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hypothermya 's review for:
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
by Robin McKinley
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 turns it into a living and breathing story. It's very refreshing, after having just read the Iliad and the Odyssey, to have a book wherein a female character has a major role in the story as well as a personality and will worth speaking of. Beauty, in this retelling, has plenty of both.
A few noteworthy things:
*In this story, Beauty starts out looking rather plain, her name being an ironic nickname
*Her sisters are not type-cast as vapid bitches (although they certainly don't have the moxie that Beauty does)
*This retelling doesn't seem to concern itself too much with exposition and a lengthy history of the Beast's curse -- it just takes the plot and runs with it
I'll admit that I was expecting the Beast to be a little bit more fiery and ill tempered to begin with. Additionally, there were lots of noticeable similarities between Disney's Beauty and McKinley's Beauty. Thankfully they were all similarities I was happy to see repeated.
Additionally, McKinley's Beauty shares a tendency with other McKinley heroines: hyper-active innocence paired with a non-existent sex drive. And while it strikes me as odd that the animals in her books are more sexually active than her heroines, I still like the book. Sometimes a good innocent romance wearing the dress of a fantasy/fairytale is what's on the menu.
Again, McKinley leaves me happy to have taken the time to read this book -- and having tucked this nice, innocent fantasy under my belt, I'm going to move on to the Aeneid by Virgil.
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 turns it into a living and breathing story. It's very refreshing, after having just read the Iliad and the Odyssey, to have a book wherein a female character has a major role in the story as well as a personality and will worth speaking of. Beauty, in this retelling, has plenty of both.
A few noteworthy things:
*In this story, Beauty starts out looking rather plain, her name being an ironic nickname
*Her sisters are not type-cast as vapid bitches (although they certainly don't have the moxie that Beauty does)
*This retelling doesn't seem to concern itself too much with exposition and a lengthy history of the Beast's curse -- it just takes the plot and runs with it
I'll admit that I was expecting the Beast to be a little bit more fiery and ill tempered to begin with. Additionally, there were lots of noticeable similarities between Disney's Beauty and McKinley's Beauty. Thankfully they were all similarities I was happy to see repeated.
Additionally, McKinley's Beauty shares a tendency with other McKinley heroines: hyper-active innocence paired with a non-existent sex drive. And while it strikes me as odd that the animals in her books are more sexually active than her heroines, I still like the book. Sometimes a good innocent romance wearing the dress of a fantasy/fairytale is what's on the menu.
Again, McKinley leaves me happy to have taken the time to read this book -- and having tucked this nice, innocent fantasy under my belt, I'm going to move on to the Aeneid by Virgil.