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Mar 16, 2011

karen rated it:

fairy tale retellings are fascinating - i went through a datlow-phase years ago, and i have read many others outside of her collections - it is a comfortable pleasure for me. so, since i am now going on an "introduce myself to the fantasy genre" expedition, this book seemed like the most logical entrée into it all.

beauty and the beast was never one of my favorite fairy tales - i don't know why, particularly, but i usually preferred the ones that didn't have a corresponding di More...

53 comments like (50 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2009

Kelly rated it:

An absolutely lovely rendition of my favorite fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast. There have been many retellings of this tale, from the bodice ripping romance novel covers featuring men muscled to the point of beastliness, holding pale, innocent flowers, to, of course, the smart young lady with a conveinently lovely voice for a Disney musical. This one falls somewhere poignantly in between- in just the perfect place for adult fans of both genres to find something that they can identify with, whil More...

17 comments like (25 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2009

Chandra rated it:

My initial reaction to this book is: What rock was I living under that I wasn't aware of either this book or Robin McKinley when I was young reader?? I'm fairly certain that I would have been her number one fan! As it stands I'm still a big fan!

The premise here is really pretty simple - the familiar and touching story is fleshed out and given more depth with Beauty herself as narrator. I was struck by similarities to the Disney film (which came over a decade after this novel was f More...

13 comments like (14 people liked it)

Nov 04, 2007

Nicole rated it:

This is a quick read - young adult fiction. There were elements of this story (a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast) that had the potential to be really cool, but the author concentrated on the clothes and hair and food instead of the magic. I'm all for detail, but come on! The main character was labeled "plain" from the beginning and her sisters were beautiful. Of course in the end the plain one becomes pretty and the Beast is also pretty and TA DA all is right with the world. Bo More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2007

Sean rated it:

The title says it all. This book is beautiful on every level: Writing, characters, story, themes. I thought it was an awesome portrait of quiet, gentle love and the joy to be found in simple things.

Dudes and ladies alike: Just read it.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2010

Tatiana rated it:

This is a lovely retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Robin McKinley's writing is fluid; the descriptions of the castle, landscapes, and even clothes are clear and vivid; horseback-riding scenes and interactions with horses are reflective of the author's superior knowledge of the animals. But other than that, there is hardly anything memorable about Beauty.

I don't know about you, but expect any retelling to bring something new to the original story, some new layers, better understandin More...

10 comments like (10 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2011

Chris rated it:

There is something about the Beauty and the Beast story that is attractive to society in general and to the literature, movie making crowd in particular. Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Middlemarch and other books in varying literary quality draw on the motif, subverting, perverting, or simply retelling it (One of my faves is Jane Yolen's version which is a mash up with O Henry's Gift of the Magi). It is no surprise that Robin McKinely was drawn to the tale, twice, and any reader can see the ge More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 19, 2008

Nikki rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2007

hypothermya rated it:

I just finished reading this book. Apparently a semester of dealing with politics and classics brings out the hard-core romantic in me, because I've been barreling through idyllic fantasy novels as if I were 13 years old.

That said, I have trouble thinking of another fantasy novel I would rather have read. Robin McKinley once again takes an old, archetypal fairytale (Beauty & the Beast, in case the title and the large rose on the cover didn't clobber you with recognition) -- and tu More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2011

Kaethe rated it:

apparently, I've read this before. It's been long enough that I didn't really remember anything until after it had come up, in fact, I'd conflated the book with the Disney Beauty and the Beast movie. Not too surprising, considering how close they come in places.

Here are the three things I love best: that the three sisters are all so fond of one another, that everyone deals so pragmatically with losing everything and becoming poor, and that the Beast's library includes books that haven More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2011

Jessi rated it:

Nothing new or Earth shattering here, but if you like Beauty and the Beast, its a super fast and an enjoyable read. I sort of beyond love the story of Beauty and the Beast,as a child I loved fairy tales, but this was always my favourite. My mum likes to tell people how when asked why I like this one so much, I would say "Beauty had the best shake outta life" and she did for reals. I was a realistic child I saw these fairy tales for what they were:

Cinderella

basi More...

7 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Kelly rated it:

Yeah.

Those stars aren't going anywhere, anytime soon. The hard part is not wounding my literary pride. Sure it is..[slap]. And at one point in life you should think that you only have 99.8% other faults besides literary pride. There was not even a voiced term for it when I was growing up yonder (no, really. I just looked out the window and saw it). It was the log-pothole-peat bog you ignored before eating it three seconds later, and it was only supposed to wear one mask, not have a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2008

Damian rated it:

I'm sure part of my gleeful urge to give this five-star rating stems from the fact that "Beauty and the Beast" has always been my favourite fairy tale. I love seeing it redone in modern settings, redone in post-modern settings, and even retold in a time period akin to that in which it was first penned and recorded for posterity.

This novel brings us the story in the first person POV, past tense, but with a current approach to language. I checked the credits and discovered it More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 18, 2008

Grace rated it:

An absolutely outstanding rendition of Beauty and the Beast. I have read Robin McKinley before, but it's been years, and I had forgotten how well she could write.

The charm of this novel isn't in its creativity with or spin on the fairy tale, but in the way that Robin McKinley tells such a classic story in such a straightforward way, and yet still manages to make it delightful and fresh. In so many longer novelizations of short tales, the authors get caught up in tedious detail to e More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 10, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

In Jean Cocteau's 1946 film version (better than Disney's by far), Belle is running through the castle's corridors while arms reach out at her from the walls. Her skirts are billowing in the wind from her movement and she is running from something, or searching for something, and you have this image of beauty and haunting enchantment, surrounded by threats, and fear. It's disconcerting to have those images and feelings transmuted into Angela Lansbury's singing tea pot.

Blending the e More...

9 comments like (20 people liked it)

Sep 22, 2008

Kathryn rated it:

It was a nice enough story. Honestly, though, I found it difficult to relate in any real way to the main character. She seemed stiff, to me, and kind of stagnant. After reading authors like Sharon Creech and Gail Carson Levine where the heroines become your best friends and you can sense what they are feeling and understand their pain and rejoice in their successes, Beauty seemed like a brick. I think the author tried too hard to make her "realistic" to the point that she became an More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 03, 2008

Anita rated it:

I read this book several years ago and loved it. However, on the second reading I didn't enjoy it quite as much. I wanted to know more about the beast, why he became enchanted, why did he pick Beauty to help him break his enchantment... I just wanted more about him! The story is told from Beauty's perspective, which may be why the reader doesn't learn as much about the beast. The author does do a good job of telling Beauty's family's story and I really like the relationship between Beauty an More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 14, 2009

Natasha rated it:

Extremely tedious and slow-paced with too much description--that basically describes the whole book. I like the idea of a more gracious Beast, but there wasn't anything really creative or new about the retelling. The ending was especially... bleh (meaning very abrupt and silly). Beauty's character was a bit cliche as well.

8 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2011

Wendy rated it:

This book has definitely become one of my favorites. If you like fairy tale retellings, you should definitely pick up this book. It takes on an interesting perspective when it comes to Beauty. I really liked the Beast's character throughout the book. It showed him as he had matured already. Most other retellings always still have him in the process of maturing and understanding his lesson. The only thing that was a bit confusing was the ending. There were a couple of questions that I still More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 06, 2008

Shannon rated it:

Pretty nice.. nothing earth-shattering as far as the plotline goes since I've, you know, seen the Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast". I don't know if I can get used to the way fantasy novels are often like 95% backstory/setup, 5% payoff/climax. It's like all the gooood shit is in the last 20 pages... I wished there was more after that. Oh well. McKinley is a good author. More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 02, 2011

Jinjifore rated it:

I can't count how many times I've read this book. Robin McKinley has a gift for taking old stories and reworking them into something that is new and unique, and yet still bringing out pieces of the original that the reader might not have ever noticed before.[return][return]In this version of the story, "Beauty" is not, in fact, very beautiful. Her given name is Honor, to complement the names of her sisters Grace and Hope, but at a young age she discovered what honor meant and said that More...

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Mar 23, 2009

Kelley Anne rated it:

This was a book that was one of my very favorites growing up, but I haven't read it since probably junior high. While discussing a different book with friends, this title came up. So, I decided to rumage through all of my boxes of old books, find this one and dust it off and give it a good read. It was just as fun as I remembered it!

This book is just a version of the widely known Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. It is a very simple, sweet and enchanting version. Beauty and the B More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2012

Sara added it

I really enjoyed reading Beauty. I felt as if I was reliving my childhood a bit with the the retelling of the Beauty and the Beast, which was one of my favorite movies as a child. I remember seeing Beauty and the Beast on ice, and I watched the movie over a thousand times. The book was a little different than the movie and seeing it on ice, but it was definitely a good kind of different. I think my favorite part about reading the book was getting to see the tale of Beauty and the Beast completel More...

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Jan 03, 2012

Charlotte rated it:

Beauty and the Beast is one of my all time favorite Disney tales, and so its always a pleasure to read a new tale based on the original. I did like this story because it was very much connected to the Disney version that I know all to well, but at the same time it had this sense of originality to it, in that it was modern, expressive and seemed to have a very sort of true nature to it. At the same time though the imagery that the novel provided, gave you this sense of the olden times where femal More...

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Nov 11, 2011

Dorothea rated it:

Definitely not one of McKinley's best, but a quick and comfortable re-read for me.

It suffers from some technical problems that I'd like to attribute to this being her first published novel, like dialogue that's sometimes redundant and employs both "Milord" and "okay."

I think another weakness is the setting--there are some specific cultural referents that identify the story as taking place in early modern Europe (the books that Beauty reads, the occasional More...

0 comments like

Nov 11, 2011

L.danielle rated it:

I definitely enjoyed reading this book, and got through it pretty fast.
The story was wonderful, and easily followed. I, for the most part, found the magic or whatever convincing.
There were a few criticisms I had--mostly just that the dialogue was pretty poorly written, and that a lot of the writing from Beauty's p.o.v. came across as irritatingly ambivalent, or self-debasing. I guess it's just that I didn't like her that much. I thought she was sort of silly.
Also, though oft More...

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Oct 28, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Her nickname is Beauty, and though she thinks it hardly fits her, it surly matches the tail she has to tell. She goes from riches to rags, forced to leave the city wherein she has lived all of her life. Her family travels among wagoneers to a township on the edge of the woods in the wild northern country, where they settle into the social landscape. Then one day, her father comes home from a long journey with a fantastic tail and an unthinkable choice. Either he or one of his children must go More...

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Oct 25, 2011

Maree ♫ Light's Shadow ♪ rated it:

Maree ♫ Light's Shadow ♪ Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite stories, so I'm pretty tough to convince when it comes to reading retellings. I didn't enjoy Beastly at all, so when it came to this one, I wasn't expecting much either. But I was pleasantly surprised!

I really enjoyed the language. It was beautiful and fit with the time (I appreciated that it still took place in the past instead of modern day). You could really feel Beauty falling in love with the Beast, and I enjoyed More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2011

Cana Elene rated it:

We all know the story of Beauty and the Beast. This tale is told from Beauty's POV. Her real name is Honor, and she is the third daughter of a wealthy merchant. When her father looses all they have to a failed business venture, they move up north to start over. But one day, her father has to go back to their old home town for a ship has come back. And on his way back to the family, he gets lost in a blizzard. He happens upon the Beast's castle. After staying the night, the old merchant ta More...

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Sep 27, 2011

stephanie rated it:

I had hoped to like this book a lot more than I did. It was my first foray into fairy tale re-imaginings, and I guess I expected a bit more. It was a perfectly fine story, but it didn't feel much different than the version I was already familiar with (should I be ashamed to admit that the version I knew was the Disney one?). Overall, I liked it, and don't have any great regrets for the time I spent reading it, but I didn't think it was anything particularly special.

It was longer t More...

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