A review by nasab
As Old as Time by Liz Braswell

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The ending is a bit underwhelming for me. I understand the idea of not necessarily having a happy ending in reality, but books reveal snippets of a life, a certain journey, a story of an aspect in life. This book is about how Belle steps into an enchanted castle and decides to try and break its curse, which is eventually partially achieved since all the servants become human again except for the Beast, who actually has a name but for some reason Belle still refers to him as the Beast. Anyway, Belle and the Beast are embarking on a journey to gather all the les charmentes and with their combined power they may be able to break his curse. And that's it. The end. It is an incomplete book, not just an open ending. I will confess that in the Disney movie I preferred the prince as a beast rather than a human, but still.

At the beginning, I was truly excited because I felt like the book was filling in the gaps and unanswered questions in the movie. For example, why did Maurice enter this eerie castle in the first place? Why did the Beast imprison him?
We know from reading the two timelines that Maurice and Rosalind lived in the prince's kingdom, and therefore he probably recognizes the castle. He knew his wife went to the castle and never returned. Maybe something reminded him of her, and he went to find her? And when he confronted the Beast, who was cursed by his wife, he imprisoned him for being the husband of the enchantress! Not for merely trespassing.
That's what I was theorizing. To my disappointment, nothing was explained. Her father randomly went to that castle, and the angry, overreacting Beast locked him up for that. I mean, he would have said it was because he didn't want Maurice going off telling people about the Beast and they would come for him, pitchforks and all. I hate that we got NOTHING!

Belle's mother, the enchantress. I was waiting for a really good explanation about why she cursed an eleven-year-old for the actions of his now-dead parents. Not only that, she cursed all the servants in the castle along with him. She said and I quote, "I thought I was saving what was left of a kingdom. I thought I was avenging all who had been hurt by your parents' actions."
I have reached this page after reading 468 pages, and this is what I get for an explanation.
I hoped that this was part of a bigger plan and that she wasn't just going to curse everyone and leave, but she didn't know that someone was going to kidnap her and the spell would be left unfinished. It's just stupid and contradictory that she actually did that a year after making a protective spell that included the same little prince.


The writing isn't that great either. What helped me imagine the scenes was what I remembered from the movie, not the actual descriptions themselves.

Another thing that annoyed me was the use of French words since I don't understand them. I know it's to remind us that the characters are indeed French, but there's a tiny detail that confused me. Rosalind was trying to send hints to Belle when she was trapped in the castle. She was able to whisper disconnected words to her: "betrayed betrayed stay away stay safe away from dark."
Belle thought she should stay away from the dark, but her mother was referring to D'Arque, the lunatic who kidnapped her. How was she confused when they're all supposedly speaking French??? I looked it up, and to my knowledge, "dark" isn't a French word, so why did Belle misunderstand? Am I nitpicking because I'm disappointed in the ending? Yes, I think I am.


I loved the movie ever since I was a kid. I still love it with all its imperfections, mainly due to nostalgia. I also love reading retellings of the story but always end up being disappointed.
It's not a bad book. It held my attention for hours in a single sitting, and I guess that's something.