All right, so I am a complete sucker that falls hook, line, and sinker for anything and everything that involves Beauty and the Beast. No, that's not true, I've read some pretty terrible retellings. But this one is NOT horrible in the least--unless you can't put up with a little bit of angst.

Napoli tells the story from the perspective of the Beast. I know, I know, not highly original, but who cares? It's a fairy tale retelling and by golly it is fun to shake things up. And yes, a good chunk of the story is set in classic France, but that is not where it begins. An infusion of Islam/Sikh, Middle Eastern fantasy is brought in for a delicious new detail on just how the Prince was transformed into the Beast.

True to Napoli's form, this is largely psychological and therefore those searching for fast-paced plot will not enjoy this. It's a meandering, tragic romance (yes, it is happy in the end) that goes through the Beast's pain of his condition and his love for a pretty French maiden.

It is also wonderfully spiritual in nature. While it may seem to our culture that the Beast was unfairly transformed, he still goes through a period of grief and repentence for what he had done; either way you look at it, it's pride.

This is a great book from the wonderful Napoli, and any fairy tale fan will enjoy it.

This is a marvelous retelling of the classic fairytale "Beauty and the Beast" but form the beast's point of view. Donna Jo Napoli masterfully creates the thoughts of a spoiled prince from Persia as he is first cursed and then is driven from his home land. The confusion, pain, and many realizations (repeated more than once through the book) are incredibly realistic. The end, however, leaves something to be desired in that it seems to rush to a conclusion, as if Napoli was rushed to complete the book. Otherwise, this is a marvelous book for young adults of about ages sixteen or seventeen and older.

There are a million different versions of "Beauty and the Beast," probably the best known are Disney's version and Robin McKinley's version.*

"Beast" is from the Beast's point of view. How he turned into a beast, his travels, his hunting, his travels, his hunting, did I mention his travels? Oh, yes, he hunts, too. 3/4ths of the freakin' book was about how he eats! Belle shows up in the last 4th, but nothing ever develops between them. At all. Their relationship is stagnant. And then at the end (as in, the last three lines) when Belle finally tells the Beast that she loves him, I'm screaming at the book.

ME: Why? Why? There's absolutely nothing there! I want those five hours of my life back!

Napoli is more than happy to tell us a million different words of Arabic and Farsi, which I couldn't care less about, but doesn't take any care to make her prose sound authentic (Is anyone in the 18th century actually thinking about "anal secretion glands"? I mean really? This is really mentioned in the book, I kid you not.) There is a lot of time spent on Orasmyn's guilt over washing up before a meal, however, he doesn't seem to have much guilt when he mates, graphically, with them lionesses. I could be wrong, but isn't beastiality against the Muslim faith, too? (One could argue that Orasmyn is a lion and it's okay, but please, he still has a human mind.) About 5 times as much space is dedicated to the mating of lions than to the transformation at the end. Can you say "bad writing"?

I think the thing I dislike most about Napoli's writing--and I've only read a few of her books, so they might not all be bad--is that none of her characters have any inner nobility. No virtue or self-restraint to them. I always like them at the beginning, but everything they do after--their choices that they make--makes me like them less and less.

IE: Orasmyn sacrifices the flawed camel so his friend won't die. Okay, so far I like this character. But when he trots around mating at the first chance he gets, I suddenly lose any respect I had for him. In fact, at one point in the book, Belle is bent over, and Orasmyn has to refrain himself from "mating with her". I'm not kidding.

If the author had spent half as much time thinking about the relationship between Orasmyn and Belle as she did fantasizing about lions' mating rituals, maybe this book could have worked out. You may instead be interested in doing something worthwhile, like, say, slitting your wrists and doing push-ups in the Great Salt Lake. "Beast" is an utter waste of time.


(*That would be "Beauty," not "Rose Daughter." Avoid "Rose Daughter." Trouble. Biggest plot development: Roses grow. Wheeee.)

I picked this book in the library because I like reading retellings of fairy tales, but I was a little disapointed. I felt like the story was repetitive. However, I enjoyed the descriptions of the setting and I liked the twist on the old tale of Beauty and the Beast.