The addition of a daughter for the beast added special poignancy, and I found the comparison of two different father-and-daughter relationships so compelling. But Hayden molded both the beast and the beauty into layered, nuanced characters, both sacrificing themselves for their loved ones at different points in the story. It's also the most straight-up retelling, which surprises me because the original fairy tale has never been one of my favorites, and I had thoroughly enjoyed the way the other four writers twisted the story into new and different shapes. "The Wulver's Rose" by Hayden Wand is my favorite. I liked the final solution to the beast's "problem" particularly well. There's some more adult content in this one, including an attempted rape, one that's written in pretty vague terms, so as to be unsettling but not graphic. "Rosara and the Jungle King" by Dorian Tsukioka has a sleek jungle cat instead of a grotesque beast, and his relationship with Rosara is protective and friendly from the first. This one was very sweet, with an exciting ending. They work together to end the enchantment that has transfigured him into a beast and her father into a statue. "The Stone Curse" by Jenelle Schmidt has a beast who is friends already with the girl in question, who knew him before he was transformed.
However, the beast is a guardian not just of his castle but of a portal into the underworld, which he struggles to keep closed.
"Wither" by Savannah Jezowski has a more traditional fairy tale setting, complete with a crumbling castle. It has a really swashbuckly flavor, reminiscent of some of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. She might be the key to saving some or all of the others trapped there, since she's innocent but they've all been sentenced there for their crimes. "Esprit de la Rose" by Kaycee Browning focuses on a young girl accidentally imprisoned on an otherworldy pirate ship. But also nerve-wracking in a way, because I'm always a little worried that maybe I won't like what they wrote, and then how am I going to admit that to someone I only tangentially know? However! In this case, I need not have worried, because it turned out that Hayden's story was my favorite of the whole collection. I was especially excited to read this because I follow Hayden Wand's blog, Story Girl, and it's always such fun to read something written by a person I've had contact with.
It's a follow-up to last year's Five Glass Slippers, which of course revolved around Cinderella instead. I can see how this could get addicting :-)įive Enchanted Roses is a collection of five retellings of the fairy tale about Beauty and the Beast. This book marks a first for me! It's the first time I have ever received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion of the book.
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