Review – The Rose and the Beast by Francesca Lia Block (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 240 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: August 7, 2001
ISBN-13: 978-0064407458
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars
I originally bought this book to go towards the Fairy Tales Retold Challenge I was participating in this year. I have read a few of Lia Block’s books, they are always intriguing. Lia Block has a very different writing style that is beautiful and a bit ambiguous. She’s an author I enjoy reading occasionally but not all the time.
This was a dark, yet strangely beautiful, collection of fairy tales told in Block’s typical ambiguous writing style. Really they read more as poetry than story.
My favorites were Charm which was a disturbing but beautiful retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I also really enjoyed Beast, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Ice was a well done retelling of the Snow Queen.
You can see the stories included in this anthology along with a rating and brief synopsis below.
Overall this was a quick and beautiful read of some fairy tale retellings. If you enjoy Lia Block’s writing style and like reading fairy tale retellings I would definitely recommend.
Snow (3 stars):
A retelling of Snow White where the Prince is the girl’s father and the love of the dwarves is more important than the love of a prince.
Tiny (3 stars):
A pretty basic retelling of Thumbalina set in the modern day.
Glass (4 stars):
Retelling of Cinderella, where Cinderella actually enjoys the work she does serving her sisters and is prodded on to greater things by her fairy god mother.
Charm (5 stars):
A very disturbing and yet beautiful retelling of Sleeping Beauty. The main girl is drugged into what sounds like sex trafficking, but saved by a beautiful woman from her past who shared in some of her pain. Very beautifully written with excellent imagery.
Wolf (4 stars):
Retelling of Red Riding Hood set in modern day where a girl flees her sexually abusive father by running into the desert to meet her grandma. Has the harshest prose and most swearing of the bunch, but I enjoyed the ending.
Rose (4 stars):
A retelling of Snow White and Rose Red. A sweet story about two sisters who have a wonderful relationship until love tears them apart.
Bones (3 stars):
A retelling Bluebeard set in modern times, in which the girl has to save herself
Beast (4 stars):
Retelling of Beauty in the Beast in which Beauty would rather be like the Beast than have her prince.
Ice (4 stars):
A retelling of the Snow Queen. A young man immersed and overwhelmed falls in love with a girl but his heart is filled with ice when he meets a beautiful woman who has him dancing on her strings. Beautifully told and full of hope and love.
