Reviews tagging 'Torture'

As Old as Time by Liz Braswell

27 reviews

skyegbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I had been questioning if I would even enjoy this book, due to putting it off for so long I believed it would seem childish and boring to me. This was not at all the case. The story is so unlike the original, so entirely unique, it's amazingly thought through.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

caughtbetweenpages's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I think, in this series/collection at least, Braswell is at her best when she cleaves a little closer to the original tales, giving them twists instead of full reimaginings, though I still liked this addition to the Disney B&tB canon. Going into the backstory of Maurice and the Enchantress who cursed the Beast/Adam was interesting, especially in that it acted as a critique of bigotry against People Who Are Different (god, if les charmantes weren't an allegory for queer, neurodivergent folks by way of changelings/western European fairy lore, I'll eat my hat) and how that leads to oppression, which leads to Bad Outcomes for Literally Everyone. Really, the story felt divided between the present of Belle trying to fix the Beast's curse and the backstory of her parents living through a magical creature genocide, culminating in an eventual blending of the two stories. 

I think I struggled a little with being given a primary villain who wasn't the same as the one from the original Disney canon, since a lot more heavy lifting needed to be done to make him as sinister and insidious as Gaston was in the original film, and I don't feel it was done to good effect. He was awful, and his
magic removing experiments were disgusting and reminiscent of other totalitarian, genocidal regimes
, but maybe that was a little too on the nose and not spread through the narrative enough to feel earned when it happened. I also don't love the idea that the biggest bigots are actually people who are Different and full of self-hatred. The biggest racists are not PoC. The biggest homophobes and transphobes are cis and het. It's a gross move, and one used WAY too often for my taste, to make an oppressed person be the agent by which others are oppressed. 

I enjoyed that Adam and Belle's relationship actually developed on page instead of via montage, and that Adam demonstrated actual growth re: selflessness when he asked Belle's mother to
use the last of her magic to save his castle servants/staff instead of turning him human. Beastly Beast is hotter anyway, and I honestly feel like Belle's better off NOT searching for a "cure" to what's not a problem (this is a joke ONLY if Adam really really REALLY wants to be human and being a Beast bothers him)
. I ALSO like that Belle very much calls out the Enchantress for cursing a grieving, orphaned child as harshly as if he were a fully grown adult man who understood what he was doing and had context for a life that wasn't as pampered as Adam was. That's an important callout! Another delicious piece of book candy down, another tribute to the desire for nostalgia my heart demands.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

melsage1823's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The definition of I don't how to feel. There are some core elements of the book I really liked once everything came together but I really felt let down by the first half of the book.

I'll start with the negatives first. My first negative is the beginning of the book, we did not get enough build up and it felt like it was going for a whole knew Twisted story whilst also trying to stick to the movie. It might just be my taste personally but I just couldn't get into it at all which didn't help with the fact that the characters personality felt off. Really did pick up for me in the second half though.

Did not like the characterisation of Belle at the beginning of the book. The Beast was understandble as that's the whole point of the original movie but Belle didn't feel like herself. It was like she was one of the people who constantly critise the story. Her hostility to the servants was also weird as in the films even when she didn't know they were cursed, she trusted the servants a lot more than the beast. It unfortunately spoilt my enjoyment a lot.

Finally, I appreciate the story they were trying to tell but it should have been longer with more chapters from The Enchantress pov. There's a lot Braswell could have done with this narrative but I feel like she didn't do enough. The Enchantress being Belles mother was just their for motivation. I would have loved more flashbacks and a longer established redemption and apology for literally cursing an eleven year old boy. I loved the Enchantress in this but I was expecting more.

Positives, this one actually bumped up my enjoyment of the book and gained it half a star. The mystery of what happened to the Encharmtes is a huge hook in the book and leads to some dark, shocking and disturbing. We know some stuff but don't know everything until we're trying to solve the mystery with Belle and Beast. I truly never expected things to go so dark and that's good because a good mystery needs to leave you speechless when you get the answers you were searching for. 
If your a parent do not give this to your child if they're not 15 as this is definitely for older YA readers. Stuff gets dark really part and that was a huge hook for me.

As well as being probably one of the Darkest Beauty And The Beasts retellings it leans into heavy subliminal messaging and has a good moral to pass onto the readers. As a marginalised person the treatment of the Encharmtes hit deep. No more beauty is found within being the only message, we also learn how important to not harm or hurt people we do not understand. It's especially relevant to what's happening in modern times with political leaders but I won't spoil. Its so important that media starts teaching our youth that difference is not less or scary through the Encharmtes. Braswell doesn't execute this perfectly but she does it in a respectful and sensitive way.

Finally, I'd say I loved the fact that the horrors of the curse was developed more. The live action film touched on it a little bit but this really leans into it and it allows for High Stakes as the novel processes. Won't spoil but it creates some really suspenseful and horrifying moments that Disney would never even consider putting on the big screen. I'm also impressed that this is written well in a way that doesn't bleed into the adult genre instead of YA. 

Overall not the best but it was enjoyable and made me think a lot. Definitely recommend checking out if your a Beauty And The Beast fan but maybe pass if your not into dark stories with real life undertones.


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ailurus's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

emilywemily6's review

Go to review page

dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I picked this book because it was the highest rated of this series and Beauty and the Beast is one of my faves. This story is similar to canon, though definitely diverges and heads towards an alternate ending. It was way too long; four hours in, I realized that the book was four hours too long. A major focus of the story was Belle learning about how complicated her mother was, but I didn’t feel like any of the other characters had greater depth than the original movie gives. The past storyline was interesting. Check the trigger warnings because there’s some dark stuff going on. Overall, I am not sure I enjoyed the reading of this book, and I don’t see myself reading the others unless they are much shorter.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

joisaddler's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

alliebookworm's review

Go to review page

dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.0

If you’ve ever watched Beauty and the Beast and thought it needed more Holocaust, this book is for you! Add in a dash of getting all the flashbacks up front so when Belle finds clues to the mystery, there is nothing to wonder because we already read what happened 100 pages ago - plus so many typos - and you’ve got yourself a hot mess of Disney torture fetish!

For example, I never thought I’d read about
an asylum orderly calmly explain to Belle that she can either do as she’s told, or he can beat the soles of her feet so hard that she urinates herself in pain and will leave no bruises and no one will believe her anyway because she’s in an asylum.
So, yikes.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

vixenreader's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The ending is a bit of a bummer, it still has a lot of creativity, and it addresses the hiccups in a more fascinating fashion. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A Twisted Tale story is always a fun read. With this twisted tale I loved the dual POV that we got with the story. How the lore was laid out for us and we got to see how everything got to the point that it did in the story.
I thought how everything was done with the history was impeccable and had me hooked from the start to the finish. I loved how this twist played out, and enjoyed how satisfying it was to finish.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

alexinitalics's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I definitely enjoyed this book, personally I was a very big fan of the flash back sections in the first half of the book, especially as the rest was basically just retelling the movie exactly. The second half focuses more on the "twisted tales" idea, continuing the timeline of the movie after a major change. It has a lot of clever ideas that it explored well, although I found it a little inconsistent. The villain was a good twist on the original story and I didn't see it coming. However I think it was also a little affected by the pacing as I felt there were two many reveals in a short space of time. I've seen a lot of people complain about Belle's characterisation but I personally didn't find this. I did think the beast's character was well written and the new characters were interesting to read about.
Overall, I definitely recommend this book for Disney/beauty and the beast/twisted tales fans but it's not one of my favourites from the series


Expand filter menu Content Warnings