As anxious as I am (and I’m sure many readers as well) to get to the meat of the story, Beauty and the Beast’s love story, this initial build up is important for setting up Beauty as a three dimensional character. I particularly appreciate the fact that McKinley doesn’t rush the first half of this novel. There is Beauty’s life through her family’s fall from wealth, then her time adapting to a more simple life and hearing tales about a mysterious woods that one days hits too close to home with her father’s unlucky trip to a strange castle, and then the final third, Beauty’s time in the castle itself, falling in love with a Beast.

The tale unfolds in a very familiar way, broken into three parts essentially. What makes “Beauty” stand out is the fact that it really isn’t providing anything extra to the tale: if you could have a novel-length version of the fairy tale itself, no bells or whistles added, this would be it. There are a million and one Beauty and the Beast adaptations, and they all approach the tale differently with unique additions to the tale and versions of the main characters. One of the most noteworthy aspects of this tale is its simplicity. And with that in mind, I’ve found it a bit challenging to review it here for the blog! Unpacking the book as an actual work of fiction outside of my own long history of gushing over it is tricky! It’s the epitome of a comfort read for me, at this point. Fast forward an undefined number of years and “Beauty” is one of a handful of books that I re-read almost on a yearly basis. What a lucky day of my life! I had read a few books by Robin McKinley before this but had somehow missed the fact that she wrote a Beauty and the Beast re-telling (she actually wrote two! Her other book is titled “Rose Daughter” and is a bit more of an adaptation of the tale than a straight re-telling like this one). I originally read this book back in highschool after finding it while browsing through my school library. Her father protests that he will not let her go, but she answers, “Cannot a Beast be tamed?” Serena’s Thoughts

When her father comes home with the tale of an enchanted castle in the forest and the terrible promise he had to make to the Beast who lives there, Beauty knows she must go to the castle, a prisoner of her own free will. But what she lacks in looks, she can perhaps make up for in courage.

She is thin and awkward it is her two sisters who are the beautiful ones. Where Did We Get this Book: Serena’s owns it, and Kate borrowed it from Serena!īook Description: Beauty has never liked her nickname. Book: “Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast” by Robin McKinley

Beauty and the beast robin mckinley