Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - As Old as Time

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

As Old as Time by Liz Braswell

8 reviews

caughtbetweenpages's review

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.

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ailurus's review against another edition

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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

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alliebookworm's review

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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.

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gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

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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.

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abcdefgerda's review against another edition

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dark reflective 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

4.5

I was not quite expecting this book to get this dark but oh boy, that asylum!?!??!
A bit of an open ending but, you know, hopeful so leaning toward a HEA. The ending scene felt a bit rushed and a little cheesy but still cute and enjoyable.
The parallel between this story and the original movie was quite beautifully done in my opinion, giving some sense of nostalgia and at the same time giving this eerie and creepy and dark vibes to it all. Ahh. Beautiful.

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meganpbennett's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I've been a Beauty and the Beast fan for years. I think I wore out a VHS tape of the Disney version, and oh, that library! So when I learned that there was a "twisted tale" version, I quickly added it to my TBR list.

It's an interesting "what if?" and it relies very heavily on the reader's knowledge of the Disney version of the tale, which is far far older than even the Perrault version. This reliance on the reader's knowledge is a drawback, as someone who is casually aware of the story would not be able to understand what is going on in this version, or be able to read other of these "twisted tales" without a thorough understanding of the Disney version of the story.

On to the story. The first half plays out almost exactly like the Disney movie, though with a lot of backstory about Belle's mother. The chapters alternate between Belle and Maurice in the present time, and Maurice and Belle's mother in the past, with nothing to differentiate the time periods, which is a major drawback, and I almost stopped reading when I couldn't figure out *when* the chapter was taking place. The book goes into detail about what the kingdom was like before the prince was cursed, but more specifically, *why* the enchantress felt it necessary to curse the Prince. Very interesting.

The story got much more interesting and intense when Belle finds the rose. As the daughter of the enchantress who set the spell, Belle's accidental touch destroys the rose, dooming the Beast and everyone who was caught in the spell to a life of being enchanted household items. The next sections detail their attempts to research how the curse came into being, who placed the curse and why, and how to break it.

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knunderb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Such a fun read!

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ehmannky's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Well this was a fun time. The romance was definitely the weakest part of this retelling, mostly because it is just so fast-paced that there really isn't a ton of time for Belle and Beast to grow to love each other. The beginnings of something cute is there, but it's not a deep romance. Where this book shines is the portrayal of Belle's mother as the enchantress. I almost would have liked for the book to start somewhere around the time Belle comes to the castle, no prologue, then move to all the exciting action bits, and then have the last third or so be about Belle learning to be around her mother that she isn't sure she exactly likes as a person as she falls more in love with Beast. The book just comes into its own when it does its own thing and breaks away from the Disney movie, and I wish Braswell had had more space to do that.

It does lean on the "fantasy creatures as an allegory for real marginalized people," which isn't a trope I love. I don't know, other than these complaints, I had fun while reading it.

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