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samanthabryant 's review for:
Rose Daughter
by Robin McKinley
Maybe it was because I listened to this as an audiobook, but I found this novel so soothing--so soothing that it threatened to lull me to sleep sometimes. The gentle nature of the heroine, combined with her equanimity in the face of strange magic may have had something to do with it. It might have been how low-conflict the entire story was. It felt like a bedtime story told by someone who didn't want to scare me and give me bad dreams.
The story is more than familiar, of course. I'm forty-eight. I lost track of the versions of Beauty and the Beast I've read and seen and heard many many years ago.
I enjoyed that the sisters in this one were good people who loved their sister (no ugly rivalries and petty jealousies here). I appreciated that Beauty's quiet, unassuming nature didn't mean she was put-upon, ignored, or taken for granted by her family. I liked the way magic worked at the Beast's house. Beauty's adventures with bringing life back to the palace were fun. I especially enjoyed the hedgehogs and bats.
When we got to the explanation of how exactly the enchantment came about, it got very convoluted and I found myself tuning out. Wait, what? There's a third sorcerer? Who loved who? Huh? While McKinley is probably trying to explore the complex nature of truth, all these gray areas made for muddy reading.
It was a dreamy and quiet sort of book, which made a nice respite from some of the sex and violence I usually read, but it was maybe overall too dreamy and quiet to quite hold me.
The story is more than familiar, of course. I'm forty-eight. I lost track of the versions of Beauty and the Beast I've read and seen and heard many many years ago.
I enjoyed that the sisters in this one were good people who loved their sister (no ugly rivalries and petty jealousies here). I appreciated that Beauty's quiet, unassuming nature didn't mean she was put-upon, ignored, or taken for granted by her family. I liked the way magic worked at the Beast's house. Beauty's adventures with bringing life back to the palace were fun. I especially enjoyed the hedgehogs and bats.
When we got to the explanation of how exactly the enchantment came about, it got very convoluted and I found myself tuning out. Wait, what? There's a third sorcerer? Who loved who? Huh? While McKinley is probably trying to explore the complex nature of truth, all these gray areas made for muddy reading.
It was a dreamy and quiet sort of book, which made a nice respite from some of the sex and violence I usually read, but it was maybe overall too dreamy and quiet to quite hold me.