Beasts and Beauty is Confusing and Disappointing

The truth is I cannot figure out how I feel about this book.

Being a short story collection, it is hard to rate this book overall. The main connection between all the stories, other than the fact that they are fairy tale retellings, is the writing style. Chainani wrote this very differently from the SGE series, with a more artistic take. There are no quotations, for example, all dialogue is written within the text, which allows the narrator to really be in charge of the story. It is definitely interesting and lends itself well in the telling of some of these stories. Yet, it is also at times confusing, messed up the pace and I just didn't enjoy it as much as his style in SGE.

My favorite story was The Little Mermaid. This was one of the shortest in the book and I think it is one of the cleverest revamps. This classic story is always made fun of and Chainani played with its flaws to add a fresh twist that I really liked. Some other stories had fun endings or new concepts that I also enjoyed, for example Peter Pan and Hansel and Gretel. Others, however, were very confusing. I still don't understand what was happening in Sleeping Beauty and I am not sure if it is the fault of the ambiguous writing style or my lack of analysis. Most of the twists were not what was advertised and more of a new way to tell the same story with a darker vibe.

The stories also all had a very diverse cast of characters, which was fun, especially when the story took place in a different culture from the original setting, like in Hansel and Gretel. Sometimes the diversity felt forced, however. It just felt a little bit like he was telling the story for the sake of that diversity and not because it was the best way to tell the story.

I recommend reading it in order since some stories make references to others that preceded it. I also think it is a deeper reading experience if you have read SGE since there are references and definitely foreshadowing to Chainani's next SGE prequel series.

Overall, it was not a very enjoyable read. I thought about quitting multiple times and skimmed a lot of the stories. Most of the twists weren't that worth it. I would say I liked three of the stories well enough that I would give it 3 stars but the rest weren't that enjoyable and very forgettable, so 2 and a half it is.