Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast
By: Robin McKinley / Narrated By: Charlotte Parry
Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
Muuuuch better than Demelza Carlton’s “Enchant”
Beauty by Robin McKinley is the second retelling of Beauty and the Beast that I’ve listened to recently. I have another retelling, but I’ve not gotten around to listening to it, so right now I can only compare these two.
And Beauty is sooooo much better. Beauty, actually named Honor, is a young woman not blessed with good looks, but she has a kind soul, and she’s a tad stubborn. The Beast is smitten by her almost instantly, but we come to hear that it’s because, until the time for Beauty to be surrendered to him, he’s been watching her through a special implement, one that shows things the way they are. So I liked that immediately better than with Enchant’s Beast—who just seemed hard up. Don’t get me wrong, the Beast here also has been without human/female company (visible, at any rate), so NATURALLY we can assume that the dude is desperate, but it’s much more believable and sweet here.
The story is much more than just a telling of those two: it’s about Beauty’s family, the life she was raised in and lost; it’s about the community that accepts and loves her. So there are many, many characters to get to know and to get to like. I especially liked big sister Grace, with her pure and devoted heart—she was great as a side-character.
Then too, I really liked Beauty’s horse, Greatheart. (You know me!) He’s written as a true and loyal companion, a hard worker and Beauty’s great love.
I suppose the only thing I didn’t like was that she was written as someone who is known for always keeping her word (hence even going to live with the Beast in the first place), but she conveniently breaks that word at the drop of the hat, when her family asks her not to go back but to stay an extra day. And she does it, knowing full well that it will probably bring about the Beast’s death. So there’s that.
Plus, I’ve always had a problem with finding the character of the Beast to be far more appealing than the prince he morphs back into once love saves the day. Why NOT the Beast? I mean, C’mon. Where’s the problem? So he has problems eating neatly, so what? That’s what napkins are for.
Charlotte Parry does a really nice job with the narration, going so far as to do the Beast’s voice differently from what he becomes when turned back into a prince (animal vocal chords are different from a human’s). And given that there are three sisters, three young women to keep track of, I never got lost when the sisters were interacting or chatting with each other. She also does male voices well—no easy feat.
I really enjoyed the audiobook. Like I said, it’s the better of the two. Now I’ve just gotta go and listen to that third one in my Library. I’ll get back to you with the skinny on it!
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