The Beast's Heart

For the longest time after the curse fell, I did not know if I was a beast who dreamed of being a man, or a man who dreamed he was a beast.

So begins Leife Shallcross's enchanting retelling of Beauty and the Beast, which has always been one of my favorite fairy tales. Over the years, I've read many different versions of it. Robin McKinley's Beauty has long been my favorite, but this latest retelling is now a close second. Overall, The Beast's Heart sticks closely to the traditional story line. Where it differs is that it's told wholly from the Beast's point of view, and that's what I liked about it. Seeing him struggle to understand his curse, and despair of ever breaking it, made the story that much more poignant and endearing. And then he meets Isabeau, his 'Beauty', and the Beast begins to not only fall in love, but to hope.

I turned to stare at Isabeau. It was her. She was the key. Since she had arrived, the magic that held this place had started to weaken. First the birds and animals had begun to come back to the forest; now the seasons were returning to my garden. If this curse could be broken, she could do it. I didn't know how. ... But she was the key to the ending of this spell.

If you like fairy tale retellings, this is a good one. I liked Isabeau's two sisters, Marie and Claude. And I liked Isabeau. But most of all, I liked the Beast.

Happy Reading!

Similar read:  Hunted by Megan Spooner

From the G Shelf...

Author:  Camille Griep

Title:  Letters to Zell

Excerpts:

Dearest Zell,

     What am I supposed to do without you? You and I didn't start out as royalty--me the little cinder girl and you Rapunzel, prisoner of the Tower. We complemented our eccentric princesses, the four of us a perfect team. Now we're like a three-legged goat.... The thing is, I had no idea that you wanted anything other than the life we're currently living. ....We've all lived beneath the weight of our Pages for so long that wanting something of our own volition feels dangerous. We aren't like the lucky ones waltzing around as they choose. You and I had to live out unpredictable stories penned by a capricious author. It's true we're free now, but I've never dreamed of admitting I still want more than what I already have ... 

We're all at risk of becoming imprisoned within our own mirrors. By our expectations of ourselves.

Happily Ever After isn't an ending, it's the journey we take from here.

Thoughts:

Camille Griep takes the stories of four princesses--Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel--and weaves them all together in her own imaginative interpretation of what happens when each princess tries to make her own dream come true. It's humorous and unexpected, and written entirely in letters. Which is one of the reasons I checked it out. I really like epistolary novels! I also liked how Griep drew from the Grimm versions of these tales as the basis for hers--and the characters' reactions when they visited Disneyland and saw the skewed Disney versions of their stores was VERY funny. But what I didn't love was how Griep chose to portray these four well-known fairy tale characters. While they had spunk and were distinct from one another, they were also childish, self-absorbed (Cinderella), a little whiny, a little spineless (especially Briar Rose), and kind of irritating at times. And Bianca (Snow White) used the f-word WAY too much. One other small thing bugged me:  Rapunzel left Grimmland to go tend unicorns in Oz, only there aren't unicorns in Oz. There never were! And I have L. Frank Baum's fourteen Oz books to back me up on this! Still, Letters to Zell is a pretty fun read. Not perfect. But fun. And I did like how Griep wrapped things up at the end. All in all, I'd give it 3/5 stars.

Happy Reading!

P.S. Happy Fourth of July ...especially to everyone in America! I hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day!