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May. 14th, 2011
Halfway through reading this, I realized I was halfway through the book and had yet to meet the Beast. That in itself wouldn't have been a problem if I had liked Belle herself at all.
However, early on, Dokey sets this up as a tale about Belle being Not As Pretty as her sisters and her Issues With That (god, why the hell are heroines clearly described as beautiful always considered "plain"?). This device was gross to me for a couple of reasons. One, she's described as "plain", but evidence is to the contrary because the actual description of her is of a pretty girl. Two, she decides (without actually confronting her mother or anyone else she thinks sees her "plainness") that she must be so out of tune with her name that she needs to never go out into society ever. Because it's not like plain girls would like social functions. After all, being plain must be like being a social outcast.
Oh, and three? Because then Belle - you know the heroine? The one I'm supposed to think is strong and interesting? Spends over half the book thinking about how pretty she is or isn't. Which, I'll put this out there, is really boring. If I wanted to read that book, I'd read an ugly ducking romance novel. At least there, I'd meet the hero in the first ten pages.
So, five hundred pages later, they all move out to the country. Instead of being interesting, Dokey decided to say that Belle can carve. She's got a magical carving ability instead of a personality. About 80% of the way through the book (I was reading on Kindle), we finally meet the Beast.
And this is where the book went from boring to kind of surreal. Because as a kid I read Robin McKinley's version of "Beauty: A Retelling..." alot, so when certain scenes began reading as familiar, I went with my gut.
Whole scenes, whole pieces of dialogue are essentially cut and pasted from Robin McKinley's book. Except where in that one they'd been used to show an at first acrimonious, then slowly becoming warm, then slowly becoming love in this book they're just... there.
For example, in Beauty, the two bond over reading books. I think she reads to him? Because his claws make it hard. In this one, he shows her his claws and says he likes reading. Later, Dokey says they have conversations about books, but we never hear them, since she thinks we should just believe they're falling in love without any proof. This is, after all their love story. Why would we want it shown instead of told?
Instead of asking her to marry him, the Beast asks her to look at him for five seconds. Interesting! However... not really. She's so desperate to escape, but she doesn't try, not even once. At least in "Beauty" as she grew to love him, the idea of saying she couldn't marry him became painful to Belle. In "Belle", we don't have an idea of what their relationship is like. As she refuses to even try to look at him, it becomes clear that that's a metaphor for how Dokey sees their relationship.
She shouldn't have to try to write it for us. We need to take it on faith that it's there.
Oh, also, the whole carving thing was one long, unshot Checkov's Gun. It had absolutely nothing to do with the conclusion.
It must be hard to write a version of Beauty and the Beast after Robin McKinley did it. However, this one decided to either copy or do the opposite of whatever McKinley did. Instead of making this one a unique, interesting book, it just left me with a craving for the original.
However, early on, Dokey sets this up as a tale about Belle being Not As Pretty as her sisters and her Issues With That (god, why the hell are heroines clearly described as beautiful always considered "plain"?). This device was gross to me for a couple of reasons. One, she's described as "plain", but evidence is to the contrary because the actual description of her is of a pretty girl. Two, she decides (without actually confronting her mother or anyone else she thinks sees her "plainness") that she must be so out of tune with her name that she needs to never go out into society ever. Because it's not like plain girls would like social functions. After all, being plain must be like being a social outcast.
Oh, and three? Because then Belle - you know the heroine? The one I'm supposed to think is strong and interesting? Spends over half the book thinking about how pretty she is or isn't. Which, I'll put this out there, is really boring. If I wanted to read that book, I'd read an ugly ducking romance novel. At least there, I'd meet the hero in the first ten pages.
So, five hundred pages later, they all move out to the country. Instead of being interesting, Dokey decided to say that Belle can carve. She's got a magical carving ability instead of a personality. About 80% of the way through the book (I was reading on Kindle), we finally meet the Beast.
And this is where the book went from boring to kind of surreal. Because as a kid I read Robin McKinley's version of "Beauty: A Retelling..." alot, so when certain scenes began reading as familiar, I went with my gut.
Whole scenes, whole pieces of dialogue are essentially cut and pasted from Robin McKinley's book. Except where in that one they'd been used to show an at first acrimonious, then slowly becoming warm, then slowly becoming love in this book they're just... there.
For example, in Beauty, the two bond over reading books. I think she reads to him? Because his claws make it hard. In this one, he shows her his claws and says he likes reading. Later, Dokey says they have conversations about books, but we never hear them, since she thinks we should just believe they're falling in love without any proof. This is, after all their love story. Why would we want it shown instead of told?
Instead of asking her to marry him, the Beast asks her to look at him for five seconds. Interesting! However... not really. She's so desperate to escape, but she doesn't try, not even once. At least in "Beauty" as she grew to love him, the idea of saying she couldn't marry him became painful to Belle. In "Belle", we don't have an idea of what their relationship is like. As she refuses to even try to look at him, it becomes clear that that's a metaphor for how Dokey sees their relationship.
She shouldn't have to try to write it for us. We need to take it on faith that it's there.
Oh, also, the whole carving thing was one long, unshot Checkov's Gun. It had absolutely nothing to do with the conclusion.
It must be hard to write a version of Beauty and the Beast after Robin McKinley did it. However, this one decided to either copy or do the opposite of whatever McKinley did. Instead of making this one a unique, interesting book, it just left me with a craving for the original.