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thegingerpageturner 's review for:
The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince
by Serena Valentino
Thank you to @scholastic_au for sending me a copy of this book. I had never really thought about the fact that we don't really know how beast came to be in Beauty and the Beast until this book. This story was just one idea of how he came to be the beast we know in the classic story. Overall I enjoyed the book, the end however did feel a little bit rushed as it goes over the original story of how he changes back into a human but tries to do so in only a few pages. I also found some of the language used to possibly be not suitable for middle grade readers in that they may not understand some of it.
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I liked that we got to see beast before he was transformed and that in this story it wasn't something that happened immediately, it was over time as he didn't change his ways. It was interesting to see that the beast and Gaston started out as friends in this story as well. He starts out as your typical Prince who has the world at his feet and doesn't appreciate what he has until it is gone, which is a good lesson to be learnt. I am glad that we see him reflect on his behaviour and realise that it perhpas wasn't the best way to go about things. The Witches in the story were a bit annoying, but I think that was the point of them.
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I liked that we got to see beast before he was transformed and that in this story it wasn't something that happened immediately, it was over time as he didn't change his ways. It was interesting to see that the beast and Gaston started out as friends in this story as well. He starts out as your typical Prince who has the world at his feet and doesn't appreciate what he has until it is gone, which is a good lesson to be learnt. I am glad that we see him reflect on his behaviour and realise that it perhpas wasn't the best way to go about things. The Witches in the story were a bit annoying, but I think that was the point of them.