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A review by girlfriday4
The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth
3.0
I didn't love everything about this book, but I think that in retelling the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale as behind-the-lines resistance to the Nazi regime, it's a story for our time. With racism and intolerance currently driving forces in politics throughout the western world, we really need books like this to remind us not only of the consequences of hatred, but also of the importance of seeing the human being behind the mask of the 'beast', and of resisting injustice with integrity.
[SPOILERS]
I was also really pleased that there was a gay character whose story has a happy ending. While the main focus of the story is on anti-semitism, this character, another with Down syndrome, and several political activists, are all important reminders of the people targeted by Nazism that history often forgets. WWII may seem remote for most 21st century readers, but we can still learn a lot from revisiting it through fiction.
Aside from those serious themes, the evocation of sophisticated, bohemian youth culture in pre-war Berlin is fascinating, and I love how the book diverges from the traditional romantic trope in that the women get to save their men, instead of the other way around :)
The bits I didn't love? Well, I'm not a huge fan of romance novels, especially the love-at-first-sight genre, which I find a bit unconvincing. Also although the writing is good, I felt it was fairly conventional in style. Forsyth does bring her characters and settings vividly to life but there were not enough 'wow, what a sentence!' moments for me. (I guess I've been spoiled by [a:Alexis Wright|341920|Alexis Wright|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1457286347p2/341920.jpg]). But the provocative themes and gripping plot more than made up for these minor shortcomings. Now I'm eager to get on to Forsyth's next book.
[SPOILERS]
I was also really pleased that there was a gay character whose story has a happy ending. While the main focus of the story is on anti-semitism, this character, another with Down syndrome, and several political activists, are all important reminders of the people targeted by Nazism that history often forgets. WWII may seem remote for most 21st century readers, but we can still learn a lot from revisiting it through fiction.
Aside from those serious themes, the evocation of sophisticated, bohemian youth culture in pre-war Berlin is fascinating, and I love how the book diverges from the traditional romantic trope in that the women get to save their men, instead of the other way around :)
The bits I didn't love? Well, I'm not a huge fan of romance novels, especially the love-at-first-sight genre, which I find a bit unconvincing. Also although the writing is good, I felt it was fairly conventional in style. Forsyth does bring her characters and settings vividly to life but there were not enough 'wow, what a sentence!' moments for me. (I guess I've been spoiled by [a:Alexis Wright|341920|Alexis Wright|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1457286347p2/341920.jpg]). But the provocative themes and gripping plot more than made up for these minor shortcomings. Now I'm eager to get on to Forsyth's next book.