Re-tellings of classic tales chance running into cliche, and happily de Boddard manages to avoid the largest of those pitfalls in this Beauty and the Beast retelling. In part, I believe that is due to the setting which is a deep and fascinating world. Managing to create an in-depth world with its own culture and distinct characters in such a short book is no small feat.

Perhaps due more to the books I have picked up recently than anything else, I found myself enjoying the use of titles to convey relationships and the singular they. It created an atmosphere that fit the story well and had my mind paying closer attention to personal address throughout in hopes of mining more about the world within this retelling.

The primary narrator, Yên, slipped away from me on occasion. Reading often felt more like hearing a story from an acquaintance than a friend, but at the very least the acquaintance had an eye for story and a talent for painting visually arresting scenes. The inclusion of child characters can always change a story irrevocably, but Liên and Thông managed to be more than the placeholder for the supporting characters in de Bodard's version of the Beast's Palace. Their interactions with the Yên and Vu Côn (the dragon/Beast) helped create a new version of this tale instead of a facsimile.

I enjoyed the distinct culture and world de Bodard created as well as the altered take on a classic fairy tale. While not the best fairy tale retelling I have encountered, I must admit it was one of the more enjoyable ones for me - if only in part because I adore dragons and a good chance to explore a world where they are as much partakers in culture as they are representations of it.