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A review by geminidragonbadger
Belle: A Retelling of "beauty and the Beast" by Cameron Dokey
3.0
While I find myself relating more and more to Rapunzel characters in fairy tale retellings, Beauty and the Beast will always have a place in my heart, and I do usually love classic retellings (Beauty by Robin McKinley is one of my absolute favorites). Belle delivers exactly that, a fairly standard retelling of Beauty and the Beast with its own charm.
Belle is a charming fast read and had many elements that I appreciated; I loved that Belle had her own “magic” for lack of a better term, and the enchanted forest has to be one of my favorites. I appreciated that it stayed fairly true to the original fairy tale with a conflict more of man v. fate rather than forcing some sort of man v. man or man v. whatever. It had the “happily ever after” that I crave in fairy tale retellings, because for real, enough with the edgy, dark stuff. I want my people to be happy, darn it.
That being said, as a story I feel it fell flat. (SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD). You’re half way through the book before any sort of conflict really happens (when Belle’s family has to move to the country) and at least 2/3 of the way through before the Beast is introduced. That means that there is only 1/3 of the book for Belle and the Beast to fall in love and break the spell, which feels rushed and more like “TA DA, they’re in love. The spell was broken, the end, they live happily ever after.” I got very little chemistry from the two characters and wondered when, exactly, they fell in love. It’s an explosive moment when Belle realizes she is in love with the Beast, but how did they get there? What happened to make her go from mild resentment and resignation to love?
I feel too much of the exposition was spent with Belle mulling over what it means to be Beautiful (vs. beautiful) which has little to no bearing on the rest of the book. To sum it up, Belle believes that her sisters are Beautiful while she is just beautiful. However, after they move to the country, their looks have no bearing as each sister comes into their own in ways they couldn’t while being rich in the city (ie, one sister discovers a talent for cooking). Similarly, much of the exposition is taken up describing Belle’s “place” in the family, which again doesn’t matter any more once they move. All of the talk and description of Belle’s internal feelings about Beauty and her place in the world made the beginning very hard to get into and made the actual plot of the book feel rushed.
Overall, I do not regret reading this book. It’s a solid retelling of Beauty and the Beast. However, while solid, I felt the overall story was rushed with too much time spent on internal musings in the exposition. Those words and musings would have been better spent building up Belle and the Beast’s relationship.
Belle is a charming fast read and had many elements that I appreciated; I loved that Belle had her own “magic” for lack of a better term, and the enchanted forest has to be one of my favorites. I appreciated that it stayed fairly true to the original fairy tale with a conflict more of man v. fate rather than forcing some sort of man v. man or man v. whatever. It had the “happily ever after” that I crave in fairy tale retellings, because for real, enough with the edgy, dark stuff. I want my people to be happy, darn it.
That being said, as a story I feel it fell flat. (SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD). You’re half way through the book before any sort of conflict really happens (when Belle’s family has to move to the country) and at least 2/3 of the way through before the Beast is introduced. That means that there is only 1/3 of the book for Belle and the Beast to fall in love and break the spell, which feels rushed and more like “TA DA, they’re in love. The spell was broken, the end, they live happily ever after.” I got very little chemistry from the two characters and wondered when, exactly, they fell in love. It’s an explosive moment when Belle realizes she is in love with the Beast, but how did they get there? What happened to make her go from mild resentment and resignation to love?
I feel too much of the exposition was spent with Belle mulling over what it means to be Beautiful (vs. beautiful) which has little to no bearing on the rest of the book. To sum it up, Belle believes that her sisters are Beautiful while she is just beautiful. However, after they move to the country, their looks have no bearing as each sister comes into their own in ways they couldn’t while being rich in the city (ie, one sister discovers a talent for cooking). Similarly, much of the exposition is taken up describing Belle’s “place” in the family, which again doesn’t matter any more once they move. All of the talk and description of Belle’s internal feelings about Beauty and her place in the world made the beginning very hard to get into and made the actual plot of the book feel rushed.
Overall, I do not regret reading this book. It’s a solid retelling of Beauty and the Beast. However, while solid, I felt the overall story was rushed with too much time spent on internal musings in the exposition. Those words and musings would have been better spent building up Belle and the Beast’s relationship.