Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsFrustrating
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 7, 2023
I don’t understand how and why Disney continues to mess up their adaption of Beauty and the Beast. In this case (considering it’s a “What-If” story) the characterization feels all wrong and at times flanderized. Belle is an ass to to beast and says a lot of disgusting descriptors that seem unwarranted. Then in the end she likes him but there’s no real confirmation that she loves him. Which misses out a component of the story that makes the reader invested. The Beast yells more but he’s gaslit into thinking he’s this horrible person when the curse is literally stripping away who he is mentally. Also Belle brings up Buzzfeed moments like “Stockholm syndrome”. She mentions they are in 18th century France and Stockholm syndrome was founded in the 1970s aka the 20th century. Also Belle agency is stripped for a shallow version of herself. Her dad broke into a castle and she valiantly traded her life to save him. Yet here she doesn’t understand why he was locked up and forgets that she sacrificed herself. I’m genuinely convinced that Liz Braswell didn’t watch the movie before writing an outline but a couple of video essays on top of outdated articles.
The Twisted Tale aspect doesn’t work well structurally. We get alternating chapters between Belle’s mom and her life AND a word for word retelling of the film which is unnecessary. The new lore doesn’t feel substantial and it makes the enchantress (Belle’s mom) a horrible person. New characters are created to be footnotes in the main story and a surprise villain that felt lazy.
The book tries to be dark by adding genocide and blood/torture. It just feels creatively bankrupt on all cylinders. Liz can write 1 or 2 moments of cuteness but the rest is just exhausting to read through. Keep in mind this book came out 5 months before the live action remake. No clue if Liz saw the movie ahead of time because plot moments are ripped from the remake. Such as the designs of the servants, the spell removing everyone’s memory and belle’s demeanor.
We don’t get a lot genuine conversations between the two that makes the romance real. We get plot that forces small moments that are expected to be bigger when Belle and the Beast kiss each other in 2 separate scenes. There’s no loving moment that wraps it all together and it’s pretty much forgotten or left unsaid because “you know where it’s going”.
I just finished the book and I’m tired. I expected something new and interesting. But this felt half assed and meant as tie-in fodder for hungry readers. The character writing is atrocious, the new lore is thin and made important only because the book demands it.
Final point. Apparently people believe that these books aren’t legally owned by Disney. Which is demonstrably untrue for a couple reasons. The book is published under the Disney-Hyperion imprint. The same one that published Percy Jackson & Kingdom Keepers. The top of the book says “Disney” with its signature logo and the legal language states as such.
If this was “Parody” it would legally need to be said. Also Disney allowing fan fictions of their animated library to be published at major retailers is insane. They didn’t allow a child’s grave to have Spider-Man on it because it was “Copyright infringement”
Disney is protective of their legal property. You want an unofficial version of the Disney classic? Go on Wattpad.
