Beauty

I read Beauty by Robin McKinley because of recommendations from friends.  It is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and tells of Beauty, who considers herself quite plain, especially compared to her older sisters. When Beauty and her family have to leave their life in the city, they find themselves living a very different life in a small village.  One day Beauty's father is out on a journey, and when he picks a rose for Beauty, he finds that he has stolen a rose from a beast, who requires one of his daughters as payment.  It is Beauty who volunteers to go to the beast in order to save her father's life.

This was a great book.  I haven't read a book quite like this in a long time, and I can't place exactly what made it different.  But, I liked how the entire book was from an all-telling Beauty's point of view.  It made it interesting and exciting to follow her throughout the book.  The only thing I didn't like about the book was that I knew the story of Beauty and the Beast.  That made it so at the beginning, I was just waiting for the connection to the fairy tale, and then toward the end, I knew how it would all pan out.  But, I liked the differences to the story I was familiar with, and I think the author wrote the story very well.  The book was filled with detail, but other times, it skipped right to the part of the story that mattered--and that made it a nice read.  And I loved the ending.  :)

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)