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sophia_sol) wrote2016-05-16 07:40 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2016-05-16 07:40 pm
Bryony and Roses, by T. Kingfisher
You guys this book is so gooooood
And okay there are many things to squee about but let me start with the most revolutionary: this is a beauty and the beast retelling where the beast is from the beginning fairly explicitly on Bryony's side. Which means that there's so much more space in the book for there to be a different malevolent force that therefore can feel genuinely malevolent and creepy/terrifying because THE MALEVOLENT FORCE ISN'T THE LOVE INTEREST. I'm so happy. A retelling of beauty and the beast that understands the problems at the heart of the original story!
Though it didn't go quite as far with this in the end as I thought it had; turns out that it was the Beast's own choice after all to make Bryony stay at the House in the beginning, which I do rather wish wasn't the case. But still: the way the book was set up meant that I could feel okay with cheering for the Beast/Bryony romance, AND that I felt genuinely concerned about what was going on with the House and the roses and the dream man at night and the intruder and so forth.
I also love that it's Bryony herself who stumbles across the House in the middle of a snowstorm in her hour of need instead of her father. I'd never before even considered that that would be a change a retelling of this story could make but now I'm like YES OF COURSE THANK YOU.
Also: from the very foreword* I was all delighted anticipation because here was a Beauty & the Beast author who a) is a gardener and b) doesn't actually like roses! I knew right away it would do something interesting with the pervasive rose theme. AND I WAS RIGHT, omg, this was great. Malevolent rose spirit who started out in league with the House/birch but who the House now attempts to oppose! I love all sorts of details that go with this, like it being the rose spirit in Bryony's dreams instead of the Beast in human form. Or the fact that the reason the Beast is so horrified/angry upon Bryony attempting to take the rose with her that first night is because he's afraid of the power of the rose spirit getting out and taking over other places too!
I was surprised that Bryony's severe pruning back of the roses from around the birch tree didn't seem to have any noticeable effect. Or maybe it did have an effect and I just wasn't paying attention to the right things? DANGIT I hate how with ebooks you can't easily flip through a book to recheck details or reread a scene!
Back to the topic of the Beast in human form, we never see any hint of what the Beast's human form was like anywhere in the book and I like that very much. The book does the right and good thing and keeps the Beast in Beast form at the end! I actually was very surprised that the Beast didn't turn out to be that terrible poet Bryony was unreasonably fond of in the end; the poet was his own character. And I'm glad of that too, though a little confused about how real the manifestation of the poet was in the climactic bits. (I've forgotten the poet's name, sorry, and again dangit ebooks for making flipping through books so challenging!)
I also really appreciate that in this retelling Bryony returning home to her family for a visit doesn't come across as weirdly passive-aggressive from the Beast, all "oh yes I'll let you visit but if you don't return in a week I'LL DIE, IT'S FINE, DO WHAT YOU WANT." This is the Beast genuinely trying to let Bryony escape from the clutches of the rose spirit, resigned to whatever that might mean for him, and totally not expecting or intending for Bryony to come back.
Hahaha I keep on talking about the things I love in this book and mostly it's all ways in which this book has fixed all the unintentional-creepy that was in the original. But no, this book is also a good book qua book, not just as a fix of everything I dislike about the fairy tale!
What a great book. I'm so glad T. Kingfisher is out there in the world writing the fairy tale retellings that need to be told.
*Although the foreword also reminds me that I need to reread Robin McKinley's two retellings because I can never quite manage to remember either what happens or my thoughts about what happens. Especially Rose Daughter. McKinley's books read like they must be very grounded but then they float wispily away in the memory as if there's nothing real there after all. How does that book go? I have no idea. And I've read it at least twice.
And okay there are many things to squee about but let me start with the most revolutionary: this is a beauty and the beast retelling where the beast is from the beginning fairly explicitly on Bryony's side. Which means that there's so much more space in the book for there to be a different malevolent force that therefore can feel genuinely malevolent and creepy/terrifying because THE MALEVOLENT FORCE ISN'T THE LOVE INTEREST. I'm so happy. A retelling of beauty and the beast that understands the problems at the heart of the original story!
Though it didn't go quite as far with this in the end as I thought it had; turns out that it was the Beast's own choice after all to make Bryony stay at the House in the beginning, which I do rather wish wasn't the case. But still: the way the book was set up meant that I could feel okay with cheering for the Beast/Bryony romance, AND that I felt genuinely concerned about what was going on with the House and the roses and the dream man at night and the intruder and so forth.
I also love that it's Bryony herself who stumbles across the House in the middle of a snowstorm in her hour of need instead of her father. I'd never before even considered that that would be a change a retelling of this story could make but now I'm like YES OF COURSE THANK YOU.
Also: from the very foreword* I was all delighted anticipation because here was a Beauty & the Beast author who a) is a gardener and b) doesn't actually like roses! I knew right away it would do something interesting with the pervasive rose theme. AND I WAS RIGHT, omg, this was great. Malevolent rose spirit who started out in league with the House/birch but who the House now attempts to oppose! I love all sorts of details that go with this, like it being the rose spirit in Bryony's dreams instead of the Beast in human form. Or the fact that the reason the Beast is so horrified/angry upon Bryony attempting to take the rose with her that first night is because he's afraid of the power of the rose spirit getting out and taking over other places too!
I was surprised that Bryony's severe pruning back of the roses from around the birch tree didn't seem to have any noticeable effect. Or maybe it did have an effect and I just wasn't paying attention to the right things? DANGIT I hate how with ebooks you can't easily flip through a book to recheck details or reread a scene!
Back to the topic of the Beast in human form, we never see any hint of what the Beast's human form was like anywhere in the book and I like that very much. The book does the right and good thing and keeps the Beast in Beast form at the end! I actually was very surprised that the Beast didn't turn out to be that terrible poet Bryony was unreasonably fond of in the end; the poet was his own character. And I'm glad of that too, though a little confused about how real the manifestation of the poet was in the climactic bits. (I've forgotten the poet's name, sorry, and again dangit ebooks for making flipping through books so challenging!)
I also really appreciate that in this retelling Bryony returning home to her family for a visit doesn't come across as weirdly passive-aggressive from the Beast, all "oh yes I'll let you visit but if you don't return in a week I'LL DIE, IT'S FINE, DO WHAT YOU WANT." This is the Beast genuinely trying to let Bryony escape from the clutches of the rose spirit, resigned to whatever that might mean for him, and totally not expecting or intending for Bryony to come back.
Hahaha I keep on talking about the things I love in this book and mostly it's all ways in which this book has fixed all the unintentional-creepy that was in the original. But no, this book is also a good book qua book, not just as a fix of everything I dislike about the fairy tale!
What a great book. I'm so glad T. Kingfisher is out there in the world writing the fairy tale retellings that need to be told.
*Although the foreword also reminds me that I need to reread Robin McKinley's two retellings because I can never quite manage to remember either what happens or my thoughts about what happens. Especially Rose Daughter. McKinley's books read like they must be very grounded but then they float wispily away in the memory as if there's nothing real there after all. How does that book go? I have no idea. And I've read it at least twice.