A Beauty and the beast retelling: review of Beast of the Night by Ee Rawls
When I was twelve years old, my next door neighbor friend let me borrow her copy of Beauty by Robin McKinley. I devoured the book and when I finished, I flipped back to the first page and read it again. I don’t know that I’ve ever done that with another book. That was my first experience reading a fairy tale retelling, and from that moment on, I was hooked.
Because of that experience, and then my own experience re-telling the story for the Rooglewood contest, Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale that is quite dear to my heart.
So when I found out that EE Rawls was writing a new re-telling of one of my favorites, I knew I had to read it. You may remember that I shared the cover reveal a couple of weeks ago? Well, today is the release date and I’m participating in the blog tour with a review of this delightful tale! You can learn more about the book and the blog tour HERE.
It never ceases to amaze me how creative various authors can be when it comes to retelling fairy tales. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, a new story comes and sweeps me away.
Meet Rosenrot, a young woman living in Freudendorf Town. (She goes by “Rosen” most of the time, and… well… I can’t blame her). She is just trying to fit in; avoid Gasto, the handsome aristocrat who follows her around flirting relentlessly despite the fact that she’s never given him any reason to hope she might be interested in him; and not think about the nachzehrer she encountered in the woods out by the old abandoned castle when she was a child… but she’s failing at all of these things rather spectacularly.
Then she comes home and finds that her father has left her to pay off his debts, and Rosen’s already fragile world shatters into a million pieces. She is taken by her debtors to be sold as a slave in order to pay her father’s debts. Her greatest worry is that she will be sold to some villain who will work her to death… but then a strange, wizened man with greenish skin outbids everyone and Rosen discovers that her fate is far worse than she would have ever imagined, for now she is to become the indentured servant of Lord Varick, the nachzehrer from her nightmares!
Thoughts & Opinions
Even though this is a fairly standard retelling of Beauty and the Beast, the story took a few twists and turns that I did not expect. It surprised me in more than one way, and I appreciated that about it.
Rosen is not your typical “Beauty” character. She’s not portrayed as the “town beauty,” or the “perfect daughter,” nor is she the “always lost in a book” sort. She does like a good book, and she is a good person, but she’s also got some spunk and a little bit of snark to her that made me worry she was going to get herself in trouble more often than not as she had a hard time holding her tongue when maybe she ought to have kept silent!
Lord Varick is also not your typical “Beast” character, either. For one thing, he is not at all ugly or hideous. He is extremely handsome. But his attitude is that of a spoiled, bitter young man and he treats everyone around him with contempt. But Lord Varick is hiding a terrible secret that—well, if it doesn’t exactly excuse the way he acts, at least explains it in a satisfactory way.
In many ways, reading this story, especially for the first couple of chapters, felt extremely reminiscent of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. (Especially when Gasto showed up as the obvious “Gaston” character sans the weird little sidekick). And usually, that would lose points with me. But Rawls did such a fantastic job of immersing me in the world she built for this story that I barely noticed before she swept me off into the rest of the story, which didn’t feel very Disney at all, and that’s a good thing.
But never fear! If you’re hoping for an unmistakable Beauty and the Beast experience, Beast of the Night delivers.
Beauty and the Beast Elements
The theme of beauty being more than skin deep is definitely present in the story. Lord Varick’s temper tantrums, rude behavior, and beautiful face are clearly juxtaposed with Rosen’s plain appearance, missing hand, and kindness to all.
The library. (Don’t even roll your eyes at me like this isn’t THE MOST IMPORTANT part of the B&B multiverse (that I didn’t bother to include in my own retelling) but Disney made it so… one glimpse of that library and all any of us wanted was to go live there, don’t try to deny it). Beast of the Night has the library, and it is Rosen’s happy place. When she finds it, she considers it “paradise.”
The curse. (But Jenelle, you said the “beast” was handsome!) Yes, good memory. But that doesn’t mean he’s not under a curse! I liked the twist on this. Varick is under a curse making it impossible for him to love anyone. I’m not going to say why or what will happen if he does fall in love because: spoilers, but it was cool.
The slowly budding friendship that turns to love. I felt that this story did one of the best jobs with this important part of the tale. Too often this bit gets skimmed over or doesn’t quite make sense, but in this case, it did. I think it was partially the way that Rosen ends up in the castle, not as a sacrifice, but as a servant. But it also worked well because of Varick’s curse, and so when he starts to realize he enjoys Rosen’s company, he kind of freaks out at first and then convinces himself that, well, maybe it would be not-disastrous if he had a friend. Yes, that’s it. They’ll be friends. It’ll be okay. Breathe, Varick. Breathe.
Roses. …. erm… okay, actually, there was a surprising lack of roses in this story. Varick’s curse IS linked to a sort of collar thing around his neck with a rose emblem on it, so, yes, there is a rose and it is important.
Conclusion
I highly enjoyed this story. I did feel like the plot meandered a little bit in the middle and then sped through the ending action bits so quickly I got a little whiplash and had to do some re-reading to see if I’d missed something. The ending bits get… very weird and a little Doctor Who-ish. (That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I just REALLY wasn’t expecting it from the tone of the first three-quarters of the book).
I really loved Rosen and although I kind of started out hating Varick, he grew on me over the course of the story. And another character I greatly disliked at the beginning turned out to be a surprisingly decent person, and no, I’m not telling you who, but it was just lovely. I also enjoyed the mystery winding its way throughout the book, and although I had mostly figured it all out a little before the characters did, I never hold that against a story, because it means the author did a fantastic job with foreshadowing.
Overall, I’d give this 4 dragon eggs.
Author Bio
E.E. Rawls is the product of a traveling family, who even lived in Italy for 6 years. She loves exploring the unknown, whether it be in a forest, inside a forgotten castle, or within the pages of a book.She runs on coffee, cuddly cats and the beauty of nature to keep the story wheels of her mind running, as she writes tales that will both entertain and inspire others, giving them worlds they can explore and become lost within.
