Beauty & the Beast: Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly

A couple of months ago I was walking in Wal-Mart & saw a book that had a striking cover… it was Beauty & the Beast: Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly. (Seriously though... LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUS COVER!!!) I have gotten her mermaid series for my nieces, but I have never read anything by Jennifer Donnelly. She’s got a very natural flow to her writing that I very much liked. However I’m getting ahead of myself.
This book is, obviously, about Belle & the Beast from the classic fairytale. This is set in the world of the 2017 remake & the story occurs just after Belle ran away & the Beast saved her from the wolves. He gives her the library & in the back she finds this magical book called Nevermore that she can actually step into. She meets a charming countess & makes many new friends. As she goes back & forth between reality & the enchanting book, she sees which world she wants to be a part of. But is Nevermore all that it appears to be?
So first things first. Like I mentioned above, Jennifer Donnelly has a very natural flow to her writing. Often times when you are dealing with fantasy novels you have some difficult sections to read because of phrasing or the world flow. Since most things in fantasy novels are things that readers are never going to experience, the author has to be very adapt at creating this image in our heads of exactly what is going on. That’s often times easier said than done. However I felt that Jennifer Donnelly did a very nice job making things easy to imagine.

SPOILERS!!!! --------The other portion of the book that I found to be pretty good was the concept that Love & Death are sisters & they make a wager about Belle & the Beast. That brings in an almost mythical element that I really appreciated. Even with that in my mind I didn’t instantaneously see the Countess as Death. I have no idea why but it took me a few pages to be like… WAIT THAT’S DEATH! But I like how, once Donnelly personified Love & Death, she could really illustrate the different ways that the two can affect people. Death was much sweeter & inviting. While Love was scary to trust & for most of the book she was hidden. I don’t know I think personifying traits like that make a story more interesting because then you can draw those kind of conclusions without some cliche’ being thrown at you. ------ END OF SPOILERS!!!

However, unfortunately, that’s where my praise for this book ends. I grew up with the Disney animated Beauty & the Beast. I am a book nerd, also know as a Librarian. I have always just connected with the story of Beauty & the Beast on a very personal level. I was hoping that I will have that connection with this book, however it felt more like a fanfiction riding off the coattails of the new movie. The characters, especially their very modern attitudes were more reminiscent of the new movie, which to be honest rubbed me the wrong way. I liked the new remake but it took out some of the things I loved & added things I could have done without. This book just carried all of that over & it made it hard to love this book to its fullest.
I didn’t like Belle. She has more of a modern attitude. I understand she is a character out of time & that she dreams of more, but the whimsical piece of Belle was that she wasn’t just beautiful on the outside she was beautiful on the inside. That means her attitude as well. The new modern Belle, & thus the book Belle, both have, at times, not the prettiest attitudes. However I will say that book took her attitude a little further, since we know what she’s thinking thanks to narration. It just kills me a little bit.
The last negative I have on this book is that while the story played out nicely, there was a bit of a pacing issue. It felt like it should have been longer so that the ended didn’t have to happen in a hurried rush. Donnelly laid out this beautiful story, but then the climax & ending happened in a matter of chapters. It wasn’t the most satisfying.
Overall I was disappointed in this book, I felt that the plot was great & it could have gone a little differently & would have been so much better. Unfortunately because it tried to follow the new Hollywood movie, it fell flat for me. However for die-hard fans of the remake or of Jennifer Donnelly I would recommend this book

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