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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Robin McKinley's retelling of this famous tale really is a beauty! I quite enjoy fairy tale retellings, if done right, and this one was very, very good. (It's really a 4.5 star-rating.)
I find I prefer it when a retelling stays in the realm of "long long ago," rather than putting in random present-day cultural references which will date the story in a few years' time. McKinley creates a world to which we can connect without bringing it too far from its original setting.
The characters of Beauty and the Beast are both appealing and I spent the story getting to know them and looking forward to their happy ending (oh, you know it's coming - it's a retelling after all).
Highly recommended for any fairy tale fan!
I find I prefer it when a retelling stays in the realm of "long long ago," rather than putting in random present-day cultural references which will date the story in a few years' time. McKinley creates a world to which we can connect without bringing it too far from its original setting.
The characters of Beauty and the Beast are both appealing and I spent the story getting to know them and looking forward to their happy ending (oh, you know it's coming - it's a retelling after all).
Highly recommended for any fairy tale fan!
Aah! I absolutely loved this book! When I finished it I was like...>> 
First off all Fairy Tales are my favourite type of storytelling. They nearly always have a happy ending and all the best characters, So on this book I may be a tad biased. Sorry about that.
First off all I don’t usually read adaptions of book that have been made into movies by Disney because all the way through the book my mind is constantly playing the God-dam movie. And as sure as hell this is what happened.
But, the adaption of this book was different! It wasn’t a Disney movie with just words to describe the computer animation. McKinley changed the backstory, to make the plot stronger and obeys some of the Story Telling laws of Physics.
Most Fairy tales have the symbolic features; Weak Female character that needs saving by the Big and Strong male character; A Horrible and Slave ridden life and a Family that hates and bullies her, her entire life. And not forgetting no looks to speak of till she puts on her oh so lovely ball gown and she’s a pretty as a butterfly. I’m sorry children I know I did say I loved Fairy tales, I do but they are very, very sexist and all those other mean words.
BUT… As the point I was beginning to get to. Modern retellings usually involve more innocent meanings and plots. For example Beauty loves her family and they love her back. She has two doting sisters, a brother in Law and a Father who will do anything for her.
Beauty. I loved her. She was heroic, solid and so, so blameless. Her journey through the story and her narration was perfect. She grew up and changed the world (well my world).
(
The beast… right. I did love him but I wanted more angry scenes, like Disney. He was too human; we needed to see more scenes where the reader saw him even if it scared Beauty. I think we needed to be reminded that he wasn’t Human at the moment anyway(and I’m sorry that isn’t a spoiler. If you didn’t know that you have not had a just childhood).
I wanted more scenes where he found his human side because of beauty, yes there were quite a few in the book it’s self but I WANTED MORE. MORE!
I think McKinley way right to change the parts of the story in her adaption it made the plot line even more realistic and real. She connected all the dots to make each event connect. She didn’t just make her character strong and brave. She gave a reason to!
Although, I wasn't pleased with the ending as much as I would have liked. I felt it needed a epilogue to show the reader what her life was like now she had found her prince etc. But traditionally the Fairy tales end with her princess finding her prince and throwing all consequences to the wind just for that one kiss *sigh*
The author of this book made this Fairy tale into one of my favourite books on my bookshelf at the moment and treat to recommend to friends and family knowing they will love as much as I did.
Can I just add the part on the library?
THAT Right there is WHY we need more book nerds in the bookworld we live in. SO THAT MAY BE CREATED! If I ever rule the world. That is my room. Period.
P. S Thank you McKinley also for not including Gaston.
And I think the true meaning of this story is that:
(
First off all Fairy Tales are my favourite type of storytelling. They nearly always have a happy ending and all the best characters, So on this book I may be a tad biased. Sorry about that.
First off all I don’t usually read adaptions of book that have been made into movies by Disney because all the way through the book my mind is constantly playing the God-dam movie. And as sure as hell this is what happened.
But, the adaption of this book was different! It wasn’t a Disney movie with just words to describe the computer animation. McKinley changed the backstory, to make the plot stronger and obeys some of the Story Telling laws of Physics.
Most Fairy tales have the symbolic features; Weak Female character that needs saving by the Big and Strong male character; A Horrible and Slave ridden life and a Family that hates and bullies her, her entire life. And not forgetting no looks to speak of till she puts on her oh so lovely ball gown and she’s a pretty as a butterfly. I’m sorry children I know I did say I loved Fairy tales, I do but they are very, very sexist and all those other mean words.
BUT… As the point I was beginning to get to. Modern retellings usually involve more innocent meanings and plots. For example Beauty loves her family and they love her back. She has two doting sisters, a brother in Law and a Father who will do anything for her.
Beauty. I loved her. She was heroic, solid and so, so blameless. Her journey through the story and her narration was perfect. She grew up and changed the world (well my world).
(The beast… right. I did love him but I wanted more angry scenes, like Disney. He was too human; we needed to see more scenes where the reader saw him even if it scared Beauty. I think we needed to be reminded that he wasn’t Human at the moment anyway(and I’m sorry that isn’t a spoiler. If you didn’t know that you have not had a just childhood).
I wanted more scenes where he found his human side because of beauty, yes there were quite a few in the book it’s self but I WANTED MORE. MORE!
I think McKinley way right to change the parts of the story in her adaption it made the plot line even more realistic and real. She connected all the dots to make each event connect. She didn’t just make her character strong and brave. She gave a reason to!
Although, I wasn't pleased with the ending as much as I would have liked. I felt it needed a epilogue to show the reader what her life was like now she had found her prince etc. But traditionally the Fairy tales end with her princess finding her prince and throwing all consequences to the wind just for that one kiss *sigh*
The author of this book made this Fairy tale into one of my favourite books on my bookshelf at the moment and treat to recommend to friends and family knowing they will love as much as I did.
Can I just add the part on the library?
THAT Right there is WHY we need more book nerds in the bookworld we live in. SO THAT MAY BE CREATED! If I ever rule the world. That is my room. Period.
P. S Thank you McKinley also for not including Gaston.
And I think the true meaning of this story is that:
(
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
This is a very traditional retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and that is a compliment. I think a lot of writers get very excited to come up with cool twists and variations on classic stories, but it means that there are a lot of classic stories that just. Don’t have actual good retellings of the original story. This book’s Beauty is stubborn and honest and sweet and honorable, the Beast is sad and gentle and kind, and it’s just a straight up and down good retelling of the story. It has McKinley’s usual light hand on the romantic elements, but the sense of trust and comfort between Beauty and her Beast is so palpable that it doesn’t feel abrupt when she says she loves him. I also love how much Beauty’s family loves her—the main place where this diverges from the original story is that Beauty’s family is earnestly trying their absolute best in a fairly bad situation, and their devotion to each other makes it feel very believable that she would go to the Beast’s castle in order to protect them.
Ideal for a younger reader, or for an adult looking for a retelling with the vibe of the Disney movie. As an additional note, this book predates the movie by over a decade, so the next time I see someone talk about it being a Disney knockoff, I will simply have to kill them with my brain.
Ideal for a younger reader, or for an adult looking for a retelling with the vibe of the Disney movie. As an additional note, this book predates the movie by over a decade, so the next time I see someone talk about it being a Disney knockoff, I will simply have to kill them with my brain.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thoroughly enjoyable retelling of beauty and the beast. A delightful pick me up of a nivel
2,5 ⭐
"But there was nothing grand about a small plain girl, poorly dressed, self-conscious, and jittery."
Não tenho muito a falar sobre esse livro... Eu achei ele ok. É um reconto de a Bela e a Fera, e tem suas particularidades - é mais focado na Bela do que qualquer coisa, nós conhecemos a vida dela antes da Fera, seus sonhos e anseios, e no geral achei uma personagem bem interessante. Também temos bastante da família dela, e realmente conseguimos nos apegar a eles, mas achei que faltou algo.
Como esse é um dos meus contos de fadas favoritos, já li algumas versões - tanto recontos quando diferentes versões "originais" - e esse livro me lembrou uma das versões "originais" que li. O que não é algo ruim, mas apesar de seus pequenos toques pessoais e da linguaguem bem formal, que achei bem características, quando acabei a leitura fiquei com a sensação de que não houve nada realmente novo na história. Se eu não tivesse lido o livro, não teria feito diferença na minha vida.
Ainda assim, gostei da leitura no geral; foi um pouco lenta, mas o ritmo não me incomodou. Também gostei do fato de a Bela não ser bonita na maior parte do livro, e da relação dela com seu cavalo, Greatheart, e com suas irmãs e cunhado. Também queria ter visto um pouco mais da Fera e do relacionamento deles se desenvolvendo, essa parte é mais falada sobre do que realmente mostrada. E também queria uma explicação melhor no fim, apesar de não deixar necessariamente pontas soltas, achei que tudo se resolveu rápido demais. É um bom livro, mas se você já leu as versões antigas do conto, principalmente da edição de bolso da Zahar, o livro acrescenta poucas coisas - principalmente mudanças em relação à família da Bela, mas convenhamos que isso não é o que mais chama a atenção nesse conto.
"But there was nothing grand about a small plain girl, poorly dressed, self-conscious, and jittery."
Não tenho muito a falar sobre esse livro... Eu achei ele ok. É um reconto de a Bela e a Fera, e tem suas particularidades - é mais focado na Bela do que qualquer coisa, nós conhecemos a vida dela antes da Fera, seus sonhos e anseios, e no geral achei uma personagem bem interessante. Também temos bastante da família dela, e realmente conseguimos nos apegar a eles, mas achei que faltou algo.
Como esse é um dos meus contos de fadas favoritos, já li algumas versões - tanto recontos quando diferentes versões "originais" - e esse livro me lembrou uma das versões "originais" que li. O que não é algo ruim, mas apesar de seus pequenos toques pessoais e da linguaguem bem formal, que achei bem características, quando acabei a leitura fiquei com a sensação de que não houve nada realmente novo na história. Se eu não tivesse lido o livro, não teria feito diferença na minha vida.
Ainda assim, gostei da leitura no geral; foi um pouco lenta, mas o ritmo não me incomodou. Também gostei do fato de a Bela não ser bonita na maior parte do livro, e da relação dela com seu cavalo, Greatheart, e com suas irmãs e cunhado. Também queria ter visto um pouco mais da Fera e do relacionamento deles se desenvolvendo, essa parte é mais falada sobre do que realmente mostrada. E também queria uma explicação melhor no fim, apesar de não deixar necessariamente pontas soltas, achei que tudo se resolveu rápido demais. É um bom livro, mas se você já leu as versões antigas do conto, principalmente da edição de bolso da Zahar, o livro acrescenta poucas coisas - principalmente mudanças em relação à família da Bela, mas convenhamos que isso não é o que mais chama a atenção nesse conto.
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Fairly enjoyable retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. I do love fairytales. I kept wanting a little more to it but then realized it’s YA and published in the 70s. I’d pick up another by the author.
I really wanted to enjoy this book but I found although beautifully discriptive it was wordier than it needed to be.. It takes so long to get to beauty meeting beast and then it seems to rush to an end..
It could have been great.
It could have been great.
I've loved this book since I was a teen and it mostly stands the test of time. I love Beauty and the Beast because it's a scary story. A girl leaves her family to live with a monster, and is waited on hand and foot by invisible servants. That's creepy AF. I was a creepy little child. We were meant to be together. As an adult, of course I'm listening to this (because it was an audio book to listen to while doing boring things at work) and thinking "Dang, Beauty. Stockholm Syndrome?" But I still love the story. The ending feels a little rushed but Beauty remains a favorite.
This is a sweet, lyrical retelling of beauty and the beast. Though it is very short it manages to provide a beautiful rendition of the story within its pages. This story is very similar to Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's 1740's Beauty and the Beast, ||the Merchant having lost all his wealth stumbles upon the home of the beast, he is warmed and cared for but then before he leaves attempts to steal a rose for his daughter. The beast threatens him with imprisonment but says he can go free if one of his daughters will willingly take his place as prisoner. Beauty ofcourse ends up at the castle and she gets to know the beast, she refuses his many requests of marriage she is given dreams to help her along, she leaves to check on her family, promising to come back using the ring he gave her, she fails to come back in the promised time and ends up only just managing to make it back before he dies, she agrees to marry him and he becomes a hansome prince||. || The only notable addition in this version was the fact that her siblings were far worse and got turned to stone at the end. ||This is a really nice yet basic retelling of beauty and the beast. Though not the most creative retelling out there it is certainly beautifully written and easy to read, I would reccomend.