Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today I’m sharing with you my review of Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales, a collection of fairy tales retold in fresh and unusual ways.
Synopsis
You think you know these stories, don’t you?
You are wrong.
You don’t know them at all.
Twelve tales, twelve dangerous tales of mystery, magic, and rebellious hearts. Each twists like a spindle to reveal truths full of warning and triumph, truths that capture hearts long kept tame and set them free, truths that explore life . . . and death.
A prince has a surprising awakening . . .
A beauty fights like a beast . . .
A boy refuses to become prey . . .
A path to happiness is lost. . . . then found again.
New York Times bestselling author Soman Chainani respins old stories into fresh fairy tales for a new era and creates a world like no other. These stories know you. They understand you. They reflect you. They are tales for our times. So read on, if you dare.
Review
I’ve been having a phase of enjoying retellings of all different kinds this year, and so was really excited about this book. With reading so many books via audiobook these days, that was my original plan, however when I went into my local Waterstones to collect a book order, I saw it in person, and saw the stunning illustrations, which absolutely captured me.
Each of the tales takes the original tale and twists it at its core, resulting in something very different. Some only resemble the original story by name, and I absolutely adore this. It’s wonderful to see how much creativity and inspiration can be driven from the originals, but can be so very unique as well.
It was really interesting to see themes such as freedom running through these pages when the traditional fairy tales are all about isolation disguised as happily ever afters or the horrors of what can happen to mishaving children… or at least that’s what we’re led to believe. So seeing these stories talk of real happily ever afters, whether that happiness is in a rose wrapped tower or dancing in the rain, really made me happy, and everyone needs a little bit of happiness in their lives right now.
Thanks for joining me for today’s post. If you’re interested in looking at some more fairy tale type retellings, why not check out some of these?
And On She Reads 