The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold
by Francesca Lia Block

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Book Reviews of The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold

Book Review: A Dark, Stunning Collection of Tales
Summary: 5 Stars

The cover art also captures this regard for fairytales - the front shows a beautiful young woman - but to turn the book around and see her lower half, one can see her hands are talons. Needless to say, this book is *not* for children.
There are nine tales in this volume, four of which are set in an entirely fairytale world, separate from our own, (Snow, Glass, Rose, Beast) and five of which are 'misplaced' fairytales, being played out in our contemporary world (Tiny, Charm, Wolf, Bones, Ice).

Snow is a retelling of Snow White, which highlights a new angle on the tale - bringing forth not the love of Snow White's mother or her lover, but that which the old stories always forget to mention - that of the affection between Snow and the seven dwarfs. My favourite quotes, first when the dwarfs look upon her as a baby "they knew then that she was the love they had been seeking in every face forever before this", and when it is pointed out "She loved them. This is what no one tells. She loved them."

Tiny is a reworking of Thumbelina. A mother looses eight children to death, but her ninth child is the size of her thumb, though "there was a perfectly normal heartbeat flickering on the screen like a miniature star". Tiny grows, unaware of her difference, till she sees her first male - a young man, searching for his Muse. Falling in love, Tiny appoints herself a Hero, and goes after him...

Glass is a stunning retelling of Cinderella, in which our heroine is caught between the safety and predictability of her sisters, and the love she finds with her own Prince Charming. A natural storyteller, she is unawares of how easy she is to love, of her gift to transform, and of how she can change herself from sand into something clear and pure - like glass.

Charm is the dark and disturbing tale based on Sleeping Beauty, in which the spindle is a heroin needle, and thrown into a world of drugs, photographs and glamour. But in this case, Sleeping Beauty *cannot* sleep, and only one person in the world can help her find rest, and awaken her from her nightmare.

Wolf is Little Red Riding Hood, where a Stepfather takes the place of a wolf, and threatens the lives of a young girl and her mother. Running for the desert and her grandmother, the heroine finds that she has to face her greatest fear, when he turns up at her one place of sanctuary.

Rose is the tale of Rose White and Rose Red, the dearest of friends, and the inevitable breaking of their friendship when one of them falls in love. It is simple, heartbreaking and yet utterly true in its message - the everchanging role of love and connections with other people. If you are familiar with the story, you may be saddened by the loss of the character of the dwarf that hinders the girls so badly, but the great black bear is still intact.

Bones is perhaps the most ambigious of the stories simply because it is based on "Bluebeard", a tale that many may not know. The old story goes that a young woman marries Bluebeard who tells her she can go anywhere in the house expect in a particular room. Needless to say, the instant he leaves the house she open the door...and finds the bodies of his previous wives. In this case, Bluebeard is Derrick Blue, a talent scout who lures young women to his home in order to do what the original Bluebeard did. For a girl who begins wishing she was in a fairytale as "at least the girls in the stories were alive before they died", she ends vowing to listen to the tales of the 'bones' of the previous victims, and let their stories be known.

Beast is another favourite of mine, with the fascinating angle of having Beauty prefer the beast to the man he changes into. The imagery in this one is also beautiful, as Beauty becomes more and more wild and "tries to retrain herself from licking her hand as if it were a paw."

But Francesca saves the best for last. In Ice, based on the Snow Queen, we meet two lovers utterly enveloped in each other, until K. is lured away by the perfect beauty of the Snow Queen. Francesca excells herself here with the potency of her words - a girl too afraid to fight for her love as she is convinced something as perfect as their love cannot possibily last, a boy trapped between two women, and of course, the regal Ice Queen that we've all met in our own lives at one time or another, and her ability to make us see the worst in ourselves. This is my utterly favourite short story of all time. Read it!

Summary of The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold

With language that is both lyrical and distinctly her own, Francesca Lia Block turns nine fairy tales inside out.

Escaping the poisoned apple, Snow frees herself from possession to find the truth of love in an unexpected place.

A club girl from L.A., awakening from a long sleep to the memories of her past, finally finds release from its curse.

And Beauty learns that Beasts can understand more than men.

Within these singular, timeless landscapes, the brutal and the magical collide, and the heroine triumphs because of the strength she finds in a pen, a paintbrush, a lover, a friend, a mother, and finally, in herself.

Best Children's Books 2000 (PW)
Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL)

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