Beastly Beauty

This gender swapped retelling of Beauty and the Beast is another of Donnelly’s powerful and hugely enjoyable feminist retellings of a traditional fairytale, following on the success of Poisoned and Stepsister, which reworked Snow White and Cinderella respectively. The gender swap enables her to explore themes like societal expectations, stereotypical gender roles and self-acceptance. The original tale is thought by some scholars to have originated in 18th Century France as a cautionary tale to prepare young women for marriage to ‘beastly’ older men, as was so often the case at the time.  This  story is very much set in the  same period and our heroine, Arabella, was a rebellious and headstrong young woman who has been cursed to be a beast because she dared to wish for more than just marriage and to let her anger get the better of her  So the reason for the curse has less to do with selfishness and arrogance and more to do with sexism and societal expectations. After being cursed for so many years, she has almost given up hope that the curse will ever be broken. Enter Beau, a handsome thief who breaks into her castle with his gang, but then is abandoned and trapped. At first, we have no more idea than Beau about who or what the Beast is, but he is as determined to solve the mystery as he is to escape. Each of the main characters is complicated, possessing good intentions that have been buried thanks to the harsh circumstances they have experienced. As each of their back stories is revealed we see that Beau and Arabella actually share a common struggle with their self-perception and self-image and neither think they are worthy of love, so how is the curse to be broken?  This is absolutely enthralling storytelling, full of rich symbolism, psychological depth and a touch of magical realism, as well as an occasional thoughtful commentary on fairy tales. The romantic chemistry and witty banter of the lead characters is most enjoyable, but the well-drawn minor characters have their moments too. The reader is thoroughly invested in everyone’s survival in the dramatic race against time as the curse counts down.  Ultimately, this beautifully crafted story is about learning to love oneself.