I'm not sure which of McKinley's Beauty and the Beast tellings I like better. I liked the simplicity of Beauty, but Rose Daughter is a little more grown up, and there's a little more world building, and I went a little deeper into it than with Beauty because it had more depth to go into. I enjoyed a lot of the descriptions and the bits of magic, and the foreshadowing for what actually happened at the end -- although I thought it could have done with more foreshadowing, so that the greenwitch had to do a little less explaining. This lost some of the simplicity of Beauty and the fairytale in general, but it kept enough to keep it firmly in the region of fairy tale, for me.

I liked the very end, that the Beast remained a Beast and that that was the happy ending. That's quite lovely: he doesn't have to change to have the love that he earned as a beast.

I've read this before, along with Robin McKinley's first retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This is for listening to at work, to make the boring stuff go by faster. It's just as good as I remember and I like the narrator. She does the voices of different people and animals, and it's not irritating me. Her singing isn't even annoying. I'm easily irritated right now so that's pretty high praise. :D

This is an ideal book if you are a crazy cat lady who likes books and gardening. Fairy tales and kitties.

Rose Daughter is a new reality TV show starring a B-lister athlete and model. Great, you think, it's just 2 people in a house but, Beauty and The Beast are kinda glam so it could be good.

The sullen Beast immediately goes to his room to play video games all day and closes his door so the camera follows Beauty out to the garden and reveals that beyond her claim-to-fame good looks she's really into gardening. She's especially serious about roses, and wants to branch her career out into Martha Stewart territory so she explains thoroughly about every kind of rose ever and their different scents and how to prune them. And don't be distracted by exciting unicorns! They're only here for the compost, and Beauty will explain all about composting for roses. Also, Beauty has some sisters who are also crafty, so maybe they'll get some Kardashian sister-like exposure if they make cameos to also explain in repetitive depth about their hobbies.

After gardening all day, Beauty is too tired for nightlife, so every day she'll observe in detail how the chotchkies around the house are rearranged. Then the Beast will skulk out of his room to join her for dinner, where they'll exchange a couple awkward sentences, sometimes about the weather.

Like any reality show, if anything with potential dramatic substance happens whatsoever, it will be flashed back to and re-edited and shown from different angles, over and over, throughout whatever arc can be pieced together. Like any reality show, a weak romance will be created from any limited interactions over the limited time the characters are in the house and under contract. In this case, 7 days.

Also, like any reality show, you feel kind of bad about yourself afterword and know that you have gained absolutely nothing from the experience.

This book is surprisingly, aggressively boring. Robin McKinley has truly become her own Mrs. Words-Without-End.

I love Robin McKinley's prose. There was nothing particularly new or unusual about this fairy tale retelling, except for the depth of thought and emotion and her gift for - lushness maybe is the right word. But it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me and just the kind of nourishing, centering read I needed after the violent drama of my latest epic fantasy.

Let me begin by saying that "Daughter of the Forest" was a tough act to follow. Anything would have seemed lesser compared with it.

I thought it was intriguing/strange that an author would write two versions of the same story. In this case McKinley wrote two versions of Beauty and the Beast. I enjoyed the first one ("Beauty") but wanted there to be more interaction with the Beast and Beauty. I was hoping that would be the case with this one, but there was less. Lots of Beauty gardening, lots of chapters where we see what Beauty's family is doing without her. I don't know, I was VERY bored. I skimmed the last 1/4 of it just be done. I probably won't read anymore of her books. There's just SO MUCH detail about every single moment that I feel like it takes away from the story. Not my style, I hate too much irrelevant detail about the landscape, or the room, or the furniture, etc.

I liked this one better than Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast quite a bit, but if I was going to recommend a Gardener Beauty BatB retelling, I would recommend Bryony and Roses every time. Nothing really wrong with the story, though I did find myself super confused about who in the town was who whenever we went back there, and the ending slowed down to explain things to me but I'm still a little confused. I liked it just fine, but nothing about it grabbed me in any special way.

Like sitting down in a woodland glen to be told a magical story by a fairy tale witch.

I have to admire Robin McKinley’s choice to revisit a fairytale she had already successfully told years earlier: Beauty and the Beast has so much possibility and it’s not like McKinley’s previous novel, Beauty, was a perfect take on the material. I like the idea of an author reexamining a beloved story from another lens; the only other time I’ve seen that done in fairytale retellings is with Anna Sheehan’s  A Long, Long Sleep and  Spinning Thorns. Unfortunately, Rose Daughter is a mess—a mess with some interesting ideas and a lot of potential, but still a mess. It feels like McKinley just wanted to write about roses for hundreds of pages and she loosely framed Beauty and the Beast around that. Despite its greater deviation from the source material, it somehow feels less inspired than Beauty.

Rose Daughter has some strengths. McKinley’s style of writing is always well-suited to fairytales, with a shimmering, otherworldly quality to the language that makes it feel timeless and fantastical. Her detailing of the curses surrounding Beauty’s country town is fantastic, haunting, and original—the story near the book’s climax about how the town’s curse came to be has the exact sense of mysticism and enchantment that I feel whenever I watch the prologue of the 1991 Disney film, which was totally perfect. And I liked the opening one hundred pages arguably more than the start of Beauty— this story’s beginning felt more focused, and the emphasis on starting anew and gardening reminded me so much of The Secret Garden, which is one of my favorite books of all time (and I’ve always seen The Secret Garden and Beauty and the Beast as close cousins in terms of story and theme, so this felt fitting).

However, the charm of Rose Daughter’s slow beginning wears off the moment Beauty arrives at the Beast’s castle. We are plunged into a murky haze of meandering and magic, and the snail-like pacing becomes too much. McKinley clears love gardening, and this book was obviously a pet project where she could project her love for flowers onto her favorite fairytale. But a story can’t be all gardening descriptions: I don’t love The Secret Garden for its talk of flowers or intricate detailing of the process of reviving plants—well, I do, but there has to be an emotional element to it as well. The Secret Garden is as much a story about relationships and a girl growing up as it is about flowers. Rose Daughter drops the ball on the relationships, preferring to focus endlessly on describing the foliage and Beauty wandering around the gardens by herself.

This is an issue that only gets worse and worse as the book progresses and, by the second half, it pretty much falls apart. There are a bunch of characters and elements inserted into the last one hundred pages with little to no mention or significance before. And I don’t know what was happening in the end, but it felt like a lot of McKinley’s “because magic!” approach—I have no idea what the salamander’s gift ended up doing for Beauty and why there was suddenly an apocalyptic army of magical creatures. I have no idea how Beauty managed to defeat them, and I have no idea why the roses were the “heart” of the Beast’s castle, or why they suddenly died, or why Beauty was able to bring them back to life, or why it even mattered. Most fairytales have a magical mysteriousness to them, and Beauty and the Beast certainly has more of it than most, but there’s a difference between an element of mystery and pure old befuddlement—Rose Daughter felt like it was going crazy with ideas and magical hoopla, and by the end of it I was completely lost.

And then there’s that detail about the ending (SPOILERS if you care):

Beauty is presented with a choice during the magical apocalypse of the last thirty pages of whether the Beast gets to stay a Beast or transform back into a man (why she gets to make this choice, again, I have no idea), and she chooses the former. This left me with a pretty icky feeling, although McKinley did set up the climax in a way where there was no easy answer—supposedly if he transformed back into a man, he would become famous and respected again, which the witch lady said would lead to corruption, because I guess wealth always does that. But it’s that very black-and-white perspective that doesn’t sit right with me. What I think people overlook when they ask, “If she loved him for who he was, then why does it matter what form he takes?” (or those whiny “I liked how he looked more as a beast! The prince is uglyyyyyy!” comments that circulate the Internet) is that this idea glosses over how the Beast feels about the matter—in every version of the story that I’ve read, he expresses regret and frustration that he cannot do what normal humans do and, while his beast form enhances some of his abilities (he is strong and fast, etc.), it limits him in many other ways. His transformation at the end is not about what he looked like: it’s about what he had earned, and what he deserved. Rose Daughter’s ending ignores that—and, even if the Beast realized he was happier as a beast, I think that’s a choice he should have been allowed to make for himself, rather than drawing on what Beauty/the audience wants. It’s his body.

I’m also not on board with the common belief that the Beast’s personality would be totally different from Human Beast’s personality. Why do people think that, after transforming back into a man, the Beast would become a bland, boring stranger? He’s still the same person, and most versions indicate that he has been so changed by Beauty’s love that he won’t go back to his shallow ways once he’s human again. (I kind of blame the ending of Cocteau’s 1946 film for planting this idea in so many people’s minds, but I’m sure there are other sources.) If he and Beauty have realized that there are more important things than riches and vanity, why can’t he just be human and live with Beauty in her woodland cottage? The world has functioned for the last however-many years without him or his castle (I have no love for the 2014 Christopher Gans film, but I thought that was a detail that it got right). Who says being human is immediately linked to being shallow and powerful? (Insert obvious “all humans are shallow creatures” punchline here.) Really, if the whole point is that looks don’t matter and it’s what’s on the inside that counts, shouldn’t that stay true at the end, as well?

I know I’m dwelling on this too much, but Rose Daughter’s conclusion reflects a lot of underlying misconceptions people have about the tale’s ending—many of which I hear in snarky, lazy Internet jokes—and I think it kind of misses the point. Also, it endorses beastiality, which is really weird to think about, especially when one considers that the whole idea was that Beauty saw the man underneath and was more drawn to that than the animal—of course there are arguments made for the opposite case, but I feel like they’re taking the tale to a place where it wasn’t exactly intended to go.

At any rate, the ending isn’t the biggest problem with Rose Daughter, even though I complained about it for the last couple of paragraphs. The problem is that it lacks focus and seems to be making everything up as it goes along, with an inexplicable plot and no emotional core (Beauty and the Beast talked maybe four times and none of the conversations were meaningful enough to make me believe their love). McKinley’s writing is lyrical, as always, and I think a Beauty and the Beast retelling that centered around gardening and bringing roses back to life could have been really good—but this isn’t that retelling.

Robin McKinley has said multiple times that her favorite fairytale is Beauty and the Beast—hence why she has retold it multiple times—but I think her fondness for the story comes from a very different place than mine. She likes Beauty’s backstory with her sisters and detailing every room in the castle and every last plant in the greenhouses. I like those things, too, but, for me, the story’s real resonance comes from the connection between the titular characters—for if the love that breaks the spell isn’t believable, what does the set dressing matter?

There’s nothing right or wrong with McKinley’s choice to prioritize description and physical setting over the central relationship, but I think her retellings never entirely work for me because she and I differ so much in which aspects of the story we prefer. This was an underlying issue in Beauty and it’s front and center in Rose Daughter, which I see as a fascinating but mostly failed experiment: character development and the romance are exchanged for endless scenes of Beauty strolling through the castle gardens and remarking on every last vine. These details are admittedly lovely—but they needed some actual substance to prop them up. Rose Daughter feels like much less than the sum of its parts.

2.5 stars.

I held my breath as I clicked the mouse, selecting this book for the library to "hold" for me. Did I really want to read another obvious fairy tale reworked? Granted, I had read "Beauty" numerous times, recommended it to everyone, purchased it for myself, and was certain it was what Disney based their animated feature around. And just last year I had braved the retelling of Sleeping Beauty as "Spindle's End" and was equally entranced.

I had read alot of her other, young adult works of fiction throughout my childhood. I adored "The Blue Sword", "The Hero & the Crown", etc...

But still... fairy tales don't sit well with me and it is rare that I am motivated to seek them out, moreso rare that I can be in the right frame of mind to read and enjoy them.

After I'd reserved "Rose Daughter" for my reading, I did a quick search to see what the tale was about.

No!
Could it be?!
The author herself had actually RE-WRITTEN my beloved "Beauty"?!

Yes.
Nearly 20 years after the fact.

I was equally eager and abhorrent to read this reworking.
Everything I read on the subject assured that it WAS, in fact, a "reworking" and not a complete retelling, not a drastic change, etc...

All I can say is
"Oh, wow!"
"Oh, man...!"

Enchanting. Original enough to bring the reader a fresh sense of wonder and discovery. Whatever I tell you will spoil your fun.

Classic tale told in a modern manner. Admirers of fantasy and fairy tales—not to mention roses—will love it. Disney couldn’t have done it better; in fact, Disney did it worse.

Do not read blurbs, reviews, or summaries. Read the book. It's magic.

I enjoyed this book til the very end. Which is a shame, because up until the last chapter I was ready to give it five stars.
The first half of the book sets up a story one looks forward to finishing, I love the twists to the original story of Beauty and the Beast; the three sisters, the disaster they face, their resilience and maturity that develops, the kind town they move to, the emphasis on roses. All wonderful and honestly—relaxing—a good story at its root and well written.

[SPOILERS BELOW]

BUT at the very end, Beauty is presented with two options. Option No. 1 will restore the Beast as a man, and into his former position as a powerful philosopher, and she will be his wife. The twist? They will be feared by all men.
Option No. 2 they can return to Longchance together and love a happy, normal life. The twist: The Beast will stay a Beast….(Excuse me, what?!?!) It is a classic cliche of having two choices, one appealing to worldly desires, and the other simple and humble, but right. Predictably Beauty chooses the latter, which leaves many questions unanswered and the reader perplexed. Will she be married to a massive, terrifying beast her whole life? It could’ve been a fine ending, if the premises of her choice were different. There was so much possibility, so much hope for this story, but the unsatisfying and bewildering ending ruined all it could’ve had.

*4.5 STARS
I adored this book so much! First off, the writing. I LOVED IT!! I literally found myself laughing out loud at point. Multiple times which doesn't happen often for me. And the character were also a delight. I loved them all! They were all very distinct and felt like different people. It's also refreshing to find a retelling that not only has "Beauty" have sisters ( I love Disney's Beauty and the Beast but I blame them for this key plot often being left out of retellings nowadays) but that they were good people!! So often they are these 2D rude, spoiled brats but they weren't in this one! They were wonderful distinct people! Sisters who aren't exactly alike but who care about each other and look out for each other and step up to do their part when things go wrong. I also enjoyed that at least the first third of the book happens before the beast and the castle. That we get to see their lives and that that wasn't the whole point of the story. I loved Beauty! She was such a wonderful, sweet character who really tried to love and understand people. She has a big struggle through the book about her self worth which was beautiful and completely relatable! It even made me cry. All in all I just found this book and it's messages beautiful and it's one of the best retellings that I've ever read.