Her father protests that he will not let her go, but she answers, “Cannot a Beast be tamed?” 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. This truly is a beautiful story, beautifully told.Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast How satisfying it is to see that both of her names now fit her so accurately! For she is both Honour, and Beauty now. I am never surprised that as her heart and mind have grown, so has her body and her spirit. By the time Beauty understands the mystery, my sight and hearing are clearer along with hers, and I am pleased to read that she finally knows her heart. I love how Beauty’s days in the castle with the Beast rarely change… yet the story keeps evolving in a way that draws me ever further into it, so that I am learning, along with Beauty, to allow my heart to trust… to see the colors that flavor that fourth dimension that the castle seems to have… to hear the voices in the Breeze that acts as Beauty’s maid… to listen as those voices chat about the mysterious tragedy of the castle… to learn that the Beast is not what he seems. I become one of the family with them, sharing their grief as Grace’s fiancÃƒÆ’Ã‚ © is lost to the sea, sharing their despair as their father’s fortune is lost as well, and sharing their determination to be happy in their new poorer life in the far magic-tainted North with Hope’s new husband.Īnd then the magic roses start to grow along the wall of the house nearest the forest, and their father gets lost in a storm and comes home with a hopeless story and a single perfect rose…īeauty’s time in the castle with the Beast is an ever-changing exploration of a realm she didn’t know existed, and Robin McKinley’s gentle portrayal of it is exquisitely fascinating. I love hearing Beauty tell how she ended up being nicknamed Beauty, instead of using her given name, Honour… even though she was a bookworm who had not inherited the same tall, willowy beauty that her sisters have. I love meeting Beauty’s sisters, Hope and Grace. I always fall in love with Beauty, her family, and the world they live in - right from the beginning of the story. I don’t know if this re-telling of Beauty and the Beast is supposed to be Young Adult or not, (I am 31.)… all I know is that there’s something special about the journey I take with Beauty when I sit down and read Robin McKinley’s version of her story.

One of my favorite comfort re-reads is Robin McKinley’s Beauty. NovemGUEST REVIEW: Beauty by Robin McKinleyĪ Review Category / Book Reviews Fairy-Tales / guest-blogger / My Favorite Things / Young-Adult 26 Comments

Beauty and the beast robin mckinley