 This last week I read the book that inspired the movie Beastly. At first I was a little skeptical because I like the movie but it is a little cheesy and cookie cutter, plus I'm not Vanessa Hudgens biggest fan or her acting "skill". But I was very pleasantly surprised by the book however. Yes it was still a big cheesy in parts and cookie cutterish in sections but it was still very good, especially for someone like myself that loves fairy tales. For this review of the book I'm going to break it into two parts, one for the book alone and the second for comparing the book to the movie for those that have watched movie.
The book is about a self-centered teenage boy who has been taught that looks and money are EVERYTHING. If you are beautiful then you can do anything. Which leads to him playing a practical joke on an "ugly" girl in his school. Unfortunately for him he finds out, too late, that this girl is a witch and she casts a spell on him that makes him a beast. He has two years to find someone he loves who loves him back, and prove it through true loves first kiss, then the spell will be broken. She also bestows to him a magic mirror that will allow him to see anybody he wants in the outside world. But still it isn't as if he can walk the streets of New York looking like a werewolf mutant. It makes it even worse when his father buys him a house away from everybody he knows, his father included, and locks him up there. His only companions are a house made who barely speaks English who has been sworn to secrecy and a blind tutor. Over the first year of his transformation he takes up a passion for reading and roses. His roses are his life, so when someone breaks into his green house and hurts his precious roses he catches the man. To save his own skin the man offers to give this beast his daughter. Shocks the beast accepts for two reasons, he actually knows the girl from his old prep school and because he is afraid that her father might make the same offer to someone worse in the future. Soon the girl arrives at the house and so begins his journey to not only get someone to love him but of falling in love himself. I think the message of this book is what really catches me to the general story plot, even though I've seen and read different versions of it in the past. Today so many people look and looks and money to guide them in relationship, whether friends or romantic relationships. It is always about what the other person can do for you. This idea of loving someone for inner beauty needs to be relayed to more people as a life lesson growing up. Maybe the divorce rates wouldn't be so high and people would keep friends for longer than a few years. Relationships are no longer based on substance just temporary things like looks and money. I will say the one thing that had me a little worried about this book when I first started reading it was how the author would handle the enchantress that turns him into the beast. In the Disney movie she isn't really in it, but I knew that being a modern take of the story the author could go to many places, some not too great. I will say it was done very tasteful as far as storybook witches go. The magic wasn't over the top and dark. The main differences in the movie and the book were pretty big, but not completely necessary for the movie. First off was in the book the beast looked more like the Disney beast than the bald, scarred, tatooed boy that was in the movie. In the movie he could still go out without getting too many stares. In the book he was a big, furry, mixture of animals like gorilla and lion and wolf. He had huge claws and fangs and was inhumanly strong. Second difference was in the movie he only had a year to find true love, while in the book he had two years. It actually makes quite a bit of difference to his development. Because he pretty much spends the whole first year in the book being angry, betrayed, unwanted, and then finding something he truly cares about. In the second year he has almost a full year to get the girl to fall in love with him, and to fall in love himself. It just seemed like a more realistic time frame for true love, at least in my opinion. Third difference the beast actually wants to continue learning, which leads to his dad sending the blind tutor. In the movie he doesn't really care about learning and keeping up his education. This difference leads to quite a few things in the book. First off he isn't quite as angry toward the tutor, he reads like crazy, he learns to love roses and gardening from the tutor, and when the girl moves in with them all he, knowing from looking in the mirror, builds her a magnificent library, which leads to some of their first and more deep conversations. And fourth and final big difference is that he actually keeps in contact and befriends the witch that puts the spell on him. Through the mirror he can see her, but because she is a magical being he can also talk with her. She gives him counsel and he ultimately helps release her from her own kind of prison. I think it was a nice touch of closure. In the movie they never really seem to get along and he always seems to hold some hatred for her and what she did. I think by having the closure and even comradery between the beast and the witch it shows that he actually has learned his lesson, even more so than she had hoped for. Overall I would say I pretty much love this book. Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairy tale and this just made it so more so. I like how the author put a modern twist on it and did it so that it didn't ruin the innocence of the message. I would recommend this book to just about anybody who loves a good fairy tale or love story.
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 Hiy'all!! Okay so I finished New Moon this last week so I thought I would share my thoughts on it, especially considering that I didn't write a review about New Moon alone, I wrote it as a mass review with Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.
My initial thought, was that it was still the hardest to read of the series. I know it's not a greatly written book, but I'm one of those people that can get so absorbed in a book that I tend to "feel" the character's pain... ya I sound psycho... but that's how I feel about just about all characters when I read, especially when it comes to emotional pain. So the turmoil that Bella goes through because of Edwards leaving her and telling her he doesn't want her anymore, is always hard to read. Jacob helps lessen it at times, but his constant "mood swings" when he changes into a werewolf almost hurt as much as Edward's rejection. Over all I got to say this is my least favorite of the Saga because of the depressing flavor the book has throughout just about all of it. One of the big aspects of the book that I loved the first time that I read the book, and surprisingly more so this time around, was the werewolves. I liked that Meyer didn't do the generic version of a werewolf, which in Breaking Dawn you find out why she didn't. I like the idea that they are either in a full human or full wolf body, it characterizes the animal instincts in us all, is how I saw it. Some people, like Jacob, are resentful of some of our animal instincts while others like Quil love and embrace it. And I especially loved how it was anger that triggered their inner werewolves. Because the wolf side of each of the Quileute boys is free, unconfined essence of themselves. How many of use can be unbridled, or to put it better uncensored, when we are controlled by our emotions? I know I have a hard time thinking through what I need to say that doesn't hurt people when I am controlled by my anger or even hurt. The second thing I liked about this book was Edward's reason for leaving. He sacrificed his own happiness for the safety of the person he loved. Of all the messages in this book this is one of those that sticks out to me the most. People need to see that love is putting the other person first. When Bella and Edward first met in Twilight I had to admit it was kinda more of an infatuation (on both sides) and a lot of stocking... but I think that Edward leaving to protect Bella from essentially himself evolves their relationship to the new category of love. Yes it hurt her in the process but he was trying to put her before himself, which in my opinion is the definition of love. And the final high light of this book, for me, was Jacob's role in the whole book. Aside from doing all the stupid, reckless things with Bella, he is what every friend should be... dependable, true and a rock. He has more motivation than an average friend would or really should, but he can put those aside, or at least pretend to, and can be there for Bella when she really needs him. He keeps her safe to his best ability, even with her slightly, borderline suicidal seeming tendencies. She considers him "her own personal sun", that he makes her feel warm and gives her something to look forward. And he pulls her out of the depression she is in after Edward leaves. That says a lot about his character. I think that Bella's dependency jumping from Edward to Jacob is a little disheartening but Jacob can't help that and he just tries to be there for her when and how he can, which he does very well. The one aspect of this book that I really didn't care for either time I have read this book was Bella's infatuation with dangerous things just so she could hallucinate Edward. This is just one of the many topics that I think Stephenie Meyer could have been more tactful writing about when teenagers are her main audience. And this one is actually two bad notions to put into a youth's mind! First doing dangerous things, even when it scares or could hurt people that care about you. Like when Bella and Jessica are going to a movie in Port Angeles Bella walks up to a bunch of strangers in a dark alleyway because they remind her of some very BAD guys that she very nearly was attack by in Twilight. Jessica is scared witless and is constantly trying to get Bella to just walk away, to which Bella responds by either lying by omission, I think I know them, or by just ignoring her. Then fixing up and riding the motorcycles with Jacob, even though she knows that it would kill Charlie if something happened to her, or cliff diving ALONE!!! Yes by all means lets put stupid, irresponsible notions into the minds of children so that they can care even LESS about how their actions effect anybody besides themselves. We don't have a big enough problem with that already! The other problem with her doing dangerous things just so she can hallucinate Edward is that she is purposefully trying to cause a hallucination! Now I don't know how much this concerns other people but trying to cause a hallucination makes me worry for the person's sanity and the safety problems they could impose on themselves and others. Especially since teenagers don't really seem to know many LEGAL ways to cause hallucinations. I think this is just a scary fact for that and it again brings us back to Bella's utter dependence on Edward. In Twilight Bella couldn't stand the IDEA of Edward leaving, and she handles the reality of it a bazillion times worse. But there's some good news for readers... Jacob comes along and she uses him as a surrogate Edward. She goes from being completely dependent on Edward to being completely dependent on Jacob! I mean what does that say to the teenagers of this country? Well kids... it's okay for you to not be able to be independent of your boyfriend... and if he ever leaves you we understand that it's "natural" for you to become dependent on your best friend who is completely in love with you and who's emotions you are toying with in the process. And she does toy with his emotions... she knows full well how Jacob feels for her, a feeling with she doesn't reciprocate, but because everything is about her... Bella continues to spend all her waking hours with Jacob doing some more stupid and irresponsible things that allow her to hallucinate Edward... yup makes perfect sense to me. And the final problem I had with this book was that the second that Edward found out, second hand, that Bella had jumped off a cliff (presumably to commit suicide), he ran off to the Volturi to commit a strange little suicide... :/ What does that show the teenagers that read this book? That if the object of your infatuation, because that is pretty much what Bella is to Edward at first, goes away permanently or dies... then the first logical thing to do is go kill yourself. We have enough problems with suicide in this country so we need to be careful "romanticizing" it to our youth. Again I don't think it is a superbly written work, but minus the two major problems I mentioned above, I enjoy this book, though less than the rest of the Saga. :) |
ReviewsBooks have become a part of my life. However, that wasn't always the case. Since discovering the wonder of books, I can't seem to find enough time in the day to indulge in my bibliophilic ways. This page is to catalog those things which I have read. I hope you enjoy! Categories
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"WORRYING DOES NOT TAKE AWAY TOMORROW'S TROUBLES,
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ABOUT MEMy name is Stefani. I am a princess, a dragon rider, a warrior, a magician, a time traveler, a crime solver and so much more. But for "technical" purposes you can call me a Librarian. I teach Elementary Library and Technology as well as High School Coding and Robotics. In my spare time I love books, archery, fishing, crafts and a lot of little things that make life wonderful.
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