charlottesometimes's Reviews (3.33k)

This is slightly less boring than both Robin McKinley’s version of this story, if only because it is shorter. On the other hand, since the author admits that it is essentially a re-write of both those texts, it is this the most unnecessary of the three.

I suppose this micro-genre of European fairy tales rewritten by a US woman for a US audience is not intended for me. I’m certainly finding nothing to enjoy in flat retreads of a well-know narrative with added American English terminology, US-centric references, and affectedly quaint naming conventions, which have the most minor variations and thus give the impression of reading multiple drafts of the same book. I just don’t see the point. 

This version is also one of those books where the protagonist is always biting her lip and similar cliches, which doesn’t help matters.

Also, towards the end of the book we hear of the deaths of a large number of characters, prior to the events of this book. These deaths are dealt with rather callously, which puts a bit of a dampener on any attempt at a happy ending. 

Maybe it’s specifically the authors’ understanding of Beauty and the Beast that’s the problem? I just can’t get behind the idea that the central motif of that particular tale is or should be gardening. Which apparently sets me aside from McKinley and Kingfisher both. I’ll be reading each of their attempts at Sleeping Beauty soon, so I can only hope that they don’t carry their horticultural obsessions over to that particular tale. It’s a big risk though. Sleeping Beauty does have all those brambles to write about …

Possibly even more boring than McKinley’s first go at the Beauty and the Beast story, Beauty, which was a dull enough read. There was far too much housekeeping, and gardening for my tastes.

I can’t understand the impetus to return to the same fairy story for a second time, but still hew so close to both the tradition version and your own first version. It can’t help but feel redundant. I had assumed this was going to take something different from the original inspiration, but I was disappointed. We can’t all be Angela Carter, but a little more interrogation of the previous texts would have been nice.

I also don’t really see the need to set a fairytale in a fantasy landscape where magic is mundane, merely in order to explain its existence. It’s not really true to fairy stories, and I feel like it reduces the impact of the appearance of an enchanted beast in the story if the characters already live a life where ‘greenwitches’ are everywhere and it’s quite normal to have a dragon as a pet. 

Also, the phrase ‘greenwitch’ replaces the name ‘Ger’ from the previous book in being the word used 3 or 4 times a page. Not only is this gratuitous, but every time it appeared I briefly read it as Greenwich. Which was a bit annoying.