Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley (1997)
In Rose Daughter, McKinley expands on and enhances Beauty, a book she wrote twenty years earlier. Both are retellings of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.
I actually liked Beauty, the shorter work of the two, better as I didn't feel that Rose Daughter added anything meaningful that wasn't already there. Part of what's missing for me is the natural progression in Beauty's relationship with The Beast - i.e. from fear to love through trust and compassion. In this book Beauty shows little or no terror at being completely uprooted from her family and forced to cohabitate with a beast-like creature. As a result, her ultimate love for this creature is less satisfying to the reader than it could have been. Still, I recommend it to readers who continue to enjoy the magic of fairy tales, adults included.
I actually liked Beauty, the shorter work of the two, better as I didn't feel that Rose Daughter added anything meaningful that wasn't already there. Part of what's missing for me is the natural progression in Beauty's relationship with The Beast - i.e. from fear to love through trust and compassion. In this book Beauty shows little or no terror at being completely uprooted from her family and forced to cohabitate with a beast-like creature. As a result, her ultimate love for this creature is less satisfying to the reader than it could have been. Still, I recommend it to readers who continue to enjoy the magic of fairy tales, adults included.
 | Rating: 3/5 Further reading: McKinley's homepage Robin McKinley (wiki) |