Beauty by Robin McKinley

Note: this is a retelling of the traditional story, Beauty and the Beast. (A retelling, not a parody.)

Plot: Beauty has never liked her nickname; she firmly believes that she is very plain. And she is - at least, compared to her sisters Grace and Hope. When her rich self-made father loses all his money due to terrible luck on a voyage, Beauty and her family must move to a small town far away from the city. Beauty feels like something is missing in her life, until she meets the Beast...

Comments: I liked this book a lot, especially since Beauty was such a down-to-earth person. I hate the whole concept of damsels in distress (or at least, I don't like girls that wait around for someone to save them), and Beauty is clever, a little - okay, a lot - stubborn, and sensible. If you like to read about handsome princes protecting beautiful, helpless princesses, this book may not be for you.

Beauty and the Beast (Disney) was one of my favorite movies growing up, and while this story had almost no similarities, it was creative and interesting to see the story a different way. It's definitely original, and I like the way the author portrayed the Beast. The characters were all well-described, yet everyone seemed far away, even Beauty. I never really connected with any characters, or even felt like they were there. I could imagine them as characters in the story, but they felt insubstantial and two-dimensional. It was the same with the Beast; I could imagine him, his voice, and a few scenes from the book - but that's mostly my imagination. I was very interested in the story and read almost without interruption, but I still never really felt involved.

Another thing I felt weird about was the ending. SPOILER ALERT! I am about the talk about the ending (though if you've seen the movie or read a book about it, you can guess - like I said, retelling and not parody. Same essence, different details.)! Anyway, when Beauty tells the Beast that she loves him and wants to marry him, the only thought going through my head was: "When did that happen?" I finished reading the book and just sat there for a little bit, wondering if I had missed some chapters. The whole book was like that, actually. My teacher always says "Show, don't tell!" It felt like I was being told what had happened instead of experiencing what had happened. It was like one minute she meets the Beast, the next he's her friend, the next she's all like "I love you!" Okay, I'm probably blowing this out of proportion. But still. It was disorientating and not written for a reader, more for a listener.

Rating: I rate this book a six. Great idea, but it could have been written better.