Although financial misfortune brings them down in the world, this marvelously-portrayed group of people become an emotionally and financially supportive unit - no misfits here. We spend a good portion of the book in this very real and very down-to-earth family. Beauty may not be as attractive as her sisters, and she is more interested in books, but her role in a growing family is complete and necessary. This is one of my favorite aspects of McKinley's retelling. She is a vital part of a caring family, not simply the adored daughter of an old man. Unlike in the Disney (and many other) versions, Beauty is not really an outsider or a misfit. Robin McKinley creates a wonderful re-interpretation of the classic story here. A lot of people could say the same thing about me, but that doesn’t mean I’m magical nor does it make the possibility that I can do magic any more plausible than saying “and Sarah looked like a wedge of cheese” makes me look anything like a wedge of cheese.So, she did have another name! And what better name than Honor. Saying “and in the north there was rumored to be witches” or something like that doesn’t cut it. If you are an author prone to incredibly long (well written) and redundant descriptions which slow the plot to almost a snail’s pace, you should at least attempt to direct one of those explanations toward setting a foundation to a world with plausible magic in it.

How, then, did an enchantment that strong take hold in a world with virtually no magic? Perhaps I am over thinking this, but in a book I think something like this should at least have an attempted explanation. While witches and things of that nature are mentioned in passing, there really is no magic except for this enchantment. The romance of an idea doesn’t make the idea make sense.įurthermore, the enchantment on the castle is rather ridiculous as well. It’s romantic, I could easily love a library like that but that doesn’t make it part of the world. It’s almost so ridiculous it’s laughable. While it’s good to dream about, it’s completely out of place. I get having a big, fantastic library and I get loving a big, fantastic library but how on earth did it get every book that has ever, and will ever be published in it? Is it a portal into the future and past? It’s never described.

Of course Beauty, who is a scholar among other virtues, falls in love with the place. This epic library has every book that has and will ever be published. That’s fine, but it’s the library that kills me. There is no magic in the world save for this enchanted castle and the beast who resides in it with his invisible servants that move tables and chairs. The magic system in Beauty was completely out of place.

Something that makes them click in the world the author places them in. They have some background, some description. Let me touch on the magic system, for a moment.

Beauty and the beast robin mckinley