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A review by ladybirder
The Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve
3.0
I can't believe how different this is to the story I thought I knew!
There is so much going on, so much backstory and intertwining story lines as well a fully fleshed out royal family at the centre of it all. Unfortunately, all of this comes in in the latter half of the book and it's revealed by a series of long explanations with different characters taking turns to reveal everything they know about the whole ordeal. If this was interspersed throughout the story it would have been more pleasant to read, but it was like being shown a 30 second magic trick and then getting an hour-long explanation of how it worked.
It also loses a star because of one line which implies that to own human slaves is a great luxury. The book was written in 1740, but this (lovely, illustrated, interactive, child-friendly) edition was published in 2017. They couldn't have changed this word to "servants" or something? Or dropped the line completely? This just seems irresponsible.
There is so much going on, so much backstory and intertwining story lines as well a fully fleshed out royal family at the centre of it all. Unfortunately, all of this comes in in the latter half of the book and it's revealed by a series of long explanations with different characters taking turns to reveal everything they know about the whole ordeal. If this was interspersed throughout the story it would have been more pleasant to read, but it was like being shown a 30 second magic trick and then getting an hour-long explanation of how it worked.
It also loses a star because of one line which implies that to own human slaves is a great luxury. The book was written in 1740, but this (lovely, illustrated, interactive, child-friendly) edition was published in 2017. They couldn't have changed this word to "servants" or something? Or dropped the line completely? This just seems irresponsible.