Name: Beasts and Beauty
ISBN: 9780062652638

Soman Chainani

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.

Dangerous Tales

Beasts and Beauty

love this opening line for red riding hood!!

Charlotte Squire

ON THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING, THE wolves eat the prettiest girl.

Hannah DCamp

I'm hiding this review because there are spoilers everywhere. tl;dr I'm disappointed and filled with rage (Except for Peter Pan, that one got me good).

(view spoiler)[Uff dah.

Normally I really enjoy fairytale retellings and I loved Leigh Bardugo's original fairytales in The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic. I think the issue with this is that I chafe against retellings that follow the same basic story but "you were told it wrong, this is how it actually happened." They were charming and beautifully written, so this is definitely a personal preference issue. The writing was undeniably lovely.

Stories that filled me with rage (for one reason or another):

Jack and the Beanstalk - Jack is super lazy, but it turns out he just wants love. Milky White disappears early on, but he gets a replacement calf. His mom and the giantess are kind of compared one to the other, and both die when the beanstalk falls. It turns out she was Jack's problem all along, and now that she's gone he and his replacement dad are free to love and be happy and magically find the will to work. What the heck is that about? She married a guy who was the worst and her life went to pot, maybe she just needed love too? Maybe Jack and his mom could have loved each other?? At least the calf gets grow up healthy.


Beauty and the Beast - Ok, this one really got me. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite classic Disney, and the original story is really nice too (one of the rare not-terrible fairy tales). But Mei is A TERRIBLE PERSON shockingly enough, and she only serves her dad with the hope that someday soon he'll die and she can use all the money she gets from him to buy a house with a library, live by herself, and read books all day. Don't get me wrong, half of that is legit the dream, but the thing that gets me is that her dad genuinely loves her. She always cares for him, she never asks for anything frivolous and vain like her sisters do, and he loves her. He's a bit of a fool, and that seems to be his worst quality; but even when the Beast asks him to send his daughter in return, he plans to run away and save her life. He's completely willing to sacrifice his own hopes to protect her. He's apparently a decent businessman too, because by the end of the story he's made enough money to hire an army to break his beloved daughter out of the castle. She falls in love with the Beast for five seconds after he literally catches her because she's being "independent" or something preposterous then he BREAKS HIS BACK ON THE FLOOR and she cries because she loves him and when he comes back to life and turns back into himself SHE STABS HIM IN THE HEKKIN CHEST. Then she's content to just go on living her life in the palace by herself like nothing ever happened (which again, living the dream, but like NOTHING EVER HAPPENED??). As an introvert I'm offended lol. 

Cinderella - The ending of this one really got me, but I'd been building up my angry feelings throughout the story. Magdalena totally uses Cinderella to get close to the prince, acting like she's her friend while thinking terrible things about how rug-like she is. She's annoyed by Cinderella's goodness and berates her for not doing something for herself. When they finally do meet the prince, Magdalena can't contain herself and jumps all over his face because she wants so badly to kiss him. Then ALL OF A SUDDEN when the witch turns Magdalena back into a person, the prince takes both girls home with him because he doesn't want to choose between them but they aren't bothered by it because THEY LOVE EACH OTHER MORE.  Literally this makes no sense. Their friendship was based on lies and use. Suddenly any romantic feelings Magdelena had are just gone, and time passes and they all end up with different people (to me it's clear this isn't a sudden lesbian romance, but about the power of female friendships), but Magdalena and Cinderella are the best of friends? I don't think so.

Snow White - This one was just a little stupid thing. At the end the dwarves are like "totally, go with that guy, he loves you because you're beautiful!" And then it turns out he's exactly like her father was. There's a weird implication that her mom was weak for dying, and that men in general are also weak and aren't capable of standing up for their wives. I had a whole rant typed up but it sounded like I was condoning his behavior, which was confusing because I don't. I have a lot of questions that this story brings up and doesn't answer which is a frustration and a half (tl;dr - sometimes, honestly, feminism needs to get its act together). The end of this story was stupid, which was too bad because I liked the first half.

Kind of The Little Mermaid, but not as much? - I actually liked that the sea witch was telling the little mermaid to cool her jets a little. Attraction isn't everything. It's definitely not love, and she should know. What I didn't like is that she denies the humans' have an eternal soul. That's ultimately the real meat of the original story, and there's a lot at stake for the little mermaid. If she can marry the prince, she'll remain a human, and she'll gain eternal life; if she doesn't, not only has she lost the love of her life, she'll die and her mortal, mermaid soul means that when she dies she'll turn into foam. The sea witch just writes the immortal soul off immediately as being a ridiculous thing to want, especially since she doesn't believe they're a real thing. And besides, the sea-folk live for 300 years, why would you want to trade that for eternal life?


Rumpelstiltskin didn't exactly fill me with rage. It actually might have made for an interesting story about redemption, except that it if I were looking at it that way it would fall short. Instead I just found it deeply unsettling lol.

Now Peter Pan - that was easily my favorite. I only got a little upsetti towards the end. Before that I thought it was absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. Maybe it's because this one stayed the truest to it's original source material, so it was more what I'm looking for in retellings/continuations? The little bit of frustrated-ness comes in when for some reason she marries someone else but continues to meet with Scourie and that's just disappointing. I get that they couldn't live in each other's world, and that is devastatingly sad, but maybe ease up on the adultery? Meep. It did almost make me cry though, when they put the baby in his little frog pajamas and Scourie took him away so he could breathe the air his lungs were made for.

But still. Pretty much everyone in these stories are terrible. They make terrible decisions, they say terrible things, and yes I know that fairy tales (especially those by the Grimms) are generally pretty terrible. But at least most fairy tales come up with a moral or excuse for being so messed up? The moral of these seems to be that it's okay to be terrible as long as you're the main character, or your intentions are in the right place?? That's no moral at all. (hide spoiler)]

sophie

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

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales

12 short stories compiled into one book, retelling the famous fairy tales you’ve heard a million times. I loved the reimagining that Chainani went through for each story, I especially loved Red Riding Hood, Snow White, The Little Mermaid and Peter Pan. I’d highly recommend if you’re not afraid to hear some darker twists you favourite tales. I will say some of the short stories were a little confusing to me, or boring, but most were amazingly clever and refreshing.

Since it’s a collection, i will only mention the tales i liked, the one i didn’t, and the take that deserves to be a book on it’s own. 

Tales i liked: Red riding hood (the second best tale), rapunzel, cinderella 

Tales i did not like: Sleeping beauty (seriously, that’s was fucked up), Beauty and the beast (the mc was too annoying, + sad ending), and the little mermaid (it was so boring, that wasn’t even a tale, im so disappointed)

The best: Peter pan. Seriously it made me cry, that was beautiful. I really wish it was a stand alone book with more details and stuff. I really wish it was a happy ending, but it was still beautiful.

Lina <3

Since it’s a collection, i will only mention the tales i liked, the one i didn’t, and the take that deserves to be a book on it’s own. 

Tales i liked: Red riding hood (the second best tale), rapunzel, cinderella 

Tales i did not like: Sleeping beauty (seriously, that’s was fucked up), Beauty and the beast (the mc was too annoying, + sad ending), and the little mermaid (it was so boring, that wasn’t even a tale, im so disappointed)

The best: Peter pan. Seriously it made me cry, that was beautiful. I really wish it was a stand alone book with more details and stuff. I really wish it was a happy ending, but it was still beautiful.

Parv

mighty dragon 

fairytales mostly center on love in the perception of romantic feelings and lust so here comes soman chainani giving us tales we used to hear as kids before bed, tales that are pretty and too good to be true. taking it with different perspective and the curious question that usually popped up after i finished reading or listening to a tale back when i was younger: what happened after the happily ever after? is it truly happily ever after?

Katharina Hoffmann

I feel like I go moan about how much I hate 90% of all new fairy tale retellings like twice a day. On a good day maybe only once a day.
This book fell into my lap (quite literally) just after I had finished reading For the Wolf (yikes) and this e-arc was graciously provided by HarperCollins and MBC: thank you! All opinions are my own.

What this collection of fairy tales offers is a brand-new look at all the classic ones you know. Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Hänsel and Gretel, The Little Mermaid. Most of the stories in this collection are based on The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales with some other well-known European fairytales thrown into the mix as well.

The main reason why I accepted this arc was that I was told that the author is not only POC but queer as well (yes, that’s right, I hadn’t heard of Soman Chainani before). I was hoping that he would bring a unique perspective to the fairy tales we all know and that he did. The tales in this book are much, much darker than the stories Disney appropriated and closer to the original fairy tales with one important difference:

In this collection of tales of the dark, ugly, and mysterious, Chainani righted many of the wrongs the original stories presented us with. In this book, women are not always the source of all evil. Here, they do not draw the short end of the stick. Here, we have stories in which the princess saves herself, in which two girls form an alliance and become the best of friends instead of fighting each other over the same man.
Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales highlights topics such as sexual and emotional abuse, racial trauma, psychological distress that many of the OGs implied but didn’t feel the need to comment on or actively invoked but never discussed.

When you take away the theme of the damsel in distress, the evil stepmother, the good prince, and kind father that never do anything wrong and are tricked by a wicked witch, that previously served as uniting factors for many western/Grimm’s fairy tales, you will quickly notice that the original fairy tales don’t have much in common. What Chainani managed is to weave the different aspects of love and its representations into each and every one of these stories: platonic love, romantic love, the love between siblings, queer love, characters that can be read as aromantic. “Love actually is all around”, to quote one of my favourite films.

And yet, and this should not be forgotten, these reinvented tales are still very macabre and dark. The writing plays its part in that and makes the stories sound like they were written a hundred years ago. Chainani stuck really close to the dictionary and style the original fairy tales are written in.

All in all, this was a fresh, entertaining, a little creepy and a little unsettling but still fulfilling reimagining of some of the most well-known fairy tales in the world. I think this book would be excellent to study in middle-grade but it would also be a great read that parents can discover together with their children (of an appropriate age) to discuss how the age-old themes of misogyny and denigration of women and girls appear again and again in Grimm's tales and how stories like Chainani’s cleverly manage to avoid stereotyping fictional female characters and coding all relationships as strictly heterosexual.

Marisa S. Pan 

Peter Pan story almost made it a 3.5 🌟

Overall this book had good retellings so it's hard to rate it when there are amazing ones and "No thanks" ones. So my thoughts of them individually: 

⚠️ Minor spoilers ⚠️

Red Riding hood - An amazing start with an amazing twist on the original. Having a strong main character that was ready to defy her fate. 

Snow White - loved the message of the story just seemed like the ending was to abrupt... I wanted more from it 

Sleeping beauty - this one could easily be a fav but there seems to be a very thin line between "this story is about a closet gay prince that feel in love with a vampire" to " the Prince loved a guy that r***** him every night"... It tried to hard be edgy or conceptual unfortunately and it failed 

Rapunzel - good story but kinda forgettable 

Jack and the Beanstalk - Yeah... No thanks. Almost the same as the original and the mother was literally made the villain when her husband disappeared and left her with a debt and her son did nothing to help or for her

Hansel and Gretel - one of the best ones even tho I'm still wondering about the cannibalism on it 

Beauty and the best - I didn't like Beauty character... She seemed a lot like 2013 Im lot like other girls Tumblr posts. It made the story less enjoyable 

Bluebeard - it was good but too similar to the original for what I remember of it. And the whole Sexual/child predator/child trafficking hints was "uhm isn't this a middle grade book?" But I liked it.

Cinderella - wasted opportunity of a f/f romance in this collection of stories since I think there is none.

The little mermaid - this one... should have been keep in the drafts and as someone said it better than I'll ever "this one seemed like a 2013 Tumblr rant about the Disney movie and how they hated it" 

Rumpelstiltskin - again good writing but too similar to tell the main story and this one apart so it makes it kinda forgettable

Peter Pan - Now this one is the best one and this story should be a whole book or at least a short book. This was too good and even tho I feel like it villainize Peter a lot more than he is and makes him a different character from the original work but hey... That is the beauty of retellings.

Peter Pan story almost made it a 3.5 🌟

Overall this book had good retellings so it's hard to rate it when there are amazing ones and "No thanks" ones. So my thoughts of them individually: 

⚠️ Minor spoilers ⚠️

Red Riding hood - An amazing start with an amazing twist on the original. Having a strong main character that was ready to defy her fate. 

Snow White - loved the message of the story just seemed like the ending was to abrupt... I wanted more from it 

Sleeping beauty - this one could easily be a fav but there seems to be a very thin line between "this story is about a closet gay prince" to " the Prince loved a guy that r***** him every night"... It tried to hard be edgy or conceptual unfortunately and it failed 

Rapunzel - good story but kinda forgettable 

Jack and the Beanstalk - Yeah... No thanks. Almost the same as the original and the mother was literally made the villain when her husband disappeared and left her with a debt and her son did nothing to help or for her

Hansel and Gretel - one of the best ones even tho I'm still wondering about the cannibalism on it 

Beauty and the best - I didn't like Beauty character... She seemed a lot like 2013 Im lot like other girls Tumblr posts. It made the story less enjoyable 

Bluebeard - it was good but too similar to the original for what I remember of it. And the whole Sexual/child predator/child trafficking hints was "uhm isn't this a middle grade book?" But I liked it.

Cinderella - wasted opportunity of a f/f romance in this collection of stories since I think there is none.

The little mermaid - this one... should have been keep in the drafts and as someone said it better than I'll ever "this one seemed like a 2013 Tumblr rant about the Disney movie and how they hated it" 

Rumpelstiltskin - again good writing but too similar to tell the main story and this one apart so it makes it kinda forgettable

Peter Pan - Now this one is the best one and this story should be a whole book or at least a short book. This was too good and even tho I feel like it villainize Peter a lot more than he is and makes him a different character from the original work but hey... That is the beauty of retellings.

Nikki Sojkowski

**An ARC was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

Finishing this book I'm conflicted. The word choice and tone feel like the target audience is middle schoolers, but the topics very frequently went serious to the point where I, an adult woman, was horrified. I feel like there should have been some commitment to matching the prose to the topics, but there was a huge disconnect that made several parts weirdly uncomfortable.

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales is an anthology of fairy tale retellings, many with changed themes from the originals and all paired with gorgeous artwork. I love fairy tales and fairy tale retellings so when this arc arrived in the mail I was pleasantly surprised. I did enjoy the opening retelling of Little Red Riding Hood as well as the retelling of The Little Mermaid. There as a large effort to diversify these tales which I really appreciated, but unfortunately the other 10 retellings felt flat. I can really only recommend this anthology to die-hard fairy tale fans that love retellings.

Marissa

Emily

A collection of twelve fairy tales - reworked, reimagined and revolutionised for the twenty-first century - by New York Times bestselling author of The School for Good and Evil

Lauren Robinson

Rosie New

juliette :) 

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 free hearts long kept tame, 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.

Beasts and Beauty Dangerous Tales