213 reviews for:

Beastly Beauty

Jennifer Donnelly

3.67 AVERAGE

cindysssss's review

4.0

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

bookcasebee's review against another edition

4.0

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This was such an exciting, interesting read! It’s not just a gender bent retelling, the whole story is reimagined and I loved it. The concept of

the court ladies representing arabellas emotions was just fascinating, although it took an embarrassing amount of time to figure out LaJoyuse

 
I adored Beau as a character, his backstory and his charm and humour. I found a few moments of this book quite creepy, in a weirdly enjoyable way, when the little girls are running around when we still don’t know who or what they are. The setting is fantastic, it gives really gothic vibes. I really loved Arabella as an fmc and seeing her battle with her ladies of the court and try and figure things out herself. I loved the kind of ‘moral’ of the story that Arabella needed to

love and accept herself

marcellaluna_author's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

rachvos9's review

3.0

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I really thought this one would be right up my alley, but I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would. I liked the

concept of Arabella’s emotions being personified in the ladies of her court, and I liked Beau, but I felt like their relationship progressed way too quickly and suddenly to feel realistic.

weekend_at_hanahs's review

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-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

gjrp7's review

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

atlantabushnellbooks's review

4.5

dark emotional mysterious medium-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: Complicated

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THIS BOOK! This book is now one of my favourite Beauty and the Beast retellings I have ever read! 

It is so original! First, it’s gender-flipped. So we have Beau, a handsome and charismatic, book loving thief who ends up in the Beast’s castle. The Beast is Arabella, a Duke’s daughter, who is trapped in her castle and all but given up hope that the curse will be broken. Then there is an original twist that I didn’t see coming and I loved it! 

I really can’t say too much because of spoilers but I recommend it for fans of YA fairytale retellings! 

Thank you Scholastic Australia for the gifted review copy! 

arialuna's review

3.5

hopeful inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

dreams_of_attolia's review

4.0

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

prags2006's review

4.0

dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes