Book Review: Beauty by Robin McKinley

Title: Beauty
Series: None
Author: Robin McKinley
Publisher: David Flicking
Publication Date: (First published) 1st January 1978
Pages: 272
Special Features: None
ISBN: 9781849920728
Goodreads Average Rating: 4.07

When the family business collapses, Beauty and her two sisters are forced to leave the city and begin a new life in the countryside. However, when their father accepts hospitality from the elusive and magical Beast, he is forced to make a terrible promise - to send one daughter to the Beast's castle, with no guarantee that she will be seen again. Beauty accepts the challenge, and there begins an extraordinary story of magic and love that overcomes all boundaries. This is another spellbinding and emotional tale embroidered around a fairytale from Robin McKinley, an award-winning American author.

This was the first book I read for my Summer Reading Challenge, and is also a book I have been meaning to buy and read for almost two years now. I has quite high expectation on the book, as it's a retelling of my favorite fairytale: Beauty and the Beast, I wasn't let down too much by the book, but I also was.



I felt for quite a bit of the book that instead of reading a story, made to entertain, I was reading a story someone had summed up to their friend, especially the first chapter or so, there was no real entertainment, but instead an element of being told.
Also for me the book was too short, it takes about half the book until the beast is introduced, as it is alone is a 200-odd page book I did not witness the love between Beauty and the Beast grow or even really begin.

But there was element of the book which I really enjoyed, I thought the plot line and how things happened in the book was amazing, it was full of surprises and never reading the original Beauty and the Beast book myself, the whole story was almost completely new to me.

The characters are split into two groups, those who are well developed and believable and those who are well  kind of just in the story.
For example: The main character: Beauty or Honour is perfect for her role, low self-esteem, brainy etc....
Then her two sisters: who start out as quite posh and snobby and due to the move after becoming poor they automatically get used to things, which is not believable.

This book is a good read, not particularly great, but good.
I give this book...