Not too long ago, I reviewed Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley. I thoroughly enjoyed that book even though the story was very similar to The Beauty and the Beast I already knew, thanks to Disney.
Twenty years after Robin McKinley wrote Beauty, she was struck with inspiration and wrote another retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Rose Daughter begins much the same as Beauty, but then strays farther and farther from the original tale.
In Rose Daughter, Beauty and her family find themselves in financial ruin and move to Rose Cottage by the small town of Longchance. Beauty finds her life passion in gardening. She particularly loves roses.
But, as you know, Beauty’s fate lies in a mysterious castle with the Beast. The Beast’s roses are dying, so Beauty takes it upon herself to revive them. Will she save the roses and turn the Beast back into a prince? You might be surprised. I was.
Robin McKinley truly put a fresh twist on an old tale in Rose Daughter.
This is an adult novel but I believe it is appropriate for teens as well. Enjoy!
Twenty years after Robin McKinley wrote Beauty, she was struck with inspiration and wrote another retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Rose Daughter begins much the same as Beauty, but then strays farther and farther from the original tale.
In Rose Daughter, Beauty and her family find themselves in financial ruin and move to Rose Cottage by the small town of Longchance. Beauty finds her life passion in gardening. She particularly loves roses.
But, as you know, Beauty’s fate lies in a mysterious castle with the Beast. The Beast’s roses are dying, so Beauty takes it upon herself to revive them. Will she save the roses and turn the Beast back into a prince? You might be surprised. I was.
Robin McKinley truly put a fresh twist on an old tale in Rose Daughter.
This is an adult novel but I believe it is appropriate for teens as well. Enjoy!
Review by me, Emily.
6 Comments:
Your review was interesting. I have read Beauty (and absolutely LOVED it!) and was told that Rose's Daughter was actually written first but set aside and Beauty took its place. After reading your review I explored a bit online and read Robin McKinley's statement of why she wrote Rose's Daughter.
http://www.robinmckinley.com/Essays/RoseDaughter.html
I have a copy of Rose's Daughter sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. I liked Beauty so much I wasn't sure I wanted to spoil it by reading RD but . . . maybe!?
There is a similar statement in the back of Rose Daughter.
I'm not going to say I liked Rose Daughter more. I loved both books. Like I said, the books started off similar to one another. I wondered briefly if Rose Daughter was worth reading...but the tale deviated more and more and I found myself more and more engrossed in the plot and characters.
I have mixed feelings about the end, but I think if you love Beauty, you will also love Rose Daughter.
Read it and let me know what you think.
I have become a huge Robin McKinley fan lately.
I loved Beauty too but I loved Rose Daughter even more. Maybe because I read it first...
PS - Spindle's End is very good as well. A retelling of Sleeping Beauty.
I've read Beauty, but I haven't read Rose Daughter. I'll have to put it on my library list of books I want to read some day.
I read Rose Daughter, and while I like the details, the engrossing character developments, I do feel that in this version, there is something missing that Beauty has, which is a kind of simple quality. Rose Daughter is good in its own way, for the dream-like telling, the embellishments in aspects of the story, the plot that is at once so much yet different from the original tale.
Read both Rose Daughter and Beauty--they both have two different things to offer. One offers a re-telling with a very human girl with very human faults and a more relaxed atmosphere for reading. The other offers more of a classical re-telling with precise descriptions and more background into the Beast's tale, as well as a surprising ending.
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