Beauty – Review

 

This month’s selection was Beauty by
Robin McKinley.  It’s a retelling of Beauty and the Beast that was
written in 1978, an excellent year by the way.  A certain blogger
you’re reading was born then.  The official synopsis reads as
follows:

 

 

This much-loved retelling of the
classic French tale Beauty and the Beast elicits the
familiar magical charm, but is more believable and complex than the
traditional story. In this version, Beauty is not as beautiful as
her older sisters, who are both lovely and kind. Here, in fact,
Beauty has no confidence in her appearance but takes pride in her
own intelligence, her love of learning and books, and her talent in
riding. She is the most competent of the three sisters, which
proves essential when they are forced to retire to the country
because of their father’s financial ruin.
The plot follows that of the renowned legend: Beauty selflessly
agrees to inhabit the Beast’s castle to spare her father’s life.
Beauty’s gradual acceptance of the Beast and the couple’s deepening
trust and affection are amplified in novel form. Robin McKinley’s
writing has the flavor of another century, and Beauty heightens the
authenticity as a reliable and competent narrator.

 

I pulled that from amazon.

 

 

Now I’m going to sort of ramble on and
hope you keep up and continue reading.  A few years back I began to
read a book that I randomly found on the shelf at the library and it
was a YA vampire book and I love that genre so I thought I’d love it.
I read 2 chapters and it was so incredibly boring that I returned it
having never finished it.  Later someone told me how wonderful it was
and recommended that I give it another shot as it had more books to
the series and it was wonderful.  I gave in and tried again.  I too
fell in love with the book and the series and am now anxiously
awaiting the last one.  That book was Vampire Academy.

 

 

Another time I had a similar situation
occur with the first book of the Southern Vampire Mysteries aka the
books that became True Blood.  I just couldn’t get into the first
book but ended up falling in love and find myself anxiously waiting
for the next book, which will be out in May and I’ve been waiting
since May.

 

 

Last year a friend recommended that I
read Beauty, even loaning me her battered copy of this much-loved
book.  I started it and ended up stopping after a couple of chapters.
I returned the book and told her that I just couldn’t get into the
book.  So when the book club chose this as the title for the month of
October I was hoping for another case of ‘second times the charm.’
Alas that was not the case this time and I found I couldn’t finish a
single chapter.  4 pages of her explaining the unfairness of the
nickname she bestowed upon herself and incredibly low self-esteem.  I
just couldn’t get beyond that.  I read emails from my other book club
ladies, who I adore, telling me that the book got better and I’m sure
that it did.  I just haven’t had a lot of luck lately with books.
There was a book that I wanted to read more than anything.  I waited
and waited for it to come out and when it finally did I got my hands
on it and started reading and it was awful to me.  I pushed through
because I loved everything else written by this author.  12 days in
and only halfway done with a book that normally would have taken less
than a day to read and I quit.  I’ve had trouble with books since
then.