More...

This book is supposed to be published on my birthday! :D So excited!

This book was dark, very dark, in fact, but not particularly deep. It was a retelling, of sorts, of Snow White, in which the mother wants so much to be beautiful-- more beautiful than everyone else-- that she goes to destructive extremes. In this story, the princess tries to win (and keep) her mother's love by making herself as ugly as possible. Overall, I found the book pretty dissatisfying. She may have maintained her humanity by the book's ending, but I wasn't convinced Ana, the princess, rea More...

I think this book deserves three stars because it has a good meaning. Another third person--but you could really get the feel of things. You could imagine.
Ana is beautiful, but she forces herself not to be because her mother hates it. Her mother thinks that she should be the most beautiful, and she'll kill Ana if she passes her up.
An easy one-night read, and well worth it.
Don't think so much of others that you have no time to think of yourself. It can get you killed.
My favorite line from this b More...

i actually really liked this book. im fifteen and currently am struggling through an eating disorder and this book made me feel like maybe there is some logic to my issues with food. Not to EVER say taht getting stuck in with an ED is ever a good idea or that i suggest them but. this was a good book in the fact that it tells you what can happen when people refuse to love and care for you if you dont look or act the way they want you to. its a bit sad how obssessed we (as a culture) are with bein More...

Uhm.
Good idea, decent writing, I read it in two days and that's nice, once in a while.
But, I don't know. It kinda felt too open; every move, every reason of anything the main characters did was explained, the moral was all to obvious and the parallels to the real world too direct.
If you want to write about superpretty girls taking drugs to get more beautiful, and how a wrong idea of love can damage people, than do that; don't invent a fantastic realm if you're not gonna give its own sense of rea More...

Queen Veda is beautiful, but she's afraid of not being the most beautiful in the kingdom. Her daughter is beautiful, but she has learned to hide it by not bathing, eating pastries, and wearing servant's clothing. Ana longs for her mother's love and the only way is to hide. Now a new Girl's Academy is being started, and Ana goes with her friend Pell. All the girls are beautiful, and Ana uncovers a plot to destroy them. She must find the strength to fight for them agaist her mother.

I was really enjoying this book, but as I got closer and closer to the end I wondered how on earth the author would resolve the main conflict in only a few pages. Well, I got my answer: She crapped out. What could have been an opportunity to show the heroine's growth through the adversity of a trek to defeat the evil queen and then a battle with the queen herself occurred in just a few sentences. I was left with a happy ending, but none of the fulfillment.