I gave this retelling from the Beast’s point of view a solid 4.2/5 stars. The only reason why it wasn’t higher was because of the nonstop head hopping.
The prose of ‘The Beast Within’ felt a bit removed because it was third person and there was some head hopping I didn’t love. But because I love this trope in every way possible I’d read it upside if needed. Reading from the villains perspective with a slightly different spin than the Disney version was fun. Gaston is his best friend here and the one witch is actually three sister witches. His transition from human to beast is shown more slowly and we get to experience more of his life before meeting Belle. I like the concept of his servants stalking him in sinister shadows
It’s not clear why the Prince wants the Maestro killed. Why?
I like that most of the original cast is in it like Lumiere and Mrs. Potts before they turn to objects. I’m not sure how I feel about Tulip. She seems sweet so I like her. But I don’t lol.
Sometimes in historical fiction or fairy tale retellings the author seems to want to get the culture of the time correct, but by doing ends up diminishing women by portraying an accurate depiction of the story. Sometimes I wish we would skew it more often to have a feminist approach on the classics. The same theme could be shown but without degrading women in general. Even the female characters in this novel downplay their worth. It sucks
On page 131 second person narrative is thrown in there randomly. The prose need s bit of work. There’s a lot of telling instead of showing so parts of it sound like it’s meant for a 12 year old. But a lot of the vocabulary is geared towards age 17 young adult.
Chapter 18 was just a set up for the Ursula book and not needed in this story.
Near the end I’m realizing some of the exact phrases are being copied from elsewhere and wondering if Disney gave permission. I’m assuming so. But how does one mega outage an author contract with Disney. That’s a pretty big deal.
Overall I really enjoyed this short easy retelling but it had too much head hopping.
Cassie Swindon 