Jennifer M. (frenchyberry) reviewed The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince on + 29 more book reviews
To start off, this was a very fast paced read, which is always nice if you so me. I read this book, from start to finish in about 4 hours. It was an easy read but honestly, the story itself was confusing. Obviously, it's based on the original Beauty and the Beast story line. But there are several differences as well.
Some of these differences were easily understood, like added characters, a little background story, some Personal experiences the Beast went through, etc. Other differences from the original story were... out there? They were very vague or left completely and utterly unexplained so it didn't make a lot of sense. Like the people of the castle. Did they turn to stone for everyone? Did only the beast see them as stone? Did they turn into figurines like in the original story? It wasn't explained and the author left it vague to the point of confusing.
The entire book had the very minimal amount of dialogue possible. The book explored the Beast's feeling and experiences regarding previous relationships, but it didn't explain or go into detail regarding Belle at all. The author didn't explore this relationship at all in the book. It was as if Belle and his psychological growth because of her were merely afterthoughts. It was very disappointing.
My first impression of the book when I picked it up was that it would explore the mind and feelings of the Beast as a human, then as the beast, when he met Belle, and as it changed after meeting Belle. It explored him as a human and changing into the beast but that's it. It fell short in his transition and change with Belle. It was just completely left out.
Over all, I found the book very disappointing and just lacking. The characters were all underdeveloped, the story line was there but it felt very unfinished, and it felt as if many of the ideas were just kind of thrown in there without much thought.
In the end, I'm glad that I only borrowed this book from the library instead of buying it. I would have been upset if I'd bought it.
Some of these differences were easily understood, like added characters, a little background story, some Personal experiences the Beast went through, etc. Other differences from the original story were... out there? They were very vague or left completely and utterly unexplained so it didn't make a lot of sense. Like the people of the castle. Did they turn to stone for everyone? Did only the beast see them as stone? Did they turn into figurines like in the original story? It wasn't explained and the author left it vague to the point of confusing.
The entire book had the very minimal amount of dialogue possible. The book explored the Beast's feeling and experiences regarding previous relationships, but it didn't explain or go into detail regarding Belle at all. The author didn't explore this relationship at all in the book. It was as if Belle and his psychological growth because of her were merely afterthoughts. It was very disappointing.
My first impression of the book when I picked it up was that it would explore the mind and feelings of the Beast as a human, then as the beast, when he met Belle, and as it changed after meeting Belle. It explored him as a human and changing into the beast but that's it. It fell short in his transition and change with Belle. It was just completely left out.
Over all, I found the book very disappointing and just lacking. The characters were all underdeveloped, the story line was there but it felt very unfinished, and it felt as if many of the ideas were just kind of thrown in there without much thought.
In the end, I'm glad that I only borrowed this book from the library instead of buying it. I would have been upset if I'd bought it.
